NA JFT - APRIL 2014

[MajestyJo]

April 20

Detachment

"Addiction is a family disease, but we could only change ourselves."

IP No. 13, "Youth and Recovery"

Many of us come from severely damaged families. At times, the insanity that reigns among our relatives feels overwhelming. Sometimes we feel like packing our bags and moving far, far away.

We pray that our family members will join us in recovery but, to our great sadness, this does not always happen. Sometimes, despite our best efforts to carry the message, we find that we cannot help those we hold most dear. Our group experience has taught us that, frequently, we are too close to our relatives to help them. We learn that it is better to leave them in our Higher Power's care.

We have found that when we stop trying to settle the problems of family members, we give them the room they need to work things out in their own lives. By reminding them that we are not able to solve their problems for them, we give ourselves the freedom to live our own lives. We have faith that God will help our relatives. Often, the best thing we can give our loved ones is the example of our own ongoing recovery. For the sake of our family's sanity and our own, we must let our relatives find their own ways to recover

Just for today: I will seek to work my own program and leave my family in the care of a Higher Power.

In Al-Anon and Nar-Anon, they say to detach and set boundaries from the A in your life. When I came into recovery, I had to detach from my family, in order to recover, I was an embarrassment and they had no concept of the fact that we had a disease. Many times it was their own denial, if I had a problem, just maybe they did too.