Don’t underestimate just how powerful your presence at a 12-step meeting can be for another person’s recovery. More than I care to admit, my usual 12-step meeting times will pop up on my calendar and I’ll think to myself, “Can I get away with skipping this one?” A lot of folks in the rooms will… Continue reading 4 Important Reasons to "Keep Coming Back" to AA, Even When We Don't Need To
Tag: meetings
The Most Important Person in the Room
There’s no need to worry about my career, or lack of intimate relationships, or future, or even quitting nicotine. I’m taking it easy, I’m in my first year of sobriety. Every time I relapse I forget I am not God. I am no longer able to allow the darkness to bloom into the grand external… Continue reading The Most Important Person in the Room
The Eternal Holiday of the Alcoholic
When you drink constantly, you become numb, slipping down into a sub-life, a waking coma. You become a chaotic ghost that exists almost at one step removed from everything else. The following is an excerpt from Jolly Lad – The Expanded North American Edition, published this month by MIT Press and available here. After I… Continue reading The Eternal Holiday of the Alcoholic
Enabling, Self-Seeking, and Recovery
Every moment there’s the possibility of falling back into self-seeking after having recovered much of our spiritual, financial, and physical health. Recently, I was accused on a community website of being an enabler. The article and discussions that followed were regarding a proposed affordable housing project in our community and how some members of the… Continue reading Enabling, Self-Seeking, and Recovery
I’m Open and Willing, Dear Sponsor, but Wait a Minute!
We know “our best thinking got us here,” but that doesn’t mean we need to be open and willing to take abuse or be manipulated. When you first came into the program, you might have heard your “best thinking got you here.” You’re told since your way hasn’t been working, maybe it’s time to try… Continue reading I’m Open and Willing, Dear Sponsor, but Wait a Minute!
The Importance of Women’s Recovery Spaces
Women’s meetings gave me the space to talk about the unspeakable, allowing me to move closer to becoming free from the fear that has kept me shackled.[Content Note: Discussions of IPV] I started my sobriety journey in a foreign city where there was one English speaking 12-step meeting daily, and a relatively small number of… Continue reading The Importance of Women’s Recovery Spaces
Do AA's Promises Come True?
After completing the 12 steps, a long-time member of AA shares his experience of the 9th step promises. Russell Brand recently released his own creative interpretation of AA’s Twelve Steps. As a recovering alcoholic myself (since 12/30/1983), I admire how he captures the essence of the program, while still more or less respecting its tradition… Continue reading Do AA's Promises Come True?
True North and the Geographical Cure
What it was like then: misery that had me researching the methods and means of suicide in the middle of the night on my cell phone, back turned to my husband, who was fast asleep, and to my children, asleep between us. The geographical cure: false hope that a change in circumstance might transform us.… Continue reading True North and the Geographical Cure
Owning My Space as a Woman in 12-Step Programs
I am totally within my rights if I say no, you may not sit there, and no, I don’t want a hug and I don’t want a cup of coffee and just back the fuck off because I have mace in my purse. Several days after I took my last drink, I was detoxing at… Continue reading Owning My Space as a Woman in 12-Step Programs
