Allow me to explain.

Alcoholism is a disease that affects an entire person. The alcoholic suffers more than just physically due to their drinking....they also suffer mentally, socially, spiritually, and so on. Their whole lives are affected by the disease. Jobs are lost. Relationships are broken. People drop out of school, lose touch with their good friends, and so on. In short, alcoholism affects everything.

In most of these cases, the disease is stripping things away, right out of a person's life. Any sense of spirituality is stripped away and replaced by the booze. Whatever used to be "fun" for the alcoholic is replaced by the booze. In short, drinking becomes the solution for everything, the remedy for any event in the alcoholic's life. It becomes the spiritual savior and the emotional balance mechanism.

So when someone quits drinking, the task at hand is so much more than just quitting drinking. The task is to replace an entire life that was dominated by alcohol. Not only that, but to find a way of living that works to replace all of those things that alcohol used to do for us, such as providing us with "fun" or with a way to deal with things emotionally.

The key to doing this is in creation.

In traditional recovery, such as with a 12 step program, there is a focus on creative efforts. The alcoholic is encouraged to progress through 12 steps in order to create a spiritual connection with a higher power and thus overcome their drinking. This is an act of creation, though I would argue that is too narrow of a focus. The reason for this is because the disease is more than just spiritual....it is also physical, emotional, social, and so on. Therefore the solution needs to be holistic in that it should address all of these areas, not just the spiritual.

So the real solution for recovery is in creating a new life for yourself in all of these areas. That is the holistic approach to recovery and when you follow it and attempt to grow in several areas then you will be involved in the act of creation. This is the secret to beating alcoholism. Creation.

Creation implies action

Any program of recovery that is not action-based and action-driven is bound to fail. We can't just sit around and rest on our laurels and expect to be sober for the rest of our lives. Doing so is a sure recipe for disaster.

That's why creation is so powerful. Creation implies action. If you're creating something new in your life, then you are taking action. They go hand in hand. For example, deciding to go back to school at 6 months sober. That is an act of creation. That is positive action. If you sit on the couch and never go to any meetings and never attempt to grow in any way then you will stagnate in your recovery and eventually relapse. In a nutshell that is how creation works and that is how it keeps you sober in the long run. The people who have found success in AA and other 12 step programs are actually using creation as well. The winners in recovery are always pushing themselves to grow in different ways. In this way, creative recovery is all about learning.