Retrogression and Arrestment

     Very important meeting this morning.  There is a Big Book meeting about a 1/4 mile down the street from my house, it's a sunrise meeting, so if I'm awake (and I usually am awake early on Saturdays, it's one of my curses) I can make the meeting.  I had planned on going but time got away from me and I arrived late.  Not late enough to avoid doing any reading, but late enough to miss the first few paragraphs of the story.
     The reading was "The Keys to the Kingdom", and next time I'm at this meeting (next week!) I'm going to slip a couple of pieces of paper in the cover of my book and take some notes.  There were a lot of things that spoke to me, but what spoke to me loudest this morning were the words "Arrestment" and "Retrogression".
     I had forgotten that sobriety is a process, not a cure.  It's not magic, it is never going to be possible for me to have a normal relationship with Alcohol.  Sobriety is a way of life.  Boy, have I been hearing that a lot lately, not just about sobriety but about a lot of things in my life that have fallen by the wayside, including being healthy, taking care of your body and soul, exercising, eating good food, even brushing my teeth!  It's A Way Of Life.  I am making a lifestyle change. 
     Alcoholism is a disease, not just of the body but of the mind and spirit.  I've been so very fortunate that my alcoholism hasn't done much permanent, lasting damage to my body.  I've got some memory issues from time to time, and with the Alzheimer's that runs in my family, that's not something to mess up any more than it is!  I have a fatty liver, not sure if that's from my drinking or from my lifetime of an unhealthy, processed food diet.  Liver and kidney issues also run rampant in my family, along with diabetes, so truly I need to pay attention now, before it's too late to stop damaging myself.  Some diseases, such as bronchitis or pneumonia, can be treated with drugs, and the patient gets better.  Other diseases, like asthma, need daily treatment.  And some diseases, like leukemia, are never completely gone - they just go into remission.  Sometimes the remission is a long time, so long that people can forget that the person was ever ill.
    With my disease, I can experience remission, or "arrestment", with daily treatment.  My treatment consists of going to meetings, keeping in touch with other alcoholics in recovery, doing my daily readings and meditations.  Writing in my journal also helps.  I picked up again because I stopped treatment of my disease, and then I started to feel as if I didn't really have this disease after all.  I can never forget who and what I am.  I can never forget I have this disease, and that I need to treat it every day if I hope to experience arrestment of my symptoms, if I hope to never desire to drink and have the compulsion lifted from me.