We are taught to differentiate between our wants (which are never satisfied) and our needs (which are always provided for). We cast off the burdens of the past and the anxieties of the future, as we begin to live in the present, one day at a time. We are granted “the serenity to accept the things we cannot change”— and thus lose our quickness to anger and our sensitivity to criticism. Above all, we reject fantasizing and accept reality. ~ A.A. World Services Inc. AlcoholicsAnonymous, 4th Edition (Kindle Locations 6531-6534).

We may want food, pampering, the “right to feel sorry for self.”
But we need abstinence, sane lives, to live free of obsession,
resentment, anger, jealousy. And that we can have for the asking,
for surrendering. We came into recovery knowing how to stop our behavior
but finally learned ho to deal with abstinence, with sobriety.