Amateurs

My first impression from my Counseling group was that many of the members almost seemed like professional rehabbers. Many had been through rehab multiple times, were as fluent as a Doctor in discussing drugs and medications, and used acronyms I didn’t know like they were normal words (e.g. “I’m cranky today, but that may just be my P.A.W.”, which I learned later was “Progressive Addiction Withdrawal”). In comparison, I’m an amateur. Our whole family are amateurs in helping me get better (and lord knows we have no desire to become more professional). My amateurism showed up in how I managed the Lake Michigan cottage. Kris asked me about having alcohol in the house, and I said it was no problem. While this is true (the simple presence of alcohol is not a temptation to me), it was probably a dumb decision. Now we’ve recalibrated and I’ve asked that there be no drinking this week. This just makes sense and in talking to Kris, Kelsey, and JC, I understand this isn’t a big sacrifice for them. I’m very grateful for the support. If there’s a bigger lesson to this, I think it’s that because we don’t have experience, we might need to adjust from time to time to handle things better as a family.