Play It All The Way Through
Play it all the way through! (An old recovery saying I learned from my AA sponsor Darby Jack Bowler)
FROM: Troutnut 1. … posted (6) Months Ago, Circa April 2019
My brain doesn't want me to play the tape all the way through!
It is devious and it just wants me to just take the FIRST puff. It really doesn’t want me to think about what happens then. What happens next. And how it ends.
But when I pay it all the way through, to its logical, and historical conclusion, it doesn't look so appealing. "Just one!" screams half of my brain! But then the other half of the brain says "Oh sure! When have we ever had just one of anything? If we take that just one, it will start a process. A physical compulsion will begin, followed by a mental obsession. The Law Of Addiction states that re-administration of the drug of choice, in any amount, in any form, causes instant re-addiction in an addict. Soon we will have a second just one. then a third. Next we will buy a pack. Maybe a carton. We will be consumed by the guilt, shame, and remorse of yet another failed quit. We will have to fess up at the Q. Reset our meter. Health deteriorates. Breathing will become difficult. Then doctors appointments, and the inevitable bad news that will surely come if we continue to smoke. Breathing machines and medications. Expensive! Horrible death. Why didn't we just stay quit?"
Play the tape all the way through and "just one" never ends very well.
As addicts in recovery we are never static. We are either moving further upward in our recovery, or we are circling the drain. Its a choice, and we alone get to make it.
Never listen for long to the evil half of your brain. It might be trying to kill you like mine does. Let the good side do the talking and always play the tape all the way through! Who wants to do Hell Week all over again?
Stay away from that FIRST puff and it is physically impossible to fail! Don't take that FIRST puff, just for today, and you are absolutely, positively, 100% guaranteed to go to bed as a WINNER tonight!
Your friend in Montana
Troutnut1 Dennis