It is said that alcohol removes all fears, at least temporarily, including the rational ones. I recall going back to bed during an attack on my base in Vietnam when everyone else was cringing in bunkers. There are times when fear is useful, when fight or flight are options. The sort of fear I have had to deal with in recovery is the irrational sort, sometimes referred to as False Evidence Appearing Real. With faith in God's ability to guide and protect me, and with my time in recovery having taught me that reality isn't really something so scary that I need to escape from it, irrational fear is no longer a much of a problem if I am doing what I need to maintain my sanity and sobriety. Fears can still come up but they usually vanish when I question how real they really are and adjust my attitudes a bit to deal with them. In some of my early meetings there was a sign that said, "The measure of a man's anxiety is the measure of his distance from God." My reaction at the time was to think it was telling me I had another problem, being far from God, in addition to the anxiety I knew I was full of. I can now see that having a bit of fear and anxiety, at least on occasion, is part of being human, and nobody is sitting in God's lap. |