“If you are as seriously alcoholic as we were, we believe there is no middle-of-the-road solution. We were in a position where life was becoming impossible, and if had passed into the region from which there is no return through human aid, we had but two alternatives: One was to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as best we could: and the other, to accept spiritual help.” (p. 25 Alcoholics Anonymous)
I’ve often been told throughout life I was too much of a black-or-white thinking individual, constantly going from one extreme to another. It was repeatedly suggested to me because of it that I should try finding more middle-of-the-road solutions to my problems instead. I actually spent greater than two decades trying to find exactly that when it came to recovery from an addiction-based existence. It never worked out quite well though because I always seemed to end up right back in the same addiction or just engaging in another. It wasn’t until I asked my Higher Power to help me find freedom from them all did any of this change. Thankfully, I’ve been able to go for over three years now without partaking in any of my former addictions and I know the only reason why is due to the spiritual help I continue to ask my Higher Power for on a daily basis. So when I awake in the morning nowadays, I make sure to consistently pray to remain clean and sober from all addictions and that each of my thoughts, words, and actions follow only my Higher Power’s will for that day. It appears to be working far better than all those years where I tried to moderate each of my addictions or find solutions to them that only occasionally used spiritual help. While I may have found plenty of healthy middle-of-the-road solutions to other dilemmas in life over the years, I have to agree that at least for this one, an addiction-based existence, the only one that’s achieved any success is having 100% total dedication to my Higher Power, whom I choose to call God.
I pray to be able to differentiate between the problems in life that would benefit from a middle-of-the road-solution from the problems in life that wouldn’t. And I pray that for each of those that wouldn’t, that I fully seek spiritual help to find total freedom from them, once and for all.
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson