Originally Posted by
kj3880 
this sponsor was in a very different situation than me. She got a year off from work, lived with mom and dad, and only worked on recovery for that whole year. Nice, but not possible for me. So she made suggestions to me like "you cannot miss any days of going to meetings or you will pick up." I had to miss some days, as sometimes my job requires a 16-hour double. So she made me feel guilty when this happened. She even asked me to resign my service position because I worked rotating 3-shift work and couldn't be at home group 1 out of every 3 weeks. She wanted me to quit my job for recovery.
KJ,
The people who wrote the (AA) Big Book stated that their involvement was an AVOCATION. That means NOT a JOB. It means like a hobby.
The Program itself is daily work on the Steps, ultimately just living the Steps, a spiritual life. Attending meetings and Twelfth Step Work is an avocation. In the beginning, for some of us, we must choose total immersion, because we are so f'ed up and we're not doing much anyhow. Abandoning our lives to do AA might be preferable to abandoning our lives to do prison, hospital, or gravesite.
However, not all of us are at that point.
I think the Founders met once or twice a week. On the other hand, Bill W was able to take a month or so off work and stay at Bob's house in Akron, before he returned to his home. He had some money and his wife was willing to support him. Bob was a fairly well-off professional, a doctor.
Other people are living on the streets and don't have a "life" to keep them too busy to go to meetings.
A friend of mine with some clean/sober time decided to kick methadone too. She spent about two months on the couch, barely able to walk to the bathroom, no sleep, etc. Her daughter was in high school, semi-self-sufficient.
I think AA/NA sponsors are in error when they try to do recovery like we're some "cult".