Change is relentless

Change: To pass from one phase to another, as the moon.

There are only two things that an alcoholic doesn't like: the way things are and change. We are so opposed to change on moral and ethical grounds that we avoid it even if our circumstances improve. We can be sitting in a burning house with monsters in the attic, demons in the basement, and cyborgs busting down the front door, and refuse to change. We assume that things are going to get worse. We like the way things are, even if they are terrible and deteriorating rapidly. They're familiar to us and this is comforting in a weird and deranged sort of way.

What a shock to learn that change is inevitable. We thought we were going to be able to avoid any significant change for the rest of our lives, unless it was change we believed was going to benefit us in some meaningless and superficial way.

The Program teaches us how to manage the ebb and flow of life. When we are drinking we react to the possibility of any change by screaming and yelling and pounding the floor with our little fists of rage. In sobriety we begin to see that change can be good so we react with a little more restraint. We still throw a fit, of course, but it doesn't last as long and we don't break as much stuff or end up in jail.

Our experience is that sometimes the path to a much better place has a difficult beginning. You're just going to have to trust us on this one.