Where were you when you first thought about entering recovery?

For me, I was in Adelaide on one of my, many geographical in 1987. My Dad had just died and even though for most of my life he wasn't around and I never really knew him it affected me. And, as every alcoholic does it times of hurt I got drunk. At the time I was living in shared accommodation, working through the day and drinking when I wasn't working. On this occasion, it was cold and wet outside so I bought alcohol on the way home from work and proceeded to get drunk. Because of the cold weather outside, I set myself up in the house, where I was home alone in front of an electric bar heater. You guessed it when I got drunk enough I fell asleep, knocked the heater over and set fire to the carpet.

I was awoken by a housemate who came home saw what I had done and put the fire out. Because of that incident, I was evicted from where I was living and decide to go back to Western Australia. So I quit my job and off I went. On the trip back to W.A. I thought about the incident and realized I needed to do something about my drinking. So on my return to W.A., I headed to Rockingham, my home town for my teenage years and booked myself into rehab there. I would like to say recovery started from there but it didn't. I was one of those people who the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous talks about when it talks about people being incapable of being honest. So I learned to play the 'Sobriety Game'

My decision to enter recovery came a couple of years later. After spending a couple of years on the 'revolving door' The decision came through a personal audience with Jesus Christ. Alone in my room in rehab in Adelaide one night, knowing I needed to get serious about recovery I knelt at the side of my bed to pray. As I prayed I heard the voice of Jesus say to me "Archie, you do not need to live like this anymore. follow me and I will lead you." That was in 1989. From that day to this day He leads I follow.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://livingliferecovery.com/2021/08/01/where-were-you/