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Old 04-24-2016, 02:50 PM
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Gonzoso
Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Hawley PA
Posts: 23
Not sure how to deal with sponsor?

So I'm a 30 year old alcoholic with 7 months sobriety in AA. I kind of have my stuff together and am doing okay with work, am buying a house etc. I have a BS in Env. Science and am very outdoorsy.

So a few months in this old guy at the meetings asked me to be his sponsee. Being new I was agreeable and agreed to it.

He then had me coming over to his house once a week for an hour or two or three sometimes. It is a 45 minute drive there so to drive there for an hour is almost a 3 hour commitment.

Here's my issue with him:
1. He belongs to a group which formed a 12 Step commune or whatever where they had property and basically ran a 12 steps as a way of religion or whatever for a long time until they went broke. I think the still have a church and he does mass there.
2. He's 74 and has dedicated his entire life to sobriety. He has as much as told me he only ever made enough to get by so he could dedicate his life to sobriety and has little or no retirement or a house or anything. This isn't really what I want.
3. He has told me on numerous occasions he feels premarital sex is wrong and marital sex should only be for procreation. Seriously not happening with me dude. I've been with the same girl for over a year but we are not becoming "inactive".
4. He is on a completely different page than me. He has no idea about anything scientific at all and is into all sorts of weird spiritual healing things. While speaking at a meeting has claimed to have spiritually and herbally cured cancer, herpes, etc.
5. He has disclosed other members whom he sponsors personal information to me, so I assume he discloses mine to them.
6. I don't really want what he has. He seems like a crazy old man who has dedicated his entire life to AA and is kind of culty. While I accept I'm an alcoholic I don't want that. I want a succesful working life and a healthy happy loving sexually active relationship with my partner.
7. He has expressed condemnation for homosexuals etc and we disagree fundamentally on many things.
8. He compromised my anonymity to his landlord when she brought him something over, he introduced me as "this is Gonzo, he's an AA". While I'm sure she knows him I think I have the right to choose who I disclose to.
9. He treats any behavior like an addiction. Like if you're too fat you need Overeaters anonymous or if you like sex you're sex addicted etc.

There are some other issues, but I think it was good to write it all out. We just don't mesh and he makes me uncomfortable. I went along with it for a while and took it as practicing tolerance but now I really don't want to be committing 3 hours a week to go talk to this guy.

I'm not sure what to do or how to go about going our separate ways? I mean I'm not going to a meeting right now because I know he'll be there and that's bad for my recovery, but he has called me out loudly in meetings which I also don't like. I kind of decided today after a lot of thought that I should "break up" with him but don't know how to do it. I'd like to handle this head on but delicately as he is a nice old guy, just a little loony. Some of his advice for work issues would have seriously compromised my position at work and I can't take him seriously, I don't see the point of having a sponsor I can't take seriously.
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