Remembering To Say Thanks
A slogan or saying one might hear a lot in the rooms of 12 step meetings, or at the rehab hospitals, is "having an attitude of gratitude." For those in recovery, this can mean, simply, to try to be grateful for what you have and for remaining alive and sane, especially when you have made it through addiction and beyond into recovery. I think that counselors and old timers would be the ones most likely to say such a thing to someone new in sobriety. This is primarily because the early stages of recovery can be especially stressful and confusing to newcomers. Chances are that they would be the folks least able to feel grateful, since they are indeed enduring a number of changes in their lives.
It has been over eight years since I left the doors of a rehab, and in this posting I thought it would be a bit different to express my own gratitude to some of the helpful people who literally saved my life back then and afterwards. It's not likely that any of them might happen to read what I'm writing today but actually that doesn't matter much to me. When you are thankful for the good deeds of another, all that really counts is simply remembering that other person. Also, if some of them are still working as counselors, I doubt that their jobs would be paying them enough for them to have their own computers. There's a certain amount of irony, in my opinion, that the staff of counselors in a hospital who work so hard to save the lives of others are probably the worst paid in any profession.
First, though, I wanted to thank my physician, Ken. If it hadn't been for him and his persistence in my getting better, I probably wouldn't be here, today, period. During my last couple months of still using, I spent a lot of time making doctor visits with Ken and trying to get various medications for colds and flu and other ailments. Of course, like anyone else, I didn't admit or accept the fact that my drug of choice was what was truly making me so sick, and my immune system in general was letting one common illness get by after another. Ken was incredibly patient with me and he probably wondered if I was ever going to get the help I actually should have. As it happened, I was so sick during that Christmas and the following Easter that I spent those two holidays in the hospital. And that might be a clue to how bad things were getting.
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