The Dysfunctional Onion

January 1 – the obligatory mention of how we all look to this time as a opportunity to turn over a new leaf, make changes we have been intending to make, stop doing things that are not healthy, start doing things that are healthy. The gyms are packed with out of shape people, bookstores sell out diet and exercise books, church pews are fuller, alarm clocks are used, bibles cracked open, etc. etc.
Recovery meetings get their fair share of new attendees and re-attendees at this time as well. Nothing wrong with that at all in fact it is a great time of year to set the stage for your recovery.
The one thing to remember though is that if you’re like me you did not wake up one January 1 years ago and say – today I am going to start my decent into addiction, acting out, unhealthy relationships, self destructive behavior etc. etc….. We don’t plan our hurts, habits, and hang-ups that lead us to recovery. They are a result of a process of our decisions, actions, and reactions to life’s events and circumstances. Sometimes we look at the situations or behaviors that hurt us or others as the reason for us being in recovery and we want those to go away as quickly as possible. We live in a microwave, on-demand, “buy it now” world. There are now recovery based reality shows on cable TV that would have you believe that within a few episodes someone could hit their bottom, go through an intervention, go to recovery and be all better within one season…Hardly realistic…
If you are new to meetings, welcome! Recovery is a process and a journey that does work. However this process is not on your schedule. It never will be and the best thing you can do is begin to believe that fact. Impatience, quick fixes , “getting it over with” are not what a 12 Step program is all about. Trust the process and the journey will be amazing. There is healing and there is more to your issue than you can imagine today… But how many layers of the dysfunctional onion you have to peel is not something you can determine.

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