On being powerless

[dsc]

My brother is in a homeless shelter due to his inability to find a job post sobriety. All I can do is hope for the best. He is closer to places to work while in the shelter so that might help. Then today I tried to consul one of my students whose mother is very upset he is gay. The poor kid is totally depressed. His school work is suffering, his personality has changed, and his brother is so worried all because his mother hates the fact he is gay. Powerless over my disease when it comes to my brother and powerless over how others deal with my students orientation. It is so hard.

[varkam]

1. The natural tendency, I think, for all people is to think that...

we are in control of a good number of things when - in reality - we control very little. Addiction aside, I think most of the things in this world are bound to occur with or without our input.

I am sorry to hear about those situations, though - it is hard to see others, especially those we care about suffer. Even harder sometimes is to find the serenity to accept such a state of things. We feel as though we should be able to correct the injustices in this world, to right the wrongs, to heal the sick. Alas, we cannot. That is not to mean that we should be indifferent...only that we should not compound the sadness that we feel with the frustration that comes with thinking that we could do something if we only tried harder.

I hope that makes sense - it's been a long day

[Kajsa]

2. It is hard to accept powerlessness,Dsc.

I feel for your brother and your student.
Life is not fair and that's hard to deal with.

:(

My heart goes out to all of you.

I was brought up to
"take charge" of my life-OK,

but my life does what it damn well pleases
in spite of my plans, sometimes.

That is a bugger to deal with,
but I know accepting that fact and
repeating the Serenity Prayer as needed
really, really helps.

:hug:

[NMDemDist2]

3. ya know, the first step tells me I'm powerless over alcohol

it took me years to realize I was not only powerless over my alcohol, but that I was powerless over other's alcohol as well

:hug:

[Critters2]

4. I'm powerless over my emotions...and so is everyone else.

If we would all just admit that we are powerless over our emotions and those of others, we'd all be coping a lot better. But we can only live our own lives.


Dammit! :)

My prayers are with you, your brother, your student and your student's mother.