Seeking help or staying isolated — it’s a decision we make every day.
All of us reading these thoughts and sharing these meetings have made a profound decision: We have become willing to ask other people for help. We have quit living in isolation with our problems. Most of us feared letting others know what our lives were really like. How refreshing to learn that our struggles and shame are manageable, that others have lived through equally trying experiences, some perhaps even worse than our own.
Living in isolation for so long made it hard to trust our new friends right away. But patience, coupled with listening to their stories, has taught us that it’s safe to reveal our secrets. We all have them. We all gain from one another’s vulnerability.
Deciding to get help and reflecting on the good that has come from that decision make it easier to take action on other matters. Twelve Step meetings and sponsors give us ready sounding boards whenever we need clarity and guidance. We’ll live in isolation no more.
Today I’ll not stew in isolation. I will ask for help when I need it.
A Life of My Own by Karen Casey, ©1993 by Hazelden Foundation.