Just want to make a Post about the Gratitude I feel today. The first thing that i feel Grateful for is that I am in Recovery, going to meetings, even when I don't like them, not liking a meeting is really not the point of going to a meeting. (Thank you, Rick)
Well today the meeting I went to was a great meeting. And I was thinking about how fortunate we all are that are here and present and accounted for.
In a conversation I had earlier today, I was being given the Statistics in this Program of Recovery.
First, there are 2,200,000. Registered members, thats anyone that goes to a group on a regular basis. (Thats how they compile that statistic) Then they guess at around another 2,000,000. that are members, but do not go to a regular meeting, or meetings that are in places hard to locate, in foreign countries.
The statistics are for the Alcholic population in this world, that about 17% of Alcoholics get into AA Recovery, and out of that 17%, only 4% will stay in Recovery for over a five year period.
I do not know about you, but those GRIM Statistics, really Scare me. They scare me right into right thinking, what step am I on, and who am I trying to help get into this Program. In other words - Right Action.)
These statistics can erase in a New York Minute, (we do that too here in California) all the trivial BS, that seems to go around, sometimes in my head, sometimes on this Board, and sometime in meetings of Alcoholic Anonymous. Where is the BS Coming from - me!
It has had a very profound impact on me today, and I want to plaster into my brain, that the details of our little lifes, are just that, little tiny details, when you compare them to the Grim (no other words seems to fit) statistics.
A very smart lady told me, when she was listening to my BS when I first started, She said "if you put your sobriety BEFORE everything ELSE, you can KEEP it, if you put any thing in front of it, You will not be able toKEEP it." Very, Very wise words.
So it seems that my head in on straight today, and I am committed to Paying attention to what is suggested as a program of Recovery. Fear, yup, a lot of fear, but a good Healthy FEAR.
My Love to all of you,
Toni No Baloney Today!!!!
Only by and through God's Grace, Love and Mercy are we here, So thank you! God
An article I read yesterday in at nytimes.com on a particular substance epidemic reminded me how fortunate I am (we are) at the moment...
After the way I lived, what I went through and put others through, it is very exciting to be able to be a relatively decent person and a part of society and AA today.
Even if your life was or is an all out nightmare, keep hope alive....
From my own observations the stats for recovery are bleak and are at about 10%. But I don't ever remember registering for anything in AA so I don't know where they could have gotten their imformation. This is an a Anonymous program and by it's very nature no records are kept of members (at least at any of the meetings that I attend). When I attend my first monthly speaker birthday meeting about 30 of us got up to get our 30 day chips. When I got my year chip only 3 of us were still around and from my 9 and 1/2 years of being here thats about the way it is. There's an old saying " There lies, damm lies and there statistics" Stat can be twisted into saying anything that a certain group wants them to say. Before AA there was no recovery, alcoholism was a fatal disease (sometime slow sometimes fast). Instead of looking at those who fall look at those who succede, (I hear them at every meeting I attend). Recovery is hard and to make it you got to be strong, it's not for boys and girls it's for men and women who want a better life and are willing to do the hard difficult work to get it. There's no magic wand no purple pill, if you want what we have you must do what we have done. The longer a person has been around the more people you see disapear and it can be heartbreaking, but you can get much joy when you see a person who came here broken blossom. Bob.
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Work like you don't need the money
Love like you've never been hurt, and
dance like no one is watching.
Maybe they take the average number of people that attend a particular group... like one of my groups averages about 50 people, and another one averages 10, etc.
The program does work if we work it, being honest, willing to do whatever it takes, and not stopping at Step 3. But,, as some said,, not everyone is able to be so honest, especially when it comes to Steps 4 and beyond. And I know the struggles.
Maybe some people are looking down at me,, and my recurrent cravings, and the things that trigger them. Sometimes I'm barely hanging in there. But I am hanging in there, by the merciful grace of God. I know one guy with a cocaine habit,, he keeps coming to the meetings, even tho he is still active,, and he talks about his struggles and failures,, but he keeps coming. The mandated ones who come to get their papers signed and they stay for a month or two. Then there are people like Wally, with 25 years, and he volunteers at the hospital, and when someone is admitted needing detox, they call him to come and sit with them, and share his e,s & h in the AA program.
It is scary,,, cuz,,, I know I can't make it on my own,,, and I know that just the other drunks in the program can't carry me,,, so I am verrrrry grateful,,, for Steps 2 and 3 and the rest..... that this is a spiritual program that teaches us to develop a trusting relationship with God, cuz He is the one that makes the difference. It is by His grace that we are making it.
love in recovery,
amanda
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do your best and God does the rest, a step at a time
Groups listed with GSO..and the number of members, submitted to GSO that are listed with each group...
USA 1,190,637
Canada 95,984
Corrections 66,963
Internationalists 76
Lone members 223
Outside of Canada and USA 729,097
Total groups registered with GSO 105,294
Thats as of Jan 1, 2005...
Those figures do not take into account...meetings that arent registered with GSO..and the numbers that arent registered with a group..
They estamate that in the 60s the number of recovering alcoholics that were sober after 5 years was 25 percent....Today that figure has dropped to 4 percent..
Thanks for sharing that Toni...
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Treat others..as I would like to be treated...with respect and love..It is in giving..that we receive..
Math is not my thing. do the figures that I show and the figures that you show match?
I sure hope so. looking at all the figures you put down, made be feel like the computer in my head BLEW UP! Oh well, I didnt need it anyway, now that I have my PC Computer. haha.
