I am new to the board. I have an AA club that I belong to where if I can't make a noon meeting, I at least stop in for coffee and there are usually others there to talk to. It's a great club where the doors are open from early morning till late evening. I know I always have a close safe place to go.
The thing is, I am still very early in my sobriety and I am moving in a few weeks. I have to leave all my new friends and my sponsor. I am terrified of that. I know my new group will be great too...but I am still so scared. Anyway, I thought joining this board might help with the transition.
I drank for 32 yrs. I don't want to go back there.
Hi Barb, I'm glad you found MIP. I hope we do help with the transition. I remember, even with a bit of sobriety, how worried I was about moving to a new area, and totally clueless about how the new area's AA was going to be. Like, moving isn't stressful enough, right? If you're comfortable enough to speak, then I'd probably go in and be real honest about how scarey this transition is for you. First thing I did was find if there was an alano club by calling the hotline and talking to someone. I met her there, found out which meetings were the biggest (so I could sneak in undetected, I thought). Even calling and asking someone to meet you there might help. Just remember, when you walk through the door at your first meeting in this new town, that the people around the tables are just like you. I went to L.A. to visit a girlfriend one summer, first year of sobriety. I found the nearest meeting, and went, totally afraid of the sheer size, since I had been pretty small town before. It ended up being one of the best meetings I'd ever attended, and the people there were so nice to me. I met them at a few other meetings they invited me to later during my stay. It was great. Go in with a smile, let them know your a newcomer to the group, and my guess is you'll make friends in a flash. In the meantime, keep coming to the board if you like it. Good people here, too, for those in between times. Warmly, chris
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i found god in myself/and I loved her/i loved her fiercely--Ntozake Shange
Thanks for your encouraging words. I do know that everything will be fine if I just keep doing the next right thing. But you know how the alcoholic mind just gets so nuts sometimes and afraid of everything.
I had relocated to a new area, last year, and had a real hard time getting around on the freeways, I lived in an area, where 90% of the meetings were a freeway ride, and I was not use to the freeways, everyone drove about 80mph as an average speed, and I started getting panicky about the roads, so I have never felt so stuck, It was like one of those, "I can't get there, from here" times". Did find a noon meeting at last, and now I go many times a week. have made friends, and feel so a part of, like old times.
Just wanted to tell you I can relate so to these feelings, and it was this MIP Board, that made me feel like "Ahh, I am home again", and filled the need in me for meetings, located the meeting I now attend, and now that I have found a new Home Group, still Post on this Board, It is such a great asset, to my own Recovery, don't know if I would have found it, without that struggle, I was only trying to reprint an AA Schedule, when I just accidentally found this Board, What a Blessing that was.
Hope when you move and find that meeting you will stay here and tell us all about how things are going.
God has blessed me with the oppurtunity to leave the city and the freeways. Because of this disease, my husband lost his job after 25 yrs. We no longer can afford to live in this nice house. When this happened in Nov. I realized we were in big trouble. I got sober thanks to AA. I got a part time job in a fast food place, after not working in four yrs. Then I started searching for cheaper places to live and outside the city.I found a nice singlewide on over an acre. It has outbuildings and is fenced in for the dogs. I absolutely love it. The closest AA group is only 3 miles away too and we can get by on minumum wage jobs if we need too.
I have had so many miracles happen just since the first time I walked thru the doors of AA in Nov. I never would have thought that something like my husband losing his job house, would be the best thing that ever happened to me.
God bless ya'all and have a great day. I can still make a few more noon meeting with my old group.
just wanted to say hello and share with you that when I was forced to give up all our material things, because of my own Raging Disease, I went thru that in early recovery, no more beautiful home, none of of these comforts, I believed I had, I had to start from scratch, no friends, just me and my Higher Power that I choose to call God, and a stuggle to find some menial job, to sustain me, and my meetings.
Wren Posted a very Beautiful Post on the subject of Prosperity, if you have not read it.
"All adversity.....will have a gift..........all you need to do to find it, is seek it"
A Book, "When Bad things happen to Good People" is a great book on this subect too.
A book about EXTREME adversities, and how people cope, and come thru it, better than before the event...... Great Book.
Hugs and so glad you are here, I have this little "hunch" that after finding those meetings and getting grounded in them, that you will stay here too. That is my hope anyway, the Board has inhanced my own Recovery so much, I cannot imagine leaving here. Whey would I return such a beautiful gift.
Hope ya all had a great day. Mine didn't start so well, and I was getting all panic-y thinking the worst. Off I went to the noon meeting and guess what? Those little problems DID NOT turn into huge ones, instead they have been completely solved. I don't know why I'm surprised. So many good things have happened in the short time I've been sober.
I think I will be hanging out here when time permits even after I get moved and find a new group. Thanks Toni.