Pain = Change

 The "turning point" was the topic at a twelve-step meeting a while back.

And as the topic circulated through those attending the meeting they all said they'd decided to get sober for different reasons. One person had lost a parent and child within a short period of time. Another had ended up in jail. Another was served divorce papers. Yet another was in a serious automobile accident that almost cost him his life.  Another was about to lose his job.

Myself, I look at the turning point as the catalyst that helps us to change.  But instead of calling it the turning point, I just call it pain.  Because really that's what it all boils down to: pain.

Addicts and alcoholics in the grips of their disease rarely make changes when they're on a winning streak,  Or when they have enough alcohol or drugs to keep them out of their minds.  Change always comes after we're put in jail, in the hospital, evicted from our homes, or perhaps served divorce papers.  No one is merrily skipping along in life and all of a sudden gets the idea that they should attend a twelve-step meeting because they're bored and have nothing else to do.

Those attending their first meeting are refugees from some kind of a demoralizing or impossible situation in their life.  They either got into the doors of the meeting on their own.  Or perhaps they had a push from the court system or a family member.  Or maybe their life had completely crashed and they were homeless and broke.

In my case, I'd gone through the pain of withdrawal many times.  And I suffered such serious consequences as going to hospitals and prisons, losing jobs, getting divorced, and becoming alienated from my family.  All of these things would seem to be motivation enough for a person to want to get sober.  But I apparently had a high tolerance for pain because it took me until I was in my early 50s to decide to change.

I believe that pain is the great motivator that helps many of us get clean and sober.

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