Hi Johnny ,
I found this book last night in a charity box and would normally never have chosen it except there was not time to search through for something “lighter”
It is called” a program for you ” and it is like a guide to go with the AA big book , which incidentally I have never heard of until now .
I’m still on the first chapter and you keep coming into my head . I hope I am not lecturing you – I have never gotten anywhere close to 300 days so yes I believe you must be Doing a lot of things right .
It says that at the start of AA back last century the recovery rate was about 75%. Nowadays different meetings follow a watered -down version of AA – and the recovery rate isn’t nearly so high. It says that alcoholism hasn’t changed – it is still the same disease – so why do people think the program which has worked so well in the past can be treated like a menu where you chose the bits you want to and leave the rest – I am not saying that is what you are doing but I think maybe that is what the previous long discussions were about .
I think Geordie was trying to explain to you what his experience has taught him – I think if you two were sitting down chatting you would have seen each other’s facial expressions and known straight away that the other was coming from a good place.
I have had an interesting experience on here recently- I mistook who a post was from thought oh that’s so nice – when I checked i was shocked because I would have interpreted it entirely differently if I had read the correct name at the start.
It is difficult because how we interpret each post depends on everything from our mood to the image of the person we have conjured in our minds – they may even remind us a “told you so” that we know .
I guess what I’m saying if that if someone takes the time to write you a long post they might be seeing warning bells based on their own experience – they may be completely wrong but that doesn’t mean their motives are wrong.
Congratulations on your gamble free time and keep posting .