slowracer

I'm in Orange County and figured it would be easier to find meetings.

Some of the websites aren't very friendly

MythOfSisyphus

I think you'll find us friendly, slowracer! It's good to have you with us. I don't know about the ones with meetings. For me AVRT and SR have worked well.

Dee74

What programmes are you looking at slowracer?

D

slowracer

Ah, so it's not a local group based thing. I see. I need to read more!

slowracer

sos

Dee74

I'm in Australia so I have no local knowledge

If there's no help on this page
States

maybe call or email the main SOS office?

D

fini

nono, this place is all over the globe.

welcome, slowracer.

BobArctor

Aside from SOS, there is LifeRing and SMART. Where I am, there are no SOS meetings. All I could see that is available is an email list and I was asked to leave because I simply mentioned LifeRing. But, things change and other people's experience can be different.

slowracer

Interesting. I think face to face meetings are important in recovery. That is one of the strong points of AA in my opinion. I'll have to email a few of the groups to see how to get involved....

You would think they'd be a bit more accessible lol.

MythOfSisyphus

Everyone is different so different approaches are good. AVRT (you can Google it, I am not allowed to link it) specifically tells you not to go to any meetings! The reasons are explained in the 'crash course' you can do for free. AVRT has been great for me but other folks might prefer a different method.

No matter how you go about it you are wise to stop! Deciding you have to quit is the biggest step IMO. Once you're ready to stop there's hope.

BobArctor

Yeah. You don't have to email the groups you can search for them, they have web pages.

JeffreyAK

LifeRing grew out of SOS in the '90's, and with some old-timers there's still bad blood. Freestyle Recovery grew out of LifeRing, SMART grew out of Rational Recovery, so there's some history in the secular (read: not AA) groups. In my experience, most people in all these groups don't care about the history, but you'll hear it now and then from people who have been around a long time.

PennyLane76

Hi Slow! I'm in San Diego and found several SMART meetings, I looked at SOS at one point and had trouble finding anything.

zerothehero

Refuge Recovery is based out of LA. Buddhist/mindfulness/godless recovery group: Home | A BUDDHIST PATH TO RECOVERING FROM ADDICTION

SoberJimmy

If you're interested in learning about SMART, just Google "SMART Recovery" and there's an official online site. You can even participate in online meetings, which are very different from AA meetings. It's more of a brainstorming session where cross talk is not only allowed, but encouraged.. and there are no "chairs", there are only facilitators who are actually trained in SMART Recovery. It's fantastic, you should give it a test run if you think you might be interested.

jazzfish

It would be interesting to read a history of how all these California based groups originated and then split off into new entities. I imagine it would be quite a dramatic soap opera.

freestylebob

Buddhism is religion to me, Refuge Recovery is not even a blimp on the recovery programs,

Slowracer you have a Lifering meeting in Costa Mesa, SOS seems to just have a few active meetings in Hollyweird and have lost their way imo, if you want choice in recovery then get out and start a meeting, it just may be the missing link in staying stopped

JeffreyAK

Actually there is quite a bit of drama. People get really passionate about this stuff, maybe sometimes too passionate.

JeffreyAK

Yo Bob!

fini

ja, ditto