Alcohol Recovery Can Begin in a Classroom

Alcohol Recovery – Mike Miller is an educator who specializes in drug and alcohol classes for both adults and minors.

Alcohol Recovery – sometimes the process is easier to start when a person has a better understanding of what it is and what’s involved.

The following is a guest post by Mike Miller who is an educator specializing in drug and alcohol classes for both adults and minors. A recovering alcoholic, Mike left his work in corporate America to focus on a more fulfilling life of helping others with alcohol addiction issues. He is now the education director at www.onlinedrugclass.com.

Alcohol Recovery Can Begin in a Classroom By Mike Miller

As a recovering alcoholic I know how hard it is to stop drinking.  I also know that someone who really wants to can begin the “alcohol recovery” process at any time.

Right now is always a good time to quit drinking.  Right now is a good place to begin the “alcohol recovery” process. And a good place to start is by taking an alcohol awareness class.  These courses educate not only about the dangers of alcohol and diving under the influence, but more importantly teach skills on how to begin the alcohol recovery process and follow it through to a lifelong commitment to sobriety.

There is no quitting alcoholism.  Alcoholism is a life-long addiction.  That certainly does not mean that once you are an alcoholic all is hopeless.  Quite the contrary, despite being an alcoholic, a life of sobriety is only one major decision away – the decision not to drink EVER again.

You see once you are an alcoholic you MUST STAY SOBER.  You must not drink alcohol ever again.  That does not have to be frightening.  After all, if you are an alcoholic, odds are you are not happy being an alcoholic.

If there is a strong desire to change it will happen.  An alcoholic cannot stay in denial forever.  Long before I declared my alcoholism I knew I had a serious problem.  Evidenced by that were my many chances at quitting – all ending in failure when I thought I could handle one beer, or one glass of wine.  Sometimes months of effort were thrown out the door by these one drink nights.

Stage 1 – Quitting

So now you have accomplished the first hurdle of the alcohol recovery process – you decided to and quit drinking.  Heck, this part may be tough, but most of us alcoholics who have been sober for years were able to get to this phase many, many times.  Once you have quit 10 or 11 times, quitting is the easy part.

Stage 2 – Support

I am not belittling the important of stage 1 – without it; there could never be a stage 2.  Simply put, this is where you stay sober for the rest of your life.  This is the hard part because it is for the rest of your life (really, you cannot go back and drink if you want to stay sober).

However, the hardest part of stage two are the first 2 weeks, then the next 2 months, then the next six months, then the next year.

What I am trying to say is the alcohol recovery process gets easier and easier.

The key to long-term success is support.  You MUST have support.  Alcoholics Anonymous or a similar group should definitely be a part of your post-quitting alcohol recovery program.  If you need help finding a local sponsor, please call or email me and I will help you locate a support group in your area.

Share This

2 Comments

  1. Adrift at Sea » Beginning Recovery on December 19, 2012 at 7:44 pm

    […] Miller writes the following on the Breaking the Cycles blog: As a recovering alcoholic I know how hard it is to stop drinking. I also know that someone who […]

  2. Cathy Taughinbaugh| Treatment Talk on December 20, 2012 at 3:51 pm

    Hi Mike,

    Great tips and information on alcoholism and how to maintain long term sobriety. An alcohol awareness class sounds wonderful for people to learn more about alcoholism. This should be a mandatory class for all high school students. It would make such a difference to have someone experienced in the field of alcoholism to teach this type of class to teens and young adults. Thank you for all that you are doing.

Leave a Comment