You guys rock!!! Thank you for sharing your ideas and experience with me...it's soooo helpful!
When we got a bunch of newbies in, the focus WAS on the addict because they didn't yet have sponsors, and the meeting was the only safe place to express their pain.
Thank you for this...that is how I felt but could not quite articulate it this clearly when we talked after our meeting last week.
Rahsue, I too think I would sink into a hole if I was sharing my pain and someone interrupted me in a less than gentle way. If it happened when I was the newcomer, I'm not sure if I would have come back. Honestly, I was going to volunteer to take October as chair, but was rethinking it because I didn't want to feel pressured to interrupt someone in pain. But I think gradually as a group we are coming to a place of understanding that sometimes there is no other place to let the pain out and that's what the program is all about.
The preacher...well I will hear you all speaking with me if I feel impatient when he starts in. There is a longtimer in our group who has followed up in sharing after him the way you have said, Big Sis...I will follow his wonderful example. (He has what I want all the time!)
