Why Alcoholics Struggle to Find the Sweet Spot

The Sweet Spot: A Shower Faucet Lesson in Addiction Recovery

I checked into a hotel one night. The next morning, I had a shower. I had to adjust the faucet until the temperature was just right. At first, it was too cold, then too hot, but then I found the sweet spot.

The second morning at the same hotel, I stepped into the shower and turned the faucet to the exact right setting. I remembered the exact position from the previous morning. Within moments, I was enjoying a comfortable shower.

But a hotel shower is the only place where I demonstrate that level of precision and recall.

Finding the Sweet Spot in Sobriety and Daily Habits

In my drinking, I would blow right past the sweet spot.

If my drinking were a shower faucet, I would have twisted it all the way to the hottest setting.

And drinking was not the only area where my precision and recall failed. With appetites and habits, such as:

• Smoking
• Eating
• Sex
• Almost everything else

I could never hit the sweet spot.

Applying Program Principles to Desires, Habits, and Higher Power

But with the Program and my Higher Power, I have been able to find the sweet spot in more and more areas of my life as I apply the principles of our Program to an ever-growing number of my affairs.

With appetites and habits, applying the Program’s principles has helped me remember and find the sweet spot.

Thinking of the shower faucet as an analogy for controlling desires and drinking has another benefit: every time I take a shower, I am reminded of the Program and my Higher Power.