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I remember during my worst stretch of active addiction thinking to myself, “Even if I managed to get clean and sober, how could I possibly not drink and do drugs during the Super Bowl? How?!?!?” I couldn’t even imagine.
It’s a weird thing to circle on the calendar, even for a super sports fan like me. I mean, I watched Super Bowls from about 2005-08 completely by myself, barely conscious. It’s not like those days were even that much fun. But for some reason, I chose the Super Bowl as my biggest barrier to entry into sobriety.
Holy s**t, what a moronic thing to have believed. I had a whole list of holidays and special occasions that were right behind the Super Bowl, too, and none of them were any fun for years. My birthday? I can’t even remember one during the last three years of drinking and drugging. Christmas? Pretty hazy.
So it was total b******t that the Super Bowl actually represented anything really important to me. Those were just excuses to not do the hard work of seeking help.
Part 1 of that delusion was that those days require a drink in your hand because that’s what everybody is doing. Part 2 of the delusion was the idea that on special days, whether it’s the Super Bowl or your wedding day or your best friend’s wedding day or the day you get promoted or whatever, you deserve to make a good day a little better with mood-altering substances. I’ve heard that one a lot over the years so I know I didn’t invent that concept. But it was a real thing in my head, and it still is sometimes. If something is good, maybe I could do something to make it even better!
For example, maybe a sports game will be good as its own thing… and what if I also eat a bunch of crappy food that I love? And what if I bet on the game? A good sporting event, plus donuts, plus guaranteed wealth after I beat the sports books… now that is an addict’s delight!
But here’s what I have realized. One, I can’t gamble. At all. Secondly, I can eat a donut or two, but I need to be careful about trying to use food as a way to change the way that I feel. And last but not least, the Super Bowl is a helluva lot of fun if you’re not puking in your basement trash can by yourself. I watched the first half of this year’s game with some sober friends, and it was awesome. Then I watched a very good football game conclude at my house. I remember what happened in the game, and where I parked my car, and who I was going to wake up next to. It was great!
I’ve been sober since 2008, which means I have double digit sober Super Bowls under my belt. Same with birthdays and Christmases and parent-teacher conferences. And the myth of needing a mood boost to enjoy those things is exactly that, a total myth. It’s actually the opposite—the idea of nodding off and potentially pissing my pants in a dark room by myself and missing the entire Super Bowl isn’t exactly something I ever miss. Turns out, the best way for an addict and alcoholic to enjoy the game is sober. I couldn’t imagine it any other way at this point.
This newsletter is a place of joy and laughter about the deadly serious business of sobriety. So, as I will often do, let me close with a joke:
"Happy Hour for me is now a nap."
(Credit: AA Grapevine, September 2008, by Tommy H. of Baton Rouge, Louisiana)
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