Someone who heard this was unkind enough to suggest that the same phrase might apply to the drug addicts or alcoholics who ended up in the cemetery from an overdose.
And their story is probably that they quit going to meetings and doing the things that have kept millions of other alcoholics and addicts sober: going to meetings and working a program.
What the client said is true. The plot we hear, the story-line we hear, at a 12-step meeting is usually the same. What it was like, what happened, and what it's like today. That's it.
And that's the core story of us addicts. Our lives were a mess. Someone – or something – intervened. We now enjoy the success that comes with living in recovery.
Even though I've been sober going on 23 years, I still attend at least two meetings a week. Sometimes it's with the same people. And they tell the same stories. And sometimes I might not want to be there on a particular day. Or I might not want to hear a certain person's story because I know it’s boring stuff.
But I listen anyway because of something very important to me: saving my life. Like any life-saving intervention, the medicine or the procedure might be painful. But what's important? A little pain? Or saving me from what was once a miserable existence? Or perhaps certain death?
While this might seem melodramatic it's based on the reality that over the years at TLC we've buried hundreds of addicts and alcoholics who just didn't get it.
But what might have saved 95% of them would have been the willingness to sit through maybe a boring or repetitious meeting listening to the same old story.
