Deep Survival and Recovery

        When you’re in recovery, you are in a survival situation. The number of parallels between recovery and wilderness survival is striking. Despite their hardship, both kinds of survivors report being grateful. They are attuned to the wonder of the world in which they find themselves. They survive by surrendering, even while doing the “next right thing.” They embrace and treasure the survival (or recovery) experience, and almost feel sorry for those who haven’t had to survive.

        Here are some concepts from Deep Survival that people in 12-step programs have found most useful and inspiring.

• Perceive and Believe: The first step in managing a survival situation is admitting the trouble you’re in. Many a mountain climber has died by ignoring black clouds on the horizon. This message, examined in detail in Deep Survival, is contained in the first and fourth steps in all 12-step programs. Survivors do not engage in denial.
• Being Cool: Stress or high emotion interferes with clear thinking. Those who can learn to think clearly and make good decisions under stress or in high emotional states survive better. In AA, this concept is embodied in the acronym HALT, to warn people to be more careful when they’re hungry, angry, lonely, or tired.
• Think/Analyze/Plan: The best survivors do not concentrate on the enormous job they must do to succeed. They break big achievements into small, manageable tasks. “My leg is broken,” they might say, “but I know I can crawl to that rock over there.” In this way, little by little, they work their way out. In 12-step programs, this is known as taking recovery “one day at a time.”
• Be a rescuer, not a victim: The best survivors always report that they were doing it for someone else–a parent, spouse, child, even a pet back home. Maintaining that connection, helping others, is vital to survival. It makes you a rescuer and frees you from being a victim. This is the essence of the social element of 12-step programs, including the concept of a sponsor and of bringing the AA message to others who need it. Survivors do not engage in self pity.
• Laugh and Celebrate: Survivors never loose their sense of humor, even in the most horrible situations. And every time they make a little progress, they celebrate their success. Even in Nazi concentration camps, people played music, put on plays, and celebrated birthdays and anniversaries. AA meetings, as well as the Big Book, are full of humor and celebration. Survivors maintain their humor and are therefore hard to threaten.
• Survival is a spiritual transformation Survivors of all sorts of situations report that at some point, they saw the beauty of the place they were in, let go of their fear of death, and had a spiritual transformation that allowed them to go on. This is the “vital spiritual experience” described by Dr. Jung in the Big Book.