The Library

Steve wrote on his inspiring thread (where you can read his story too):

B"H YISBORACH!! I just passed 90 days!!

THANK YOU TO ALL MY FRIENDS HERE AT GYE WHO HAVE HELPED ME GET TO THIS POINT!!

For years I had given up hope of ever getting FREEDOM from this Yetzer Hara, and B"H, thanx to y'all, I have seen how to get there, and have even begun to taste it.

I love this place.

G-D bless Guard and his entire family with Health, wealth, and a home where the Shechina loves to come to!!!

May it be Hashem's will that we can all dance b'simcha VERY SOON together in the Beis Hamikdosh, B'mhaira B'Yomeinu, AMEN!!

Steve is over 50 years old and one of Duvid Chaim's foremost Talmidim on the 12-Step phone conference. He is a perfect example of how it is NEVER TOO LATE to change.

Over a few days, Duvid Chaim had to leave town and he gave the phone conference over to Steve and 'DovInIsrael' to lead. See what Duvid Chaim writes about these two great guys to his chevra:

I could lead Call after Call, telling you all how the Program offers you Freedom. But unless you see and feel it yourself, how will you believe me?

That is - until I coincidentally had to leave town and turn over the helm to two veterans of prior Group Calls.

THANK YOU DOV AND STEVE for showing the Chevra in just a few sessions what usually takes many Calls for novices to appreciate. And that is, that you both are shining examples of what the Program can do for struggling addicts.

The calls and the emails I got from the Chevra prove to me that "they want what you've got!

Just by being authentic and who you are, you demonstrated that in a relatively short amount of time it is possible to gain significant "distance" from who you were before the Program - to a place of serenity, Emunah and D'veikus Hashem.

And Mazal Tov to "OneLife" - who posted:

Thank G-d, today is 90 days clean.

I have never thought I'll reach there one day... but here I am, and this is a fact :-)

I'd like to share a few tools if I can, for those who are trying to cope with this issue at the beginning levels. Nothing really new, besides the fact that keeping myself strict on these things helped me reach 90 days:

1. A strict filter. I think that this is the first key to recovery. There's no other choice. I have two filters at my home, which I switched to a very high protection level - and the password is in my wife's hands. And at my work, I put in a filter that I defined to block all search engines including Google, Yahoo, Altavista, etc. (all of them). The search engine is the source of many of the falls, when we use them to try to find just one site that the filter will not block. We all know that we sometimes click on sites that appear on the Google results on results page number 358...;-)

2. The second thing I learned, is that the less you are exposed to the filth, the less strength the next test will have. You will feel that the filth you see on the street doesn't hit you or trigger you as strongly as it used to. During the 90 days journey, I felt a peak of urges on days 15-30. Once you pass that, you've passed 50% of your journey. The beginning is difficult, because the garbage images jump to your head and you need to get rid of them. In my opinion, this is the hardest part of completing 90 days. But this is your chance to do a big hishtadlus!

3. Admit that you are addict, and for addict there isn't a choice for a "little garbage" or just a look or two. All that will lead you to is the abyss. "A little" means a fall is gonna happen in the near future. The decision to recover needs to be as close to "total" as possible.

4. And the last thing is you guys here on the forum! Without you, I wouldn't have discovered myself here. Your bomb chizzukim, your warm words, jokes, encouragement and everything you gave me, were like a tool box for the rest of my journey. To all of you, a big big thanks!

Now I've just started the real battle. The day 91... to 120 years!

I love you my brothers very much!!