Recovery – Freedom from Alcohol

Hollywood actor Anthony Hopkins has now been sober and a long term recovering alcoholic for decades. Many years ago, in an interview, Barbara Walters asked Mr. Hopkins what he considered to be the most important aspect of being sober. Mr. Hopkins replied to the interviewer, “freedom from alcohol”.

Addiction is truly a great deceiver to its victims. We alcoholics begin the journey of addiction by first being led into believing drugs and alcohol somehow mysteriously provide the relief we seek when what we actually suffer from are the effects of a low self esteem. As the journey continues, an arrogant wall of self righteousness is built around ourselves brick by brick, one day at a time. In the end, what we alcoholics and addicts have constructed around ourselves is an invisible glass prison where we have learned to lie to ourselves in order to keep the game going. We even learn to protect our way of existence, which is actually the “watering hole”, with every manufactured justification we can conjure together.

For thirty one years, this alcoholic proudly proclaimed to the world he had his life perfect in every way and exactly as he wanted. It was a tiny world that existed of a job in one place, a house only a few miles away and a store that sold alcohol in between. This alcoholic was truly a slave to this world and resisted fervently any attempts that pushed at him to step out of this narrow existence.

It is only after being “freed” from alcohol that one can truly see the jail addiction becomes. This alcoholic no longer has to fear the power of an unjust employer. This alcoholic no longer fears panic if the house runs low of alcohol. This alcoholic no longer fears being asked to perform in some way early in the mornings, which use to be a request that would strike absolute terror within this examiner. This alcoholic no longer fears someone asking him for his signature for fear someone would notice the shaking hands and the secret would be out. Today, this alcoholic is FREE from alcohol.

Anyone in Columbia SC seeking a similar path out of the bondage of alcohol and addiction can begin their personal journey by contacting:

AA Intergroup
3014 Devine Street, Room 103
Columbia SC 29205
(803) 254-5301

or on the net at:

www.area62.org