This is something that I’m not really sure of, but I think is true. I think that many more drug addicts or alcoholics tend to relapse when things are going well than when a crisis hits. We’re good at managing crisis. Somehow we know that this is a time to go to meetings, get in touch with sponsors, and use every tool available to stay clean/sober. But when things are going well, we tend to slack off and get overconfident. It becomes a little easier to convince ourselves to watch Monday night football and blow off a meeting. After all, things are good. A meeting isn’t really necessary. It’s easy to start thinking that “I’ll go to a meeting if I feel like I need one.” We forget that we go to meetings so that we don’t get to the point of needing a meeting. When an addict/alcoholic is at that point, a meeting may be the last place we want to go. Someone may just tell us something that we don’t really want to hear at that time.

Without meetings, normal things happen to our mind. We forget the painful experiences that got us there in the first place. All human beings minimize pain; it may be the only thing that Sigmund Freud was right about. But, it’s fun to get into euphoric recall. Once that happens, we’re done – particularly when we’re feeling strong, thinking that things are different now, “I don’t have the problems I had before going to treatment,I can handle a couple now.”

Logic would tell you “I’ve been going to meetings and my life has gotten much better, I think I should go to more meetings.” The drug addict or alcoholic in us tells us “These meetings have really helped, I think I’ll stop going.” Like it says, it’s cunning, baffling, and very powerful.

Louis B.