CHAPTER 3Escape to Realityou can climb out of your bottle or or bag and notice that the world isn really worth hiding from.�imiSome of the most important years of our lives were lost in the purplehaze of addiction. We missed a lot of our natural growing-up processes or we experienced them behind that haze of mind-affecting chemicals. So actually we didn grow up; as a result, we have some incredibly warped thinking and ttitude�that have not served us well. Without the escape of drugs, we must now deal with life on life terms. The choice is ours. Either we deal with life or we pick up again. Nobody says it going to be easy. But dealing with life is simple and can be done, providing we don procrastinate or rationalize our way out of it. To put it off or make excuses for not working the remainder of the Steps would counteract any benes we might expect from a clean and sober life. And the benes are generally considered to be the Promises found on page 83 of the book Alcoholics Anonymousften called the Big Book. Yes, we want the benes and so we get to work.Relief Lies in Two Four-Letter Words That Begin with F: Steps Four and FiveIn the st Three Steps, we prepared ourselves to work the next nine Steps. For this reason, Steps One, Two, and Three are considered the preparation, or foundation, Steps. The next six are the action Steps where we are expected to do some work, and the last three are maintenance Steps that keep us living by the principles wee learned. Step Four is the st action Step. 29
