Giving back
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Join Date: Feb 2020
Posts: 94
Giving back
I have been doing a lot of thinking recently about how fortunate I have been in this last year. My life feels full I think for the first time ever. Have a nice home, beautiful family, overall healthy.
I feel like it is time to start thinking about giving back. I’m full of positive energy and mentally stronger. I moved away from the area where I did treatment which is where I would have offered my time to help others the same as I received. They offered a peer support program at 3 months sober which provided training and would do basic tasks like open the door, sit in group meetings handing out paper work or just having a chat and helping newcomers navigate the facilities. 3 months isn’t long but their plan was to give people structure in a safe environment so it was all previous patients involved.
I was just wondering if there is anyone on here who volunteers in any alcohol program (minus AA, stuck with it for a while and never got on board with the program, how anyone can come and go and generally makes me uneasy the whole 13 step and how at risk I felt many times with unsolicited attention)
also how long did you wait until you felt able and if you found it triggering being around people discussing these issues or if it strengthened your sobriety. I met some wonderful recovery workers and volunteers who I looked up to and want to do my bit now to help others in need if I can. Just looking for some ideas on where and what sort to look for.
The whole experience was the worst but I’m trying to spin it into a positive. I will be starting counselling soon so will ask for feedback about this and if it is felt that it would be safe for me to do so but just trying to get an idea of how anyone else felt about it if they did so.
I feel like it is time to start thinking about giving back. I’m full of positive energy and mentally stronger. I moved away from the area where I did treatment which is where I would have offered my time to help others the same as I received. They offered a peer support program at 3 months sober which provided training and would do basic tasks like open the door, sit in group meetings handing out paper work or just having a chat and helping newcomers navigate the facilities. 3 months isn’t long but their plan was to give people structure in a safe environment so it was all previous patients involved.
I was just wondering if there is anyone on here who volunteers in any alcohol program (minus AA, stuck with it for a while and never got on board with the program, how anyone can come and go and generally makes me uneasy the whole 13 step and how at risk I felt many times with unsolicited attention)
also how long did you wait until you felt able and if you found it triggering being around people discussing these issues or if it strengthened your sobriety. I met some wonderful recovery workers and volunteers who I looked up to and want to do my bit now to help others in need if I can. Just looking for some ideas on where and what sort to look for.
The whole experience was the worst but I’m trying to spin it into a positive. I will be starting counselling soon so will ask for feedback about this and if it is felt that it would be safe for me to do so but just trying to get an idea of how anyone else felt about it if they did so.
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Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 8,637
I found it tremendously valuable to my own recovery to engage in service to others in recovery. Some of this I did in AA meetings. Some of this, I did here on SR. Some of it was volunteering at the local detox as a speaker, some of it was personal outreach to individuals.
I don't really recall how long I waited.... but I think it's less about the time you wait and more about your own inner voice, your own sobriety journey, your own readiness.
Honestly, if you've been in recovery for even a few days - you have something to offer. But always remember that you're there as much to learn as to serve.
I don't really recall how long I waited.... but I think it's less about the time you wait and more about your own inner voice, your own sobriety journey, your own readiness.
Honestly, if you've been in recovery for even a few days - you have something to offer. But always remember that you're there as much to learn as to serve.
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Join Date: Feb 2020
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Originally Posted by FreeOwl 
I found it tremendously valuable to my own recovery to engage in service to others in recovery. Some of this I did in AA meetings. Some of this, I did here on SR. Some of it was volunteering at the local detox as a speaker, some of it was personal outreach to individuals.
I don't really recall how long I waited.... but I think it's less about the time you wait and more about your own inner voice, your own sobriety journey, your own readiness.
Honestly, if you've been in recovery for even a few days - you have something to offer. But always remember that you're there as much to learn as to serve.
I don't really recall how long I waited.... but I think it's less about the time you wait and more about your own inner voice, your own sobriety journey, your own readiness.
Honestly, if you've been in recovery for even a few days - you have something to offer. But always remember that you're there as much to learn as to serve.
I agree about being there to give and to learn yourself. I want to give back but also want to keep my self sober. I enerve want to reach the point where I think just one will be ok. My plan is to keep the memory fresh.
I have been on SR every day, sometimes posting, sometimes just reading, for over a year now and feel like it helps but also need human contact hence looking for in person.
did you find volunteering at a detox center more challenging than service at AA? Or watching people going through it very recently? AA is a real mix of long term and newcomers. I would prefer to volunteer in a structured environment like a detox centre for my own safety. I’m not comfortable with never knowing who is coming into an AA meeting and have had some negative experiences around it.
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Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 8,637
the detox unit at the hospital was a very rewarding environment. Unfortunately, they got rid of it. What was really great there was that the people in detox were absolutely fresh out of hell. They were broken, beaten, bottom of the barrel, rock-bottom of their journey.
It afforded me an environment that gave me vivid, in person, REAL and personal reminders of the awfulness that would await me should I ever choose to go back to drinking.
My presence there, in that space and in their condition, afforded them a ray of hope. I'm relatively young-ish compared with a lot of the 'old timers' in a typical AA meeting. The feedback I regularly got from folks in the detox who often tended to be younger was that seeing someone like me, hearing from me firsthand the experience I was now having in sobriety - right there in their own town - was really powerful for them.
For me, I needed to have role models in early sobriety. I needed people I could look up to and think "I want to be like them". In the detox unit, even when I only had a year of sobriety (they required 6 months minimum) - I was still a shining ray of hope to people who were just coming up from the haze of their latest terrible bender. It was truly rewarding for me and for many of them.
It afforded me an environment that gave me vivid, in person, REAL and personal reminders of the awfulness that would await me should I ever choose to go back to drinking.
My presence there, in that space and in their condition, afforded them a ray of hope. I'm relatively young-ish compared with a lot of the 'old timers' in a typical AA meeting. The feedback I regularly got from folks in the detox who often tended to be younger was that seeing someone like me, hearing from me firsthand the experience I was now having in sobriety - right there in their own town - was really powerful for them.
For me, I needed to have role models in early sobriety. I needed people I could look up to and think "I want to be like them". In the detox unit, even when I only had a year of sobriety (they required 6 months minimum) - I was still a shining ray of hope to people who were just coming up from the haze of their latest terrible bender. It was truly rewarding for me and for many of them.
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Join Date: Aug 2003
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Buttery, I think that is a great idea. I volunteered with a program to support women who were living in poverty and on the street in a major city, so drugs and alcohol was certainly involved. I began this very early in my recovery and continued for about 8 years until the center closed due to funding. To say it changed my life would be an understatement. It was exactly what I needed to help me stop feeling sorry for myself and to feel gratitude. I started out thinking I might have something to offer the women, but it turned out that they gave me far more. I hope you find something that works for you.
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Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: NSW - Australia
Posts: 14,524
I was thinking along same lines as Anna. Also share your misgivings about AA. My experience only, I know it has helped many.
Maybe contact womens refuges? They may appreciate speakers, peer support?
Difficult to contact women's refuges directly because of security concerns (warranted), but if you contacted "Homeless Persons" in your state and put your proposition, it could be a start. Also youth groups in your area?
I gather you live in Australia (me too) because of your username. Well done Buttery.
Maybe contact womens refuges? They may appreciate speakers, peer support?
Difficult to contact women's refuges directly because of security concerns (warranted), but if you contacted "Homeless Persons" in your state and put your proposition, it could be a start. Also youth groups in your area?
I gather you live in Australia (me too) because of your username. Well done Buttery.
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Join Date: Dec 2020
Posts: 28
This is a really interesting and timely topic for me, so thank you for opening the discussion, Buttery.
I have wondered if my recent relapse after more than five years of sobriety was partially due to the fact that I wasn't giving anything back in the recovery world. I'm really, really keen now to give something back and to help others, in the hope that I can help them but also that in helping others it will strengthen my sobriety.
I share your misgivings about AA, too, although after my recent relapse I have considered attending a few meetings again. I suspect I'll be happier helping others via the medium of this forum, however, and I really hope to get involved here.
I have wondered if my recent relapse after more than five years of sobriety was partially due to the fact that I wasn't giving anything back in the recovery world. I'm really, really keen now to give something back and to help others, in the hope that I can help them but also that in helping others it will strengthen my sobriety.
I share your misgivings about AA, too, although after my recent relapse I have considered attending a few meetings again. I suspect I'll be happier helping others via the medium of this forum, however, and I really hope to get involved here.
EnjoyingTheJourney
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 3,847
Hi Buttery, what a great idea to give back by helping others on their road to recovery! 
I'd like to do that too when the time is right in my life. I love hearing what others here have done for service work so thank you for posting!
What I can do right now - I currently donate blood on a regular basis at a local blood bank. Knowing I'm helping others makes me feel better about myself.
I'd like to do that too when the time is right in my life. I love hearing what others here have done for service work so thank you for posting! What I can do right now - I currently donate blood on a regular basis at a local blood bank. Knowing I'm helping others makes me feel better about myself.
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Join Date: Feb 2020
Posts: 94
Originally Posted by Steely
I was thinking along same lines as Anna. Also share your misgivings about AA. My experience only, I know it has helped many.
Maybe contact womens refuges? They may appreciate speakers, peer support?
Difficult to contact women's refuges directly because of security concerns (warranted), but if you contacted "Homeless Persons" in your state and put your proposition, it could be a start. Also youth groups in your area?
I gather you live in Australia (me too) because of your username. Well done Buttery.
Maybe contact womens refuges? They may appreciate speakers, peer support?
Difficult to contact women's refuges directly because of security concerns (warranted), but if you contacted "Homeless Persons" in your state and put your proposition, it could be a start. Also youth groups in your area?
I gather you live in Australia (me too) because of your username. Well done Buttery.
Can I just ask about my username and Australia?Not sure if I’m missing something and it says somewhere where I’m located or if it means something. It’s a play on my own name. You did nail it though, currently in Oz but from abroad.
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Join Date: Feb 2020
Posts: 94
Originally Posted by Dee74
I was wondering that too but Google tells me there’s a Buttery rehab in NSW 
D
D
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Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Australia
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Personally I wouldn’t worry about it. I’ve been around the traps a while and it’s not a connection I made
We’re not too partisan here about which methods people use to get to recovery here anyway , so long as they do
If you are concerned tho, you can always send me a PM with some alternative names and I’ll change your username for you
D
We’re not too partisan here about which methods people use to get to recovery here anyway , so long as they do
If you are concerned tho, you can always send me a PM with some alternative names and I’ll change your username for you
D
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2020
Posts: 94
Originally Posted by Dee74
Personally I wouldn’t worry about it. I’ve been around the traps a while and it’s not a connection I made
We’re not too partisan here about which methods people use to get to recovery here anyway , so long as they do
If you are concerned tho, you can always send me a PM with some alternative names and I’ll change your username for you
D
We’re not too partisan here about which methods people use to get to recovery here anyway , so long as they do
If you are concerned tho, you can always send me a PM with some alternative names and I’ll change your username for you
D
Maybe the the Buttery rehab should thank me for the free advertisement I am potentially providing?😂
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