Thanks Cee Cee.
yep, I am glad that all that pain and misery wasn't totally wasted--if nothing else I learned from it (thanks in large part to AA and others).

Good points Andria. You are right imo that the 12 step program never stops the addiction. That is why I prefer AA over rational recovery's program. They have some beliefs that are way off imo.

It does get much easier though over time. I personally don't really struggle much anymore, but I just always try to do a bit of reading or recovery type work each day.

Rusty---The hungry and tired parts should be the easiest to fix I would think. Just eat or sleep is all there is to that. The angry part of it just means not to hold a grudge as that isn't going to solve anything by it. The lonley part just means not to isolate too much. I think AA people would recommend being around other people from the group if nothing else. I do have to say that there is one thing every person at the AA groups have in common----they are VERY serious about keeping their sobriety. And they are VERY serious about being ready to help another person who is struggling along those lines. Those 2 things are common among all group members that have even a day or two put together. It's nice because if you can't count on anything else from the group members, you can count on that.

I may write more later and maybe others want to share too.