Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
I started falling apart in my forties. I kept thinking that I could quit on my own, and
I spent a few years trying that.
When I was falling apart, my daughters took the initiative and said, "Mom, you need help,"
and I said, "Yeah, you're right, I do." That was the start for me.
I came into Duffy's, and it was a wonderful experience for me, although I didn't take
what I got from Duffy's out into the real world with me, and so I relapsed.
My relapses were hard. Some people can just go to meeting and get back on track. For me,
I had to come into a safe place, Duffy's, to get help.
Duffy's has a certain feel about it, it's a certain spirituality you feel when you come
back here. You feel comfortable here, you feel well-cared for, you get the right education
and the right counseling.
They realized that I was becoming a chronic alcoholic, and you have to go a little bit
deeper into what's going on. Usually with a person that relapses a lot, it's something
inside, something you can't get over or deal with, so then the counselors go deeper into
those issues with you.
What changed for me when I was at Duffy's is that I realized that I just can't pick
up that next drink. When we do pick up that first drink it's ourselves telling us we can
just have one, and we never can. It's never one, it's a thousand; one's never enough.
That's how relapse happens. You think, "Oh, I can have just one drink," and you go off
on that road again.
But once you make that conscious decision, and know that you can't do that, then you
can go forward. And since I've been working my program and have my higher power in my
life, I haven't picked up.
What I really want to project to people is, there's always hope; no matter what happens
there's always hope. You just have to get up and keep trying.
Don't give up on yourself.