Saturday, March 06, 2010

meeting makers make it!

Good morning, gotta go quick, have lots of Cub Scout stuff going on all weekend with Pinewood Derby and our annual food drive.

I love comments and don't get many (I want people to like me and talk about me, c'mon I am an self centered alcoholic here!). It looks like people come by often enough, they just dan't say alot and that's kool. But I thought maybe I would try to get a bit more interaction going by posing a question or two along the way and asking for your feedback.

I'd like to hear about the importance people place on meetings. What type of meetings do you get the most from, how often do you go (at what stage of recovery...)? Do you car pool, take newcomers?

I firmly believe that "meeting makers make it." When I first came around in 1996, they told me 90 meetings in 90 days and I did that. By the time the 90 days was up, I had my sponsor, my home group, relationships with men in AA and I was firmly embedded into the AA program. I was mainly hitting Men's closed discussions because I enjoyed the fellowhip and the dynamic that occurs in a same gender meeting. (plus I wasn't as distracted by all the pretty girls in AA -not that they were doing anything wrong... I am easily distracted lol).

My first home group was a co-ed 12X12 study where I learned the Steps according to the experience of people who had been sober a long time. They and my sponsor trained my in the "ways of sobriety" in AA. My next home group was a Men's group and I went for years to an average of 3-5 meetings a week. Over the past five years I probably average one meeting a week with a few dry stretches in between. With no men's meeting availabe to me now (my cherished men's meeting decided to go to an open format recently) I hit a discussion meeting a few times a month and blog alot.

So, there's my deal on meetings in a nutshell. Let's hear about what part AA meetings play in your sobriety. Oh, by the way I am 14 years sober. Thank God I haven't found theneed to go back out and I believe that has everything to do with being in constant contact with HP and AA!

3 comments:

Enchanted Oak said...

My first and longtime home group was a 12x12 study like yours. For eight years I lived and breathed Alcoholics Anonymous. Then my sponsor died and I moved. I went to maybe one meeting a week. I wasn't accountable to anyone. Within a year I was abusing prescription drugs. After six years of that, I got hit by that strange mental lapse the book speaks of, and I started drinking again. I've been hitting meetings daily for four years now. I have a sponsor I talk with at least four times a week. I sponsor other women. I practice the principles of AA in my daily life and am accountable to a home group. It works.
Your interaction idea is good, Scott.

steveroni said...

Yeah, let's "talk" about it. I'm all for that!

Our program of AA is not one of "meetings", but one of "steps". It is what I was taught. The meetings are fabulous "fellowship".

I go to all kinds of meetings, the ones I like best now are District and Area meetings--because there I get so bust I do not have time to "get into trouble"--grin!

You know the old (true) cliche: They always say that meeting makers make it...but if they do not work the steps, they have a rough time being what you might call...HAPPY...JOYFUL...FREE!

So for me, the Steps are number ONE, and where I learn how you do them--and others, is when I go to meetings.

Syd said...

I'm not AA but Al-Anon. Meetings are where I keep on the track by hearing the E, S, and H of others. It is like a library with many different books. The more meetings I go to, the more about the solution I hear. But meetings are just one facet of recovery. Yet, they are an important reminder of humility and God's grace.