The material presented
here is not Al-Anon Conference Approved Literature. It is a method
to exchange
information, ideas, feelings, problems and solutions on a personal
level.
I am not a regular church going person but I am a spiritual person who does not connect with my higher power very often. Last Sunday night my husband and I were called at 1am and asked directions to our house so two guys could bring our drunken/violent/suicidal 20 year old daughter to our house after she had kicked one between the legs and given the other one a black eye. Well, after she went to sleep, I called her psychiatrist and asked if we could commit her since she was a danger to herself and others. We were told we could not until Monday when we could contact our local state's attorney. Our daughter did wake up later and started acting crazy and had her mind set on leaving. We restrained her and tried everything to calm her down since this was the first drunken black out experience we had ever had with her. We even called for back up from friends. Finally I called 911 which was one of the hardest things I had ever had to do. They brought her to jail. Unfortunately they let her out the next morning. They asked her if anyone was going to bail her out and she said: no. So they let her out anyway. She had this poor attitude the entire day. When I told her she had a guy attempt to rape her the weekend before while she was in a black out she didn't believe me until she called to verify it with the friend who beat up her manager from work who was trying to rape her! Later that night she went to a fun night where her former addiction counselor was at. After the meeting she informed me that the best treatment for her was the same outpatient she had already done since she could still socialize with her friends and deal with the communities pressure of drinking. And that her addiction counselor also agreed. I then was irrate and told her I was cancelling her appt for the inpatient treatment program on wed. and would go to plan B which is for her to be out of the house in one month! (boy did I feel in control) She went to bed.
This is where the Higher Power comes in the picture. I layed down on my sofa and watched Greta Vansusteran on Fox. She updated the situation about a lady with the last name of Lynch who had fallen off the deck of her yaht and her body was just found. She is an alcoholic. Her husband knew about her alcoholic behaviour but the night she would have fallen in and drowned, he didn't bother to go look for her or do anything after their argument since he had seen her like that so many times.
All of a sudden, I heard this voice in my heart,,,,I can't explain it. It said for me to just get my daughter to her evaluation. And I felt the urgency of the message and goosebumps. I had been using my all or nothing thinking. Inpatient or nothing. I had not even thought of the option to just get an evaluation and let the cards fall where they may. The next day I wanted control again but my husband wouldn't budge since I shared with him that night about the message I received. We did get her to her evaluation on Wed. Now it is time for me to calm down and get back to step one and pray that I can hear my higher power many more times in my life.
For some this may sound crazy. But, this did indeed happen. May your higher power speak to you too when we are all ready to listen. cdb
I think for the most part our Higher Power speaks to us in Whispers. We only have to be open and willing to listen to those whispers. If we are all frazzled 24/7, it doesn't let in the calm that I believe our HP/God works in. Thanks for the share!
I believe there's a great deal of truth in this post--when an addiction has really taken over a person or the disease of alcoholism has progressed. For me, some things never changed, until the drinking stopped. Al anon gave me a great deal of relief. But the relationship would sink definitiely with active drinking continuing.
