I am Responsible

The speaker at yesterday's 12 step meeting got a laugh when he said he had finally discovered his problem.

                "It was my wife," he said. And after that discovery, he left home and moved in with his parents. However, his drinking continued and nothing changed.

It wasn't long after that he discovered that the real problem in his life was not his wife, but that he drank alcohol to excess.

This story parallels mine and that of many others in recovery. When I was drinking and drugging I was never responsible. My addictions and their consequences were always because of someone or something else.

It was my abusive childhood. It was because I was raised in a broken home. It was my girlfriend. It was my parole officer. It was my wife. Always, it was someone else who was responsible for my drinking and drugging.

Only until I ran out of others to blame did my life change. One day I looked around and there was nobody who cared what I did. At that point I began to look at myself and say "maybe I do have a problem."

That's when I entered a detox and left there to begin sober life. 

The signs on the walls of some meetings that say “I am responsible” are there for a reason.