Alcohol and Drug informational resource

Sober Blogger Turned Online Radio Show Host

My name is Oliver and I am an alcoholic and drug addict active in a 12-step program.  I have used the revolving door of our meetings since 1995, and that is why I use this icon as the default picture of my persona online.  ‘Half Measures Room’ was created when I had accumulated 6 months of sobriety this time around.  My sobriety date is 12-3-2007, and for that I am truly grateful.  This is the longest I have ever stayed sober, and I owe it all to a loving God whom I have found in the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous.  There have been many people along my journey (too many to mention) that have attributed to this spiritual awakening and consciousness of the Spirit.  I believe the Holy Ghost resides in us all and implore everyone who suffers from this disease and other maladies of the spirit to tap into this ‘unsuspected inner resource’.

The story of my drug and alcoholic past is not unique.  I began using and drinking in early adolescence.  Even then it was ‘no mere habit’.  After experiencing the immediate relief and comfort of that first drink and drug, I wanted to do it again and again, every chance I could.  I do not know much about the scientific properties of alcoholism and drug addiction.  Every indication points at the possibility that this disease is handed down through generations.  I haven’t researched the genome of the alcoholic/addict enough to make an informed statement here.  However, if I wasn’t born a drunk, the first time I picked up a drink an alcoholic was born.  What I do know is that I did not suffer from the mental obsession to get loaded, nor was I afflicted by the physical compulsion until I first picked up.  Which tells me that I react ‘much like normal men’ when I am no longer putting these substances in my body.

Absolute Abstinence is the only solution for a drunk like me.  Through repeated experimentation and tragic mistakes, I have found that I have lost the power to control and enjoy my drinking and drug use.  Since I started, I have never been able to put more than a couple days dry behind me without the help of a spiritual solution.  All too often I have returned to the booze and dope over resentments, desperation for change, and an overwhelming desire to satisfy an obsession and craving beyond my mental control.  The one common denominator in all the times I have returned to that former life of slavery to ‘King Alcohol’ is this:  I stopped working the one program that has worked so well for others.  First it is the meetings.  I stop going to them.  Then it is the sponsor.  I stop calling him.  Lastly, it is always prayer.  I quit contacting the one force that can relieve me from the perilous obsession to change the way I think, feel and behave.

Taking all this into consideration, ‘Steel on Steel’ has become a fundamental part of my 12 step program.  It is my aim to provide a comprehensive outline on how to start your own group.  Let me make it clear, this is not something I have created myself.  It has been passed on to me from those that have done it themselves and reaped many benefits.  I think you will find nothing here will be objectionable if you are honestly practicing the way of life that is the 12 step program.  In fact, if followed diligently, I think you will see it will enrich your 12 step experience.  It basically takes everything we ought to be doing and brings it to the forefront of our minds, hearts and souls.  Something my sponsor always speaks of is when the principles of these Steps move from ‘our head to our heart’.  When we internalize the ideals behind these 12 proposals, we experience a freedom from the bondage of self we never were before able to accomplish.  We are ‘rocketed into the Fourth Dimension of existence’.  If you have any further questions, comments or concerns, feel free to contact me.

I want to thank Joseph G. from Rum Radio for asking me to write this series on ‘Steel on Steel’.  It is an honor getting to contribute to this wonderful website.  I know that Joseph and I have a mutual agreement in providing good information about 12 step recovery to those who seek it on the internet.  In addition to these pieces, I have written many blogs and continue to maintain an online radio show involving 12 step recovery every Wednesday @ 9 pm CT.  Please follow the links below to my website and live podcast.  Trust God.  Clean House.  Help Others.  Dr. Bob’s three basic instructions for those seeking refuge in the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous.  If we keep this thing simple, we never have to complicate our lives again.  I think that ‘Steel on Steel’ is one way to simplify a program that so many misunderstand and convolute.  Our literature is meant to be read literally, not allegorically.  It is not a figure of speech, but a clear, concise set of instructions.  Sure, it is ‘meant to be suggestive only’.  And no, it is not a religious program.  However, it has been my observation that the people in the program that stay sober the longest practice this 12 steps religiously.

Half Measures Room website:

www.halfmeasuresroom.com

Half Measures Room radio show:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/halfmeasuresroom

Half Measures Room Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/half.m.room

Recent Posts

  •         By Bob k “Jack Alexander, Saturday Evening Post, was also one of the friends to whom Bill sent material. Of the Twelve Tradition essays, Alexander has this to say: ‘The only serious (in my view) defect is that you have treated the old Washingtonian Society too briefly; most people never heard […]

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  •   A.A. has quietly acknowledged, primarily through one publication, that the early A.A. pioneers in Akron believed firmly that the answer to all their problems was in the Good Book, as they called the Bible. A.A. co-founder Dr. Bob said that all the basic ideas were taken from their study of the Good Book. And […]

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  • Some people don’t know me and they don’t like me, some people get to know me and then they don’t like me, its none of my business what you think of me because you think so little of me anyway, if not in stature surely in time Now you are free to be your authentic […]

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  • Happy Birthday Recovered Its all about the upholstery, the old stuffing has been replaced with the cushion of grace and a new skin that is scotch guarded with the humility of faith while the utility of the strong back to service is firmly put in place, this instead of ending up on the junk heap […]

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  •   THE FICKLE FINGER OF FATE   Happiness is way over rated as it is dependent on the immediate external circumstance. I.E. I am happy because I just won the lottery, I am happy because she said yes,  I am happy because I just had purchased a new car, and just as quickly I am […]

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  •     Sisyphus was a Titan that was cursed by the gods to roll a boulder everyday up the side of a mountain and at night it would roll back down to the bottom and for him to repeat the task again and again for all eternity. When the gods came to gloat at his […]

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  •     Sitting at the edge of the lap pool I was appraising my physique once athletic and toned as it had boasted of  strength and  the glory of youth now reduced to a state of age and over indulgence, as it reminded me of the body of the laughing Buddha, this insight struck me […]

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  •     Alcohol and drugs are equal opportunity destroyers. The disease takes no heed to your particular flavor of addiction labeling it as such is the much greater affliction. The divisions started with Bill Wilson’s “singleness of porpoise” which I believe dose not hold any water, then or now creating the indignation of the drunken […]

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  •   Often times in the addiction recovery arena it is claimed that they have been saved by grace. Consider that according to Google (a thousand years hence the anthropologists will have concluded that as a society they all communed with an all knowing god named Google) that there are 140,000,000 drunks in the world. Accordingly to the […]

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  •     Sisyphus was a Titan that was cursed by the gods to roll a boulder everyday up the side of a mountain and at night it would roll back down to the bottom and for him to repeat the task again and again for all eternity. When the gods came to gloat at his […]

    more...

Mission Statement

Our mission is to inform, inspire, and empower alcoholics anonymous sponsorship locally and internationally to be their very best --- both personally and spiritually.

I would like to acknowledge Hamilton B and his tireless work in the recovery community and his work "Twelve Step Sponsorship How it works" a Hazelton publication and his permission to use what ever was needed to make possible my ongoing sponsorship workshop and Step study and this website.