Fearaholic’s Anonymous

Hi! My name is Matt and I’m a grateful, recovering fearaholic. I have been addicted to fear and powerless over my cowardice. (Chorus: Hi Matt!)

For decades, I have been fearful of failure, of confrontation, of pain, of beautiful women (and my feelings for them), of tough guys (especially Italians), of competition, of rejection and disapproval, of bosses and authorities, of groups of teenage boys, of my students and my employees, but mostly of my own weakness and cowardice.

At the core of my fear was a sad sense of isolation and loneliness. I felt alone and scared. My addict (a.k.a. Scratch, the Deceiver, the Accuser, Lucifer, Satan, Beelzebub, Tempter, Adversary, Old Nick, Prince of Darkness and many more) shamelessly took advantage of my vulnerability and haunted me for years with a tormenting interior chant: “You are a wimp! A coward! A waste! A (capital L) Loser! You do NOT have what it takes! You should be ashamed of yourself!”

Thanks to Higher Power, the program, the fellowship and my sponsor, I have been growing sober from fear now for some decades. I am no longer ashamed, inadequate, alone and afraid. Whenever I do feel that way, I immediately call upon my Sponsor (a.k.a. Counselor, Advocate, Hallowed Ghost, Third Person, Comforter, Intercessor, Paraclete, Consoler, Mother of the Poor, Light Eternal, Inner Guest, Sevenfold Gift and many more). He immediately and efficaciously relieves me of my fearful, sad aloneness and brings me into a most encouraging communion with Himself, with the Father, with the communion of saints, all my brothers and sisters in recovery, those still in bondage to fear and deception, and most of all with the One who accepted all fear and failure, all pain and confusion, all competition and confrontation, all weakness and humiliation…and made all of that the pathway to communion and love and positive sobriety.

Thanks to my sponsor, the program, and all of you (my brother and sister addicts), I am growing in freedom from fear every day; I am a saint-in-the-making; I am training for heroism.

See you in the Eucharist!