Finding Freedom

By Barbara Nicholson-Brown
Email: [email protected]

While active in addiction how can we possibly be free? When I didn’t want to drink, I did, when I didn’t want to blackout, I did, when I announced to those who cared about me that I would stop, I didn’t. Every promise made was broken. When hangover’s and the repercussions from my actions became worse, I still did not stop. I could not get off the never ending vicious cycle. That is not freedom.

My thinking was incapable of finding a solution to my problem. All the tricks I tried to not overdo it never worked either. As the years went on, life became darker and the hole I was in, was getting deeper.

If we do get the chance to enter recovery, we take one very important step toward freedom. And while most of us have skewed and twisted thinking, it takes a good long while for the fog to lift, so be patient.

How free do you want to be?

I’ve learned sobriety is much more than not using a drink or drug. I have to continuously ask for help and guidance when I’m all wrapped up in the bondage of my mind. My thinking still has the ability to disaster-ize when I’m off center. That’s why I can’t do this alone. My ways never worked, and they never will. The longer I’m sober — the more I need the fellowship of people who are just like me, I need their support to stay honest, vulnerable and real. It is a blessed way of living, all of it, the good, bad, triumphs and defeats. Learn from yesterday, stay in today and don’t go too far in the future.

Thank you to Steve Carleton and the team from Gallus Detox for providing their insights on Fentanyl. As a nation, and in our own community we are still in crisis with the rise of fentanyl related overdoses from this deadly drug. Stay informed!