Being Restored to Sanity

Early in recovery, I was challenged by Step Two to understand sanity and insanity at a time when my life seemed to be turned upside down. I felt that I lived in a world where the attitude seemed to be “do as you please” with no accountability. Needless to say, there didn’t seem to be much sanity in the world around me.

It was relatively easy for me to lie to myself and say that I had not behaved in an insane way. Yet when I reflected on my family of origin and my religion’s doctrines and teachings as a part of my Step Two work, I came to understand that insane thinking was “normal” in my family. I had learned to think that way from early childhood. It was this insane thinking that enabled me to deny and tolerate the sexaholism that was active in my home, and eventually to participate in it as well.

Through S-Anon, I am breaking the chain of the “family disease.” I am slowly being restored to sanity. My peace, serenity, and connection to a Higher Power are greater than the insanity with which I grew up. I am grateful that I have made a commitment to the S-Anon Steps, so that I have the opportunity to know that there is a better way for me to live.

Reprinted from S-Anon’s Reflections of Hope, page 98.