A family disease

I love to blog, and I find it very therapeutic to have a group of bloggers who share a common thread with me; addiction. Although in this case I am the addict I know i find myself in the company of miracles when I read how others share the same struggles as I do with family and learning to detach sometimes gets very strong negative feedback.
For me I read a daily meditation from Narcotics Anonymous called "Just for Today". There are a couple of other meditations I read as well and I really liked todays reading so I thought I would share it with you.

April 20

Detachment

“Addiction is a family disease, but we could only change ourselves.”

Many of us come from severely damaged families. At times, the insanity that reigns among our relatives feels overwhelming. Sometimes we feel like packing our bags and moving far, far away.

We pray that our family members will join us in recovery but, to our great sadness, this does not always happen. Sometimes, despite our best efforts to carry the message, we find that we cannot help those we hold most dear. Our group experience has taught us that, frequently, we are too close to our relatives to help them. We learn it is better to leave them in our Higher Power’s care.

We have found that when we stop trying to settle the problems of family members, we give them the room they need to work things out in their own lives. By reminding them that we are not able to solve their problems for them, we give ourselves the freedom to live our own lives. We have faith that God will help our relatives. Often, the best thing we can give our loved ones is the example of our own ongoing recovery. For the sake of our family’s sanity and our own, we must let our relatives find their own ways to recover.

Just for today: I will seek to work my own program and leave my family in the care of a Higher Power.

This is the strength I get from my meditation today, and the freedom to live my own life is a wonderful gift. I hope that, for those of you struggling with this issue, that this reading may give you some solace and peace of mind when you have to detach from the insanity of your addict in your lives today.
If you like the reading the book is called "Just for Today" and is published by NAWS. Or you can simply go to na.org and click on the link that says "what's new" and click on the Just For Today subscriptions and they will email you the daily readings. Just thought i would share this resource for those who may be interested.
Todays thought; Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. --Martin Luther King Jr.