lessgravity

What's the diff?

I post here very infrequently, no real reason why not. Was trying to decide what the difference was.

Any thoughts?

Anyhow grateful for SR today, and all of us here.

Andante

I guess I think of the Newcomer's Forum as being mainly focused on, well, newcomers -- folks who are confused and struggling in the early days of sobriety. A safe place where they can get a warm welcome as well as simple and direct expressions of experience, strength, and hope to help them get them started on what can be, after all, an awfully steep learning curve.

I think of the Alcoholism Forum as being more of a place where folks who have accumulated a bit of experience and abstinence can discuss the finer points of alcoholism and recovery.

Dee74

A lot of people post in both...but Alcoholism forum gets a lot of posts from folks who don't identify with the tag Newcomer, for whatever reason.

There may have been a distinct difference once but apart from what I said above I don't see any big differences now.

D

Stayingsassy

Interesting. Yep I've tried to get sober so many times I did not feel like a newcomer, yet technically I was, though I was old hat at the quitting alcohol business. Or should I say relapse business?

Not anymore. My relapses are through.

Gottalife

Newcomers seems to be quite a mixed bag. Quite a few are new to recovery, but many also have problems other than alcohol to deal with, so I guess the alcoholism forum might not be a useful as some of the others. There also seem to be a good number of longer term problem drinker members who seem settled there amongst the newbies.

The alcoholism forum seems more focussed on alcoholism, as you might expect, and perhaps a little more solution focussed.

suki44883

The Newcomers Forum is meant to be a very welcoming and safe place for those who are new to recovery. We don't want to scare anyone off, so the rules there are a little more strict than in the Alcoholism forum.

Here in the Alcoholism forum, things are a little more lax and conducive to challenging each other (to a degree) when we know we're hearing BS. That's my way of thinking about the differences.

FBL

The Newcomers forum seems to go at a lot faster pace. We're a little more laid back over here.

SnazzyDresser

We're the wily old comers, the pickled cucumbers!

ScottFromWI

All are welcome here, I'd say the comments so far are spot on. Newcomers is kind of the place for any/all questions. Alcoholism tends to focus more specifically on Alcohol addiction - remember that there are also substance abuse subforums, friends and family, etc.