Wednesday, February 26th
My acting out was worse than it had ever been. My disease had been doing push-ups in the hall while I sat in the meeting rooms.
A slip can be an annoying, even painful, consequence of an SCA member’s desire to compulsively seek instant gratification. Our disease is cunning, baffling, and insidious, constantly seeking new ways to trick us into submission.
“It took months for me to accumulate sober time on my plan. I had a lot of slips. However, I discovered that sometimes a phone call to my sponsor or someone else in the program would alleviate the desire to act out.”
The SCA program is not about judging people or putting them down; it’s about support. If we slip, we have found it helpful to share the slip with someone else as soon as possible — on the phone, in person privately, or at a meeting. When any of us has a slip, we have it for all of us. When we recover from the slip, we recover for all of us.
If we try to handle a slip alone, the shame, guilt, and sense of worthlessness may build up quickly, possibly leading to another slip or relapse. Talking about our problem with loving, supportive people is one of the most valuable things we can do for ourselves in the program.
My connection with other SCA members gives me the language of authentic communication.