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Old 05-12-2013, 02:52 PM
  # 19 (permalink)  
DisplacedGRITS
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Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 2,661
hey 1stepup! i'd recommend that you keep calling your old sponsor and have that person be your accountability sponsor before you find a permanent one. that way, you have someone you're accountable to every day, not just yourself. you can stop calling that person once you get a sponsor but until then, that's at least one of the alcoholics you call on a daily basis.

regarding the wedding; i'm sorry if this sounds harsh but that's a load of horse dung. the pressure your friend put on you sounds like an excuse to me. just say your went to a wedding you knew you shouldn't go to and you drank. that's the truth of the matter. everything else is just sugar coating it. that's a part of being rigorously honest with yourself. i totally agree with Anna on "no" being a complete sentence. i'm tucking that gem away for future use.

get back into AA and get serious about going to meetings. personally, i'm doing at least 5 meetings a week. typically, i got to a meeting a day but i let myself off one day a week. that's what i need. i go to meetings when i don't want to go because i know my addiction wants me to miss them. go to more meetings than you originally think you can stand. go when you don't want to go. go when you do want to go. call people and agree to meet them at a meeting. go out for coffee or a meal after the meeting. go out for coffee with someone before a meeting! make sure you're not arriving just before the meeting and leaving right afterwards. get phone list and practice calling people and talking. even if you just call someone to ask how their day is, call them. call them and tell them that you were told to call an alcoholic every day and today is their lucky day. what you're doing is practicing reaching out to people. that way, when you find yourself in a bind with your addiction and you're about to cave, you're more comfortable calling people because you've been practicing. don't exist on the fringes of AA. really get in there and make yourself a part of a group. find a group you really enjoy and make it your homegroup. go out to other meetings but always come home to your homegroup. make real world connections with people.

it's a lot to do and it goes against what your alcoholic voice tells you to do but it's worth it. doing what you want to do and doing what you need to do don't always line up. still, i've found that after i went to AA for a while because i needed to i started going to AA because i wanted to. when your needs and your wants eventually line up, it's a wonderful thing. give it time and i'm sure it will happen for you as well.
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