OKaysez

 

 Made A Decision

Be the change you wish to see in the world.

  Staying Sober During Times of Upheaval is

                Part of A.A.’s history.

The world is going through a bit of turmoil right now one could say, what with the threat of worldwide financial collapse; political unrest everywhere sending protestors into the streets; wars in progress or launching; earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and volcanoes erupting; storms raging; fires burning;

floods drowning, and annual temperatures hell bent on breaking existing records.  

There’s also environmental poisoning of every species, a chemical pollution causing worldwide epidemics of Parkinson’s Disease, asthma, Alzheimer's, autism, various cancers, and more; the overheating of our seas; daily extinction of another wildlife species; fertility issues in our own species … and that’s just the tip of the melting icebergs. 

So it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking this is it. 

This is the end. 

Nothing can get worse than this. No people have ever faced problems like ours. 

But we have, and we will, because that’s life on earth as we know it. 

Every year, every decade, every century there are new and difficult challenges we face as a species - and so far have overcome.

Keeping our mental balance is always a challenge for us drunks in tough times, and boy-howdy are these ever tough times! I have friends in the states with 30-plus years sobriety telling me they’re having drunk dreams for the first time in years! 

But Alcoholics Anonymous was launched to change the world for suffering alcoholics like us in June of 1935, in the midst of the worldwide “Great Depression” that ran from 1929 to 1939 and changed the economic reality for millions.

 

The first copies of the first edition of the A.A. book Alcoholics Anonymous - known by us as our Big Book - rolled off the presses on April 10, 1939.

World War II began on the first day of September that same year. 

Many new soldiers, sober mere months, were sent around the world to destroy fascism without having time to get a Big Book to pack in their rucksack. Many feared those soldiers would drink. They didn’t. A.A.’s fledgling recovery program held firm in the face of the horrors of war. 

And A.A. has held firm through every crisis since.

In October 1962 the world held its breath for 13 tense days before the Cuban Missile Crisis was resolved that had us on the brink of all-out nuclear war. I was 18 at the time and fears generated then were the impetus for my generation to rebel against pretty much everything. 

We took to the streets in demonstrations against the Vietnam War; in support of Civil Rights for all Americans; to protest the multi-threats to our environment that had bird shells cracking under the weight of their parents and rivers so chemically polluted they actually caught fire. 

There were riots. 

Students were shot to death by the National Guard at Kent State University.

The USA teetered on the brink of revolution. 

I remember that chunk of history because I was in the thick of it. But I was a still-drinking baby alcoholic then and didn’t know any anonymous A.A. members who managed to stay sober during that turbulent time. 

But they did. 

I met many who had been right out there staying sober while protesting when I finally did get to A.A., right alongside some WWII veterans who were by then A.A.'s old-timers.

In just my lifetime people in A.A. have feared, faced, stayed sober and survived a rip in the earth’s ozone layer; the homegrown terrorist bombing of the Oklahoma Federal Building; the nightmare of 9/11; our never-endingwars in the Middle East; the near collapse of the world economy in 2008; a worldwide pandemic to kick off

the 2020s, and now the various upheavals around the world outlined at the start of this blog.

Those of us caught up in any events I’ve mentioned here - or multiples thereof - felt at that time it couldn't get much worse. A lot of us are feeling that right now, but it was a lie then and it’s a lie today. 

There is nothing happening right now that can’t be healed. And there is nothing that can’t be made worse by our taking a drink over it. 

It’s very easy to get caught up in the current drama, the fear, the rhetoric, the non-stop barrage of informationabout all of it - much of it false. There’s enough anger and fear around to make anyone crazy, not just us alcoholics. 

I went off the tracks for a few weeks myself recently by filling my head with the latest news bulletins, becoming angrier and angrier in the process. Like any other recovering drunk I can, when stressed, forget my life runs best when my HP, not me, is in charge of it.

From November 2024 until recently I was right there in the 24/7 news cycle at pretty much a 24/7 level, so I’ve had to cut waaaaaay back on my news watching. It really messed with my old alcoholic head … and sleep … and serenity.

We also don’t always recognize when we're off our A.A. beam until we're in trouble. Members in my meetingsheard far too much of my angst, but I’m grateful I was taught staying sober requires us to share - out loud - anything that's wrecking our heads.  As my sponsor says, “We share out loud so we don’t suffer in silence.” 

A.A.’s tool kit always works when we work it, but this truly is a time to test our souls. I can now offer some positivity going forward though, thanks to being reminded to rely on A.A.’s basics during our current events. 

The only time I revert to my true self (that restless, irritable, discontented angry self) is when I attempt to take back control. My God lets me do that, of course, because my free will is part of our relationship. But the exhilaration of running my own show very soon begins to itch, pinch, nag, and ultimately becomes so uncomfortable I can again become willing to hand it back where it belongs.

So I’m mentally good today. Tomorrow isn’t here yet. I’m now taking this experience - like all earlier ones - One day at a Time.

Frequent use of the Serenity Prayer is helping, too, along with remembering to H.A.L.T. 

The majority of A.A. members eventually come to believe in an unseen Power watching over and guiding them. I am one of them. A.A. has given me a God of my own understanding to oversee the revolutionary ongoing changes to improve my behavior. 

Our problems, personal, communal and national, do not arrive to arrest our progress in living a spiritual life. They show up to increase our determination to keep on our spiritual path. They test our strength. 

My friend, Susie Q, says hurting in recovery always causes her to dig deeper into A.A.’s spiritual tool kit and to even be thankful for the lesson itself.  Her prayer has become: “Thank you for the pain. It made me raise my game.” 

We can determine what is within the scope of what we can do, and then do it. When action is called for, we take it.

But it’s always best when we make those determinations, and take those actions, only after we've first checked

in with our Higher Power.

Whatever arrives must be met and I am grateful my HP is always right there in the thick of it with me. Nothing is so bad it can’t be overcome with my HP’s help. 

Gaining that knowledge, learned and earned, lets us regain the gift of serenity so we are again able to help others reach safe harbor during their own testing times.

 This, too, shall pass.