[a place to get clean]

So this is my first post in this new blog. Let me start it out right: I'm a sex addict and a pot addict, and I'm working on my recovery.

I guess I wanted a place where I could post about my experiences with the recovery process, from my thoughts on different Twelve-Step Groups to links to things that relate to my recovery. If reading this is a help to you, that's great. But really it's just another way of opening up.

I do have a regular blog, but it's very public and associated with my name. I like the anonymity of this blog, which obviously fits the ethos of the Twelve-Step communities. The name of this blog is [staying honest] because I believe that the root of my addiction problem is not sex or pot, but dishonesty and secrecy, and I am working to live a more transparent, open, honest life — one in which I do not delude myself and others about fundamental aspects of who I am.

I have chosen the lotus as a visual icon because of its symbolic meaning in Buddhism, where it represents purity of body, speech, and mind floating above the muddy waters of attachment and desire. The Buddhist path and Buddhist techniques are important to me as tools for sobriety, honesty and moral living, and I will try to integrate them into my work on the Twelve Steps.

At this point, I've been sober and free of acting out for eight days. I have begun to take the first step.