Today, as of right now, 28 people lost their lives in the second-worst school shootings our country has ever seen. More than two-thirds of the victims were children between the ages of five and ten. Dealing with tragedies is nothing new for addicts and alcoholics, but when events like today’s occur, sometimes even those of us with long-term sobriety have difficulties trying to cope when dealing with tragedy of this magnitude.
Over the years, I have met addicts and alcoholics who got loaded following the events of 9/11. As we’ve mentioned before, the relapse process starts long before the drink or drug is used, but nevertheless, dealing with tragedies like this can be challenging even for those who haven’t been directly affected.
However, we can take solace in the knowledge that whatever personal tragedies we are presently enduring, they are struggles of abundance. No longer are our loved ones wondering if today is the day that they hear that we have made some terrible mistake or not. Once we put together some time, we are quite often blessed with getting our families and some of our friends back into our lives, or having new relationships form as a result of the Fellowship. We cease to be the source of worry and become positive forces in the lives of those around us.
It is, therefore, our best solution to seek out our sponsors, the Fellowship, and newcomers to help when situations like this happen. Especially early on in our sobriety or clean time, things like this can be incredibly hard to handle. After all, our emotions are something from which we ran for a very long time, and after being numb for so long, every one of life’s breezes can feel like a blizzard.
However, dealing with tragedy like the one in Connecticut can also remind us that there is still hope. If God was able to relieve the insanity in our lives, anything is possible, and so long as we clean house, trust our Higher Power, and work with others; then we can continue to give back to the world from which we had taken so much.
Everyday in which we wake up, there is hope for us.
Our Orange County drug and alcohol treatment center sends our hearts and prayers go out to all the families and victims involved in this tragedy. As we are fortunate to be alive today, it is our duty to remember that, although there can be a lot of awful things that happen in the world, today we are on the other side of that spectrum in fulfilling our singleness of purpose by bringing hope to those who have none.