Do You Need a Recovery Tune-Up?

A recovery what?  It’s exactly what it sounds like – checking the tires, the oil, and even the windshield wiper fluid to make sure the car is in tip-top shape not only extends the life of the car but makes you feel more secure when you are driving.   Maybe you have slacked on oil changes recently?  Or you are driving on the freeway every day with under-inflated tires.  These little lapses can not only harm your car, they can make driving more dangerous.

So what about your recovery?  What are you not doing now that you did at the beginning to ensure sobriety one day at a time?  Is it really the best idea to drop those things, or are you starting to take your sobriety for granted?

What’s a tune-up involve? It’s pretty straightforward.

1. Make a list of what you did in the early days of your sobriety to ensure you didn’t have a slip
2. Mark those you have stopped doing
3. Write next to those things you have stopped doing, why you stopped doing it (be totally honest!)
4. Now take a good look at how your list turned out and figure out what you need to add back in to be truly healthy in recovery

This list will be completely different from one person to the next. There are no right answers – it’s just a way to tune-up your program if you’ve started to let things go that are critical to continued sobriety.

Did you drop a sponsor and never get a new one?  Why didn’t you get a new one?

Did you stop checking in at your home group and become a gypsy, floating from one meeting to the next without making any real connections?

Did you start letting your spouse talk you out of going to a meeting because she or he wants more time with you, but you know that one meeting really keeps you on track?

Only you can honestly appraise how your recovery strategy has changed over time.  Obviously 90 meetings in 90 days is not something most people sustain for long – so your strategy does get adjusted over time. The question to ask is: Am I still taking the seriousness of my disease seriously?