5/10/16

Tonight was family night and I took my therapists advice by inviting my parents to come. This was way out of my comfort zone giving them a window to this part of my world. Pretty sure my blood pressure was in the danger zone most of the day and the whole class. It was good that I brought them though. I deeply love my parents and am so grateful for their love and support through all of this. It’s probably good for them to have the opportunity to be a bit more involved in my recovery. They more than deserve that if it’s something they want.

The topic was change and they used the metaphor of sitting on the beach watching the ocean, then the different stages like testing the water, snorkeling, scuba diving and finally heading out on a boat to portray stages of recovery. Sitting on the beach contemplating getting wet is like someone looking into treatment, or thinking of it, even subconsciously. It’s a comfortable zone, you don’t have to get in the water. Feeling the water but not getting in could be like calling around and checking out meetings, maybe going to one or two of them, feeling them out. This step generally has a bit of an audience, so it could be a little harder to just back up and get out of the water. Snorkeling would be like you have gotten into your recovery, out of your comfort zone but are still at the surface and close to the shore. Again, there are usually more people that have seen you take this step and it could make it a little harder to make a quick get away. The scuba diving step is one where you are all in, fully committed, but experiencing a bigger reward than with snorkeling. You are experiencing a whole different world and it is beautiful, but you are sure to need help, you don’t go scuba diving alone, just like recovery is going to be easier with a support system. In this stage of recovery there is no quick get away. You can’t back out suddenly with ease. There are steps you will need to take and quite a few people you will need to talk to in order to get out of it. The step with the boat is even more committed, but with even more reward. You can fill your boat with friends and your freedom is much greater. This is the part of recovery where you’re a bit more comfortable both sharing with others and being sober. They taught that there will always be sharks in the water to look out for, (triggers, allowing yourself to get too complacent, parties etc.) but to also look out for the mermaids, (positives of being sober.) This metaphor was a good one for me, I feel like I’ll use it a lot in the future.