Summerpeach-
I have been in Al-Anon a little over three years and my relationship with recovery though deepening and internalizing, it is bringing changes in how I attend.
There are five meetings in the town I live in. I attended four of them regularly for the first two years of recovery. I went to some in neighboring towns too.
I also have a great therapist and do other recovery pieces such as body work etc. Those have been in place a long, long time.
Over the last six months I have been sporadically attending meetings (going once a week or so, but rotating through the group of meetings).....
I don't look at it as a "failure" of the program, or my recovery, just that it is playing a different role in my life.
I have put some parameters on myself for this though....if I am feeling disconnected to myself, the world or I am behaving in an isolating way (which i have a tendency to do) then I need to make a meeting in the next 24hrs. I also work in healthcare and though I do not have active addiction in my life anymore if the codie demon starts coming out at work (attempting to fix, control etc) then the same rule applies. That is my rule for myself to keep my recovery on track. I also try to attend an extra meeting if my therapist is gone etc.
I plan on my recovery being lifelong....it has to be because it is a big part of my life.
That does not mean it needs to look the same...in the 13 years I have been working on it it has varied considerably. To me it is important that it has always been there....not that I box it in to looking one way.