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[MajestyJo]

Coming To Grips With Fear

I did not like to admit it while I was still drinking, but I can now see that fear played a big part in my alcoholism. There were times I dove into the bottle because I was afraid, and this only had the effect of creating more situations that caused more fear. We have feared being confronted by bill collectors, for example, and then got drunk and created more debt. We'd feared getting fired, and by getting drunk we made it happen.

Fear, for me, doesn't go away just because I'm not drinking now. So I thought a good topic would be "coming to grips with fear". In sobriety, how can I cope with fear in ways that make it work for me rather that against me?

When the topic of fear comes up, someone will point out that fear is necessary to help us get out of the way of an oncoming truck. But, we're talking here about the kind of fear that freezes us in our tracks when we see the truck coming.

The truck, of course, is any threat or big problem in our lives. We have all kinds of them in different forms, and if we're going to be sober and happy, we have to deal with them.

"How do you come to grips with fear?"
We have found much of heaven and we have been rocketed into the fourth dimension of existence of which we had not even dreamed. ~Alcoholic Anonymous Pg. 25

Posted in 2009

c. It is easier to say "Let go and let God" than it is to actually do it.

One thing that helped me was not to compare the past with today. Before when I was using, I had to faith and my life was consumed by fear. They say there is no room for faith and fear in the same place and yet there are healthy fears, like picking up will kill me, so it isn't an option.

I have asked for the healing and a lot of the old fears have gone away. i.e. thunder storms, walking over grates and bridges, putting the wrong foot forward or saying the wrong thing.

What comes to mind is " Feel the fear and do it anyway." What God has brought me to, He will see me through."

Fear is a feeling like any other. It is alright to be afraid. My strength and courage today comes from my Higher Power. I just have to remember to take Him with me. Just because certain things happened in the past, doesn't mean it will repeat itself in today. Today is a different case scenario if I stay sober, spiritual connected, and live in the moment and not project my fears into the future, onto others, or use them to beat myself up.

Love the acronyms. Face everything and recovery. Fear everything and run. False evidence appearing real.

We are never alone.