During IOP tonight, I was thinking about addiction and how it can relate to so many things. Show and Tell being one that stuck out in my mind.

Do you remember being little and having Show and Tell at school? Just in case, for those who never had Show and Tell, it was where you brought your favorite toy, pet, etc etc to school to show it off and tell about it during class. But there was always that one kid who, all week, kept talking about how he had this big huge toy everyone wanted but on the day of Show and Tell, he had the same kind of toy everyone else had. What was he doing? Telling all but showing nothing.

It's a lot the same when it comes to addiction. In active addiction, we are so self centered and manipulative that we tell any and every lie we can to get away with our addiction. What were some of the excuses you used to stay in active addiction and what are some of the lies you told to keep from being caught? "I'm not using.", "Oh, I only use on weekends.", "I'm not as bad as he is.", "Just one more drink/drug", "I'm not snorting dope. I just have a sinus infection.", "I'm going to the store, be back in a few minutes.", knowing you won't be back for a couple of days. This is the insanity we put ourselves through during active addiction. We were telling everyone everything we thought they wanted to hear while our actions were telling a completely different story. We weren't at the store, we were at the dope mans house. We weren't out for a morning jog, we were out getting high. We weren't on a diet, we were just using in place of food. You see where I'm going with this? It took ACTION to be an addict and it takes ACTION to get sober. Talk is cheap. We can have all the best intentions of quitting in the world but if we don't put action behind it and DO it, it means nothing.

So many people (including myself) have been lazy when it comes to our recovery, which usually leads to our relapse. We didn't hesitate to go to the extremes to get our dope/drink during active addiction but it takes an act of congress to get us to go to a few meetings a week and do the "prescribed" treatment to get well. I relapsed because I was lazy and because I didnt do what was suggested to me. I went to one extreme to the other to get and keep my high and now, that I'm clean again, by God I'm going to go to the extremes to keep my recovery, even if that means meetings everyday.

The program only works as much as you work it. Meaning, if you don't do jack to get and keep your sobriety, you're not going to keep your sobriety. But if you work the program, go to meetings, read your NA/AA book, get involved with NA/AA activities, do step work, get a sponser, etc, etc, etc, then more than likely, you're going to succeed at being a sober addict. The choice lies within your hands. Just because you are powerless over your addiction and have turned yourself over to your Higher Power doesn't mean that once you've gotten clean, you don't have a choice. Because you do have a choice now. That's one of the many blessings of being clean. We now have a choice! Use it.

Just a couple more things and I'll be done with my rant, if you even cared to read all of this:

Remember!: It took action to be an addict and it takes action to be sober.

You didn't become an addict over night and you aren't going to become super sober overnight. Addiction is a process, not an event. Getting sober is also a process, not an event.

Remember that your actions speak louder than your words. You can say you're going to start going to meetings and you can say you are going to get clean/sober all you want, but without action to back it up, it means nada, nothing. Show us action and stop telling us what you're going to do. I know I'm finally ready to show action instead of just talk about it.

There's my rant for the day. Hope it makes sense.