THOUGHT FOR TODAY 8/17/09

Please forgive me for being away from my daily thoughts section of the forum. I have been going through a few things and starting a new job, getting the kids ready of off to their first day of school and making the trek for my once a month clinic visit.

I am hoping to get a new routine down that will work with my new job and with the kids in school again, I hope that is all behind me. SO! I am back in the saddle again for those of you who do read this section and I will do better for you guys in the future!

RuthAnn

HANDLING FEARS

We all know there are many reasons we use but most of them have to do with avoiding those feelings and situations that make us feel uncomfortable or cause us pain. As a recovering addict, we have to actually DEAL with those uncomfortable feelings or situations and they are not always easy!

Before when we felt uncomfortable, or scared or hurt, we would use and then we didn't have to feel whatever feeling it was that we were afraid of or didn't want to feel.

I think FEAR itself is a major feeling we are trying to avoid and that is what I wanted to address today.

Sometimes we're afraid of specific things or situations. We fear being around people we don't know or there is a get together we aren't looking forward to.

Sometimes we fear the unknown. You may be having money problems and you don't know where the money is going to come from or you found out one of your parents is having a health crisis and you don't know yet how it is going to turn out.

And sometimes we're just afraid because that's the way we usually feel! As crazy as that may sound, think about it and honestly admit how many times we spend our day in a constant state of fear about something!

Now that we are sober, we are having to deal with fear HEAD ON and here are a few ways to do that.

Are you nervous, anxious, upset? What's scaring you right now?

Have a little talk with yourself. Take a look at what you fear. Are you starting a new relationship or job? What are the risks? What's the worse that could possibly happen?

Sometimes it helps to go through our fears, one by one. We don't need to dwell on the negative, but we need to be certain that we're willing to take responsibility for the risks involved.

Then look in the other direction, and see the entire positive potential there. What can you gain by taking that risk? Does the thrill of victory outweigh the potential loss?

We may emerge from the list saying, No I choose not to risk that. Or, we may look at the risks and say, Yes, I've been through worse. I can handle this, too.

Someone once told me many years ago that fear was a good thing. "If you're not feeling afraid, it means you're not doing anything differently You're just repeating the same old thing." and that is oh so true!

If fear is haunting you, stare it in the face. See what's making you feel afraid. Then either back off, or stare that fear down.


Good luck today and count off one more day that we did not use!