The Time That AA Stole From You

by | Oct 21, 2022

**Written by Freedom Model Online Coach, Matthew Sparks**

Time is the most precious resource. It is the only thing that you can never get back. Often, when people discover The Freedom Model and learn that everything taught to them in rehab and 12-step meetings was not only false, but harming them and holding them back, they become angry. When I discovered The Freedom Model, I had been in rehab, sober livings, outpatient clinics, and countless meetings over a number of many years. Learning the truth–that the “addict” identity was just a construct and I wasn’t powerless or diseased–made it feel as if my life had been stolen from me. I became enraged thinking about how horrid my early twenties had been because I truly believed I was hopeless and broken, yet people kept sending me back to meetings as if it eventually “fix” me. I will never get those years of my life back. They took them from me.

Fortunately, my rage eventually subsided. The Freedom Model allowed me to move on with my life once I escaped the sober living I was in, and I began to rebuild my life from nothing. I worked multiple jobs, went back to school and graduated, fell in love, and much more. I became a person I never thought I could be, and, for the very first time, I loved myself and was proud of what I had done. I think about those years I thought were wasted now and feel absolutely no regret. Actually, I don’t have a single regret for anything I have done or that has happened to me, because all those years eventually led me to this point. For all I know, I would have never become this person if I hadn’t been stuck in all those AA meetings. Maybe I would not have gotten the degree that I did because I was motivated by the falsehoods of addiction to study the brain in college. I experienced true peace and happiness for the first time, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.

The anger is normal and understandable, but do not let it define you. Experience and validate the emotions you feel, and then begin working to move past them and shift your perspective. All the horrid things we had to endure because of AA and the treatment system can serve as lessons. Tough lessons, but lessons nonetheless. Everything that happened to you and every choice you made led you to this point, and if you just found The Freedom Model, your life is about to change forever. As we discuss in the book, look forward to a bright future, not back at a painful past. You are about to be truly free!

You can enroll in The Freedom Model Online Program today and get a free consultation with one of our Freedom Model for Addictions Online Coaches upon sign up.

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