The Recovery Guy Podcast

Have you ever heard of The Everlasting Gobstopper? Pulling information from Wikipedia, It is a candy from Roald Dahl’s 1964 children’s novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that is intended, according to Willy Wonka, its creator, “for children with very little pocket money”. It not only changes colors and flavors when sucked on, but also never gets any smaller or disappears. It is like the gift that is recovery. Recovery is the Gift that keeps on Giving.

If recovery were hard very few of us would achieve it. I am so grateful the plan of recovery is designed to be simple. I am not assaying it is easy, I am saying it is simple. The simplicity of recovery makes it accessible to and by everyone. I am not a good artist, but if you arrange the dots in the proper sequence I can draw a horse, a person or anything else you place the dots to portray. That is exactly what was done when the 12 Step Plan of Recovery was laid out. It is my experience that those who do not connect the dots and recovery are those who don’t want to connect the dots. I hope the recovery is for you and you decide to connect the dots as they are laid out.

One of the most challenging things for any person of recovery is holidays and the triggers that often accompany them. In the beginning, holidays can be the most challenging obstacle to our personal recovery. This is true whether you are the addict or the Co-dependent. Keep in mind that most addicts, are also adult children of Alcoholics, therefore co-dependent as well. Keeping this in mind, there are things that we can look out for that can help us stay insulated against relapse, while enjoying ourselves in this festive and holiday season. Here are a few of the things that we need to lookout for as we approach this time of year.

One of the things that I have learned in my recovery journey is balancing expectations. I’ve come to learn that expectations can be positive and negative. Expectations can also be fair or unfair. Oftentimes, expectations will get in the way of our external relationships. Expectations that aren’t met can be different to understand and often judged. Therefore, it is better off to balance the expectation with fairness toward others and the uncontrollable. Expectations are best served with understanding.

As I grew in my personal recovery so did my desire to become “normal.” When we consider the word normal and set it side by side with the word sober, they seem to go hand in hand.

Accountability simply means that I am subject to the obligation to report, explain or justify something. It means I am answerable. Once again for things that are outside of me that are part of what I do not who I am this is rather easy to do because it’s not personal. So many of us are answerable or we have an obligation to fulfill a particular commitment or process regarding our work.

I was willing to do anything to have what they had and to become what I saw them becoming. Surrender to win was the path I decided. I hope you decide on this path as well.