12 step call?
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Indiana
Posts: 706
12 step call?
Any fellow AA's out there ever go on a 12 step call?
I was at a meeting earlier and somebody brought up the 12 step call, and I was amazed at how few people had ever done one, or even knew what it was.. Maybe it's just my area, but probably not, I tend to find that AA is largely the same in different geographical areas, just different faces.
I'd like to hear some E-S-&-H about the 12 step call, as I'd like to have the opportunity to start doing them. Where do you begin? Is it passive, nowadays?
I'll shut up and listen, thanks!
Zube
I was at a meeting earlier and somebody brought up the 12 step call, and I was amazed at how few people had ever done one, or even knew what it was.. Maybe it's just my area, but probably not, I tend to find that AA is largely the same in different geographical areas, just different faces.
I'd like to hear some E-S-&-H about the 12 step call, as I'd like to have the opportunity to start doing them. Where do you begin? Is it passive, nowadays?
I'll shut up and listen, thanks!
Zube
Member
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Starting over all over again
Posts: 4,426
Over the years I've been to lots of 12 step calls. I started out in a really hard-core group and you _did_ go on 12 step calls and nobody ever asked whether I _wanted_ to.
I'm glad they didn't ask, or I would have missed out on some powerful lessons in recovery.
My sponsor at the time.... in fact... now that you guys brought up the topic, _all_ my sponsors have been very active in that way. They're on the hotline, so I get called in the middle of the night "Hey, I'll be there in 15 minutes, be ready".
Sure enough, here comes my sponsor with a couple other of his sponsees and off we go. By the way, the general suggestion is _never_ go on your own, and always take somebody who's got a _lot_ of experience in this type of work.
Most of the time we get there and the guy wants to know if we'll take him to a meeting, but he's not feeling good and he could really use a couple bucks and could we stop at a liquor store on the way to the meeting so he doesn't go into withdawls?
No, our primary purpose is _not_ loaning money, that's called a bank. If he is going into withdrawls we'll call 911, and if he is well enough to go to the liquour store he can call us from there if he still wants a ride.
Each time I did that I receive a solid reminder of who I what I could return to if I quit working my program.
Once in a while we'd get something more serious. One guy I remember _was_ in DT's when we got there. Called 911, stuck around till the paramedics carted him away. Went to see him at the hospital the next day and he had died.
Another time it was my landlady. She was way drunk, walked into my apartment with a gun to her head and wanted me to give her a reason not to kill herself. Five minutes later the cops show up, her son had called them. Took a couple hours but the booze and whatever pills she'd taken caught up with her and she gave me the gun. I was actually more afraid of the cops blowing us both away.
Next morning I brought some ladies to the hospital to see her. Last i heard, she had something like 20 years, and she didn't remember a _thing_ of that night. I wish the cops had let me keep the gun
and on and on. Now that you got me thinking I keep remembering people. There was the one blond guy who _did_ pull the trigger, and another guy who didn't but died of an OD some months later.
Another time it was a young guy, crazy in love with a hottie who was just starting out in the movie biz. My ex is a retired model, some friend of a friend called her and I got to go see this guy. We talked for hours, and I realized his life was _exactly_ the way mine was before I got into recovery. It's like I had walked into a time machine and had the opportunity to see just how sad and sick I was.
Another kind of 12 step call my sponsor got me into was volunteering at one of the detox centers. Graveyard shift. I would look after the terminal cases so the nurses could have a breather and a little more time for peeps who were going to make it. Three or four guys a week. Bathe them, clean up their bed, change their sheets, talk to them when they were conscious. Not a single one made it more than a week or two. They died hard, too, as their organs shut down.
The hardest thing to watch was the few who still had familes. Some of them had parents, some had kids, or a wife that still loved them.
What 12 step calls do for me is they give me a "crystal ball" where I can "see my future". If I forget where I came from, this is where I will go to. I don't know about you guys, but I like the sober life I have now, I don't want what those drunks had.
Mike
I'm glad they didn't ask, or I would have missed out on some powerful lessons in recovery.
My sponsor at the time.... in fact... now that you guys brought up the topic, _all_ my sponsors have been very active in that way. They're on the hotline, so I get called in the middle of the night "Hey, I'll be there in 15 minutes, be ready".
Sure enough, here comes my sponsor with a couple other of his sponsees and off we go. By the way, the general suggestion is _never_ go on your own, and always take somebody who's got a _lot_ of experience in this type of work.
Most of the time we get there and the guy wants to know if we'll take him to a meeting, but he's not feeling good and he could really use a couple bucks and could we stop at a liquor store on the way to the meeting so he doesn't go into withdawls?
No, our primary purpose is _not_ loaning money, that's called a bank. If he is going into withdrawls we'll call 911, and if he is well enough to go to the liquour store he can call us from there if he still wants a ride.
Each time I did that I receive a solid reminder of who I what I could return to if I quit working my program.
Once in a while we'd get something more serious. One guy I remember _was_ in DT's when we got there. Called 911, stuck around till the paramedics carted him away. Went to see him at the hospital the next day and he had died.
Another time it was my landlady. She was way drunk, walked into my apartment with a gun to her head and wanted me to give her a reason not to kill herself. Five minutes later the cops show up, her son had called them. Took a couple hours but the booze and whatever pills she'd taken caught up with her and she gave me the gun. I was actually more afraid of the cops blowing us both away.
Next morning I brought some ladies to the hospital to see her. Last i heard, she had something like 20 years, and she didn't remember a _thing_ of that night. I wish the cops had let me keep the gun
and on and on. Now that you got me thinking I keep remembering people. There was the one blond guy who _did_ pull the trigger, and another guy who didn't but died of an OD some months later.
Another time it was a young guy, crazy in love with a hottie who was just starting out in the movie biz. My ex is a retired model, some friend of a friend called her and I got to go see this guy. We talked for hours, and I realized his life was _exactly_ the way mine was before I got into recovery. It's like I had walked into a time machine and had the opportunity to see just how sad and sick I was.
Another kind of 12 step call my sponsor got me into was volunteering at one of the detox centers. Graveyard shift. I would look after the terminal cases so the nurses could have a breather and a little more time for peeps who were going to make it. Three or four guys a week. Bathe them, clean up their bed, change their sheets, talk to them when they were conscious. Not a single one made it more than a week or two. They died hard, too, as their organs shut down.
The hardest thing to watch was the few who still had familes. Some of them had parents, some had kids, or a wife that still loved them.
What 12 step calls do for me is they give me a "crystal ball" where I can "see my future". If I forget where I came from, this is where I will go to. I don't know about you guys, but I like the sober life I have now, I don't want what those drunks had.
Mike
~sb
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: MD
Posts: 15,967
our hotline people stick close to the phone, but we have a Do Call List for those who go on the actual calls to help people. Some need people to come and talk and maybe get to a meeting, others need help getting to detox.....
I used to go on lots of 12 step calls years ago....never go alone!
I used to go on lots of 12 step calls years ago....never go alone!
Member
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Posts: 367
With the detox industry being as common as it is and state funded healthcare picking up almost everyone's tab who wants to go, you really don't get 12th step calls like they did in the old days.
I've had the opportunity to go on a few. Mostly just with someone that someone else knows that's in the hospital, or just holed up in their home. I've got called off a call list before. In a nutshell, the more people you know, that know you, the better odds you'll get to tag along when one comes up.
If the opportunity comes up, the first peice of advice they always gave is DON'T GO ALONE.
Always very rewarding when I go into it with the realization I'm one budweiser away from being in that condition myself.
I've had the opportunity to go on a few. Mostly just with someone that someone else knows that's in the hospital, or just holed up in their home. I've got called off a call list before. In a nutshell, the more people you know, that know you, the better odds you'll get to tag along when one comes up.
If the opportunity comes up, the first peice of advice they always gave is DON'T GO ALONE.
Always very rewarding when I go into it with the realization I'm one budweiser away from being in that condition myself.
AA member
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: United Kingdom.
Posts: 3,007
I have been on 12step calls.I never go alone.
In my intergroup area everyone doing telephone service has a list of 12 steppers,the newcomer is always offered a 12 step call.I know other areas operate differently.
The telephone shifts are not as busy as they used to be.The information is available on the AA website nowadays.
Zube I dont know about your area,here you can be on the 12step list when you have 12 months sobriety,you can ask your group GSR.
In my intergroup area everyone doing telephone service has a list of 12 steppers,the newcomer is always offered a 12 step call.I know other areas operate differently.
The telephone shifts are not as busy as they used to be.The information is available on the AA website nowadays.
Zube I dont know about your area,here you can be on the 12step list when you have 12 months sobriety,you can ask your group GSR.
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Indiana
Posts: 706
Originally Posted by heath480 
Zube I dont know about your area,here you can be on the 12step list when you have 12 months sobriety,you can ask your group GSR.
I didn't know that. Thanks, Heath!
Zube
12 Step Recovered Alcoholic
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 6,613
I am active in 12 step work and find it very rewarding. I am not sure if it is possible to have all the benefits of sobriety without it. Afterall our program works on the basis that in order to keep it you have to give it away. I often go alone because there is no one available at short notice and it causes me no problems because the 10th step promises have taken effect in me. From a personal safety point of view though, I try to be aware of any potential risks.
I have been on dramatic calls and ho-hum calls, sometimes I have had to call the cops, one time I had the privilage of carrying the message to a dying man. The medical staff told me later that they noticed a huge change for the better in the man's emotional/spiritual state, so that made it very rewarding.
With so called "miracle drugs' 12 stepping has become more risky at times. The problem is around the prospect suddenly stopping medication which actually requires a gradual detox over time under a doctor's supervision. This guy had been discharged from and expensive treatment centre on meds, picked up when he was half way home and the first thing he did was throw his meds away. A few days off the meds and drinking and you have a pretty sick puppy. By the time he arrived in my town he had sliced the sole of one foot kicking out the window of a hotel, and when I got to his room in the motel there was blood up the walls where he had cut his wrists. He had to be locked up. BTW the meds weren't for serious mental illness, they were for "depression" of the type described in the big book as "waves of resentment and self pity", just a kind doctor trying to relieve some discomfort.
I was 12 stepped myself. in the course of an afternoon I was able to find out what was wrong with me, and the man I saw won my entire confidence that there was a solution.
He told me how the meetings worked, and how to behave, and actually took me to my first few meetings. I never would have got there otherwise.
One of the things he did was qualify me as a real alcoholic, see page 92, that I really needed to be in AA. We often forget that sobriety, freedom from alcohol, through the teaching and practice of the 12 steps is the sole purpose of an AA group. We have repeatedly tried other things and always failed. We cannot offer AA membership to non-alcoholics.
I have been on dramatic calls and ho-hum calls, sometimes I have had to call the cops, one time I had the privilage of carrying the message to a dying man. The medical staff told me later that they noticed a huge change for the better in the man's emotional/spiritual state, so that made it very rewarding.
With so called "miracle drugs' 12 stepping has become more risky at times. The problem is around the prospect suddenly stopping medication which actually requires a gradual detox over time under a doctor's supervision. This guy had been discharged from and expensive treatment centre on meds, picked up when he was half way home and the first thing he did was throw his meds away. A few days off the meds and drinking and you have a pretty sick puppy. By the time he arrived in my town he had sliced the sole of one foot kicking out the window of a hotel, and when I got to his room in the motel there was blood up the walls where he had cut his wrists. He had to be locked up. BTW the meds weren't for serious mental illness, they were for "depression" of the type described in the big book as "waves of resentment and self pity", just a kind doctor trying to relieve some discomfort.
I was 12 stepped myself. in the course of an afternoon I was able to find out what was wrong with me, and the man I saw won my entire confidence that there was a solution.
He told me how the meetings worked, and how to behave, and actually took me to my first few meetings. I never would have got there otherwise.
One of the things he did was qualify me as a real alcoholic, see page 92, that I really needed to be in AA. We often forget that sobriety, freedom from alcohol, through the teaching and practice of the 12 steps is the sole purpose of an AA group. We have repeatedly tried other things and always failed. We cannot offer AA membership to non-alcoholics.
Member
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Cleveland Ohio
Posts: 133
Been on at least 100, it's a dying art that's for sure.Every AA should get at least a couple under their belt. Ten 12th step call will teach you more that 100 discussion meetings. It's called getting up front, close & personal with the disease of alcoholism.Some people will say their's not much 12th step work around anymore, I suggest they trade cell phones with me for 1 week and then see what they say. Anywhere theirs drunks, their 12 step work. But a word of caution, 2 years ago I had some guy chase me with a machet'e for about 5 houses down the street. NOBODY will ever realize the full benefits of sobriety without them
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