Does anyone just use online recovery as their program?
Trudging the Road
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: western New York, USA
Posts: 117
Does anyone just use online recovery as their program?
Does anyone here just use online resources (online meetings, or discussion forums like SR) as one part of the recovery program, and never go to face-to-face meetings?
I'm just wondering if anyone has managed to maintain a healthy, worthwhile, sustained sobriety, but just digitally.
I'm just wondering if anyone has managed to maintain a healthy, worthwhile, sustained sobriety, but just digitally.
Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 211,429
I have 
It's not the easiest way - you need to be ultra committed to change and to recovery - but it's certainly possible
If anyone was to keep relapsing tho I have no hesitation in suggesting other approaches. We share a common problem but we're all essentially different and have different ways of finding meaning.
D
It's not the easiest way - you need to be ultra committed to change and to recovery - but it's certainly possible
If anyone was to keep relapsing tho I have no hesitation in suggesting other approaches. We share a common problem but we're all essentially different and have different ways of finding meaning.
D
Trudging the Road
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: western New York, USA
Posts: 117
I've been sober for over 12 years (22 May 2002) and attended AA meetings for the first 2, then stopped for over 9 years. My sobriety was never really threatened, life threw stuff at me and I dealt with it without needing a drink. I returned to AA meetings this past February, and go once a week.
I get stuff out of meetings, add stuff when my ES&H are relevant. But mostly I wonder why I bother. I get just as much from online recovery as I do F2F (actually a lot more, really). I am way more comfortable writing on a computer than speaking to others in a group setting. I am a little introverted. People are OK, but preferably in small doses. ;-)
I get stuff out of meetings, add stuff when my ES&H are relevant. But mostly I wonder why I bother. I get just as much from online recovery as I do F2F (actually a lot more, really). I am way more comfortable writing on a computer than speaking to others in a group setting. I am a little introverted. People are OK, but preferably in small doses. ;-)
Member
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: in the city by the bay
Posts: 605
I've only been using SR. I'm at 7 weeks tomorrow. I have 3 kids and the first week I tried to arrange going to an AA meeting but my husband's schedule was crazy and he wasn't able to watch the kids and they weren't in school at the time. Now the craving for booze is gone. I am able to walk right passed booze in stores and I never think about buying it. But in the beginning it was hard.
Trudging the Road
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: western New York, USA
Posts: 117
Originally Posted by Dee74 
I have
It's not the easiest way - you need to be ultra committed to change and to recovery - but it's certainly possible
If anyone was to keep relapsing tho I have no hesitation in suggesting other approaches. We share a common problem but we're all essentially different and have different ways of finding meaning.
D
It's not the easiest way - you need to be ultra committed to change and to recovery - but it's certainly possible
If anyone was to keep relapsing tho I have no hesitation in suggesting other approaches. We share a common problem but we're all essentially different and have different ways of finding meaning.
D
Only one relapse, and that was 12 years ago, leading to my sobriety date (I had only been sober 3 1/2 months at that point).
Trudging the Road
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: western New York, USA
Posts: 117
I had returned to F2F meetings as I felt I had a "need to," now I'm wondering if I overreacted. I don't see a huge added benefit. Sometimes it's an evening lost that could have been better spent at home with my wife and cats.
I understand "giving back" and "being there" so that AA survives for the next generation. But I've given back, and feel resentful when people say meeting attendance is a "must" to show gratitude. (I hate being guilt-tripped.) But quite often, local AA meetings have been more of an annoyance than a blessing.
Or maybe I should just suck it up and just go, it's only once a week. Seems like I'm looking for an excuse to stop attendance (even tho I survived rather well without them for those years).
I understand "giving back" and "being there" so that AA survives for the next generation. But I've given back, and feel resentful when people say meeting attendance is a "must" to show gratitude. (I hate being guilt-tripped.) But quite often, local AA meetings have been more of an annoyance than a blessing.
Or maybe I should just suck it up and just go, it's only once a week. Seems like I'm looking for an excuse to stop attendance (even tho I survived rather well without them for those years).
Member
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: U.S.A.
Posts: 74
I never had any interest in attending meetings. I am a very private person and would never share in an AA type meeting setting. I was on day 2 or 3 when I found SR. It's been a great help this past month.
Sober since 10th April 2012
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Perth, Western Australia
Posts: 6,047
I'm just an SR girl. I do talk to my doctor occasionally, so he will praise me lol, but other than that I find SR enough.
If I was struggling I'd certainly find a group, even though I have some reservations about the HP thing.
If I was struggling I'd certainly find a group, even though I have some reservations about the HP thing.
Self recovered Self discovered
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Toronto Canada
Posts: 5,148
When I quit drinking, I looked into everything I could including AA, local mental health and addiction resources, books from the library and big box store, and online. I read that AA book and went to a few meetings but soon decided that approach was not for me. AA has become an essential aspect of life for some, but most quit and stay quit without it, using other resources as I did. And I would certainly say that I have a healthy, worthwhile and sustained sobriety. I am just too busy for that other stuff.
Still I rise.
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Oh Canada!
Posts: 1,121
Originally Posted by sobercatholic
Does anyone here just use online resources (online meetings, or discussion forums like SR) as one part of the recovery program, and never go to face-to-face meetings?
I'm just wondering if anyone has managed to maintain a healthy, worthwhile, sustained sobriety, but just digitally.
I'm just wondering if anyone has managed to maintain a healthy, worthwhile, sustained sobriety, but just digitally.
Guest
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Sydney Australia
Posts: 4,225
SR for me too, but I also read daily on recovery, whether it be AVRT, or Women for Sobriety, or journal articles on addiction etc.
I think everyone interacts differently. AA was started 78 years ago, and we have different ways of communicating that bring meaning to us now - rightly or wrongly. We also have a wealth of info at our fingertips on the net, unlike back then.
I would still like face to face contact at times. Maybe will try an AA meeting one day.
I think everyone interacts differently. AA was started 78 years ago, and we have different ways of communicating that bring meaning to us now - rightly or wrongly. We also have a wealth of info at our fingertips on the net, unlike back then.
I would still like face to face contact at times. Maybe will try an AA meeting one day.
Member
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Colorado
Posts: 3,474
Ditto That
For me, pretty much the reasons given above. I'd already toughed it through the first ~2 months before I stumbled across SR. Here, I can sort through and then hone in on Topics/POVs of interest. There's entire Forum areas I haven't gotten around to looking at yet.
I don't have the patience for Meetings, and we stay on the move between 3 Houses. This would limit me making meaningful Relationships in any given Town. I could drop in, I realize, if desperate. But, I'm not.
I'm very content with my Recovery, and would not do well explaining to someone why I've haven't done 'Step XYZ'.
I get all sorts of 'Knowledge Nuggets' here, almost daily. One such past revelation was that those of us prone to just up and quit Drinking typically aren't here on Forums. Those Folks are just out and about, living Sober. This skews the [under] representation of such Folks here.
I'de have to have the sense of missing something to turn to Meetings. There is no such sensation. Frankly, I'm having a blast in Life right now!
I don't have the patience for Meetings, and we stay on the move between 3 Houses. This would limit me making meaningful Relationships in any given Town. I could drop in, I realize, if desperate. But, I'm not.
I'm very content with my Recovery, and would not do well explaining to someone why I've haven't done 'Step XYZ'.
I get all sorts of 'Knowledge Nuggets' here, almost daily. One such past revelation was that those of us prone to just up and quit Drinking typically aren't here on Forums. Those Folks are just out and about, living Sober. This skews the [under] representation of such Folks here.
I'de have to have the sense of missing something to turn to Meetings. There is no such sensation. Frankly, I'm having a blast in Life right now!
Trudging the Road
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: western New York, USA
Posts: 117
I think one issue I have is that elusive feeling of "Fellowship;" I never had it. For all the talk you hear in AA meetings and in their literature about belonging to a new family or finding a network of friendships, I never felt like I belonged to any "Fellowship." And not for without trying. I've done service work for my original Home Group (where I sobered up) in the form of being the coffee maker. I showed up early, stayed late, even when I wasn't making coffee, hung around little gatherings of other members and joined in discussions, but never went beyond that to seeing these people away from meetings, yakking on the phone and such. And it's not as if I was being annoying, like "forcing" myself on people; I'm fairly modest and unprepossessing.
When I returned to AA meetings earlier this year, I joined a men's-only group and thought that might be an improvement. You have a "Fellowship" and on top of that a "brotherhood" of like-minded guys. It seemed promising at first, but after several months, I'm still on the outside fringes. People say "Hi, how ya doin'?" and such, a few brief additional words, and then they move on to the people they've known for years. I'm not from around this area of the state, and this area is not particularly known as a part of the USA that people move to, but rather, they move away from. So perhaps I'm an odd one for that. Everyone got drunk here, messed up here, and sobered up here. They are "here," here.
Oh, well, whatever. I'll trudge on, somehow. I may try a meeting tonight that I've never been to. Just out of curiosity and it's also a bit more convenient time-wise.
When I returned to AA meetings earlier this year, I joined a men's-only group and thought that might be an improvement. You have a "Fellowship" and on top of that a "brotherhood" of like-minded guys. It seemed promising at first, but after several months, I'm still on the outside fringes. People say "Hi, how ya doin'?" and such, a few brief additional words, and then they move on to the people they've known for years. I'm not from around this area of the state, and this area is not particularly known as a part of the USA that people move to, but rather, they move away from. So perhaps I'm an odd one for that. Everyone got drunk here, messed up here, and sobered up here. They are "here," here.
Oh, well, whatever. I'll trudge on, somehow. I may try a meeting tonight that I've never been to. Just out of curiosity and it's also a bit more convenient time-wise.
Member
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Miami, FL
Posts: 1,701
Originally Posted by sobercatholic
I think one issue I have is that elusive feeling of "Fellowship;" I never had it. For all the talk you hear in AA meetings and in their literature about belonging to a new family or finding a network of friendships, I never felt like I belonged to any "Fellowship." And not for without trying. I've done service work for my original Home Group (where I sobered up) in the form of being the coffee maker. I showed up early, stayed late, even when I wasn't making coffee, hung around little gatherings of other members and joined in discussions, but never went beyond that to seeing these people away from meetings, yakking on the phone and such. And it's not as if I was being annoying, like "forcing" myself on people; I'm fairly modest and unprepossessing.
When I returned to AA meetings earlier this year, I joined a men's-only group and thought that might be an improvement. You have a "Fellowship" and on top of that a "brotherhood" of like-minded guys. It seemed promising at first, but after several months, I'm still on the outside fringes. People say "Hi, how ya doin'?" and such, a few brief additional words, and then they move on to the people they've known for years. I'm not from around this area of the state, and this area is not particularly known as a part of the USA that people move to, but rather, they move away from. So perhaps I'm an odd one for that. Everyone got drunk here, messed up here, and sobered up here. They are "here," here.
Oh, well, whatever. I'll trudge on, somehow. I may try a meeting tonight that I've never been to. Just out of curiosity and it's also a bit more convenient time-wise.
When I returned to AA meetings earlier this year, I joined a men's-only group and thought that might be an improvement. You have a "Fellowship" and on top of that a "brotherhood" of like-minded guys. It seemed promising at first, but after several months, I'm still on the outside fringes. People say "Hi, how ya doin'?" and such, a few brief additional words, and then they move on to the people they've known for years. I'm not from around this area of the state, and this area is not particularly known as a part of the USA that people move to, but rather, they move away from. So perhaps I'm an odd one for that. Everyone got drunk here, messed up here, and sobered up here. They are "here," here.
Oh, well, whatever. I'll trudge on, somehow. I may try a meeting tonight that I've never been to. Just out of curiosity and it's also a bit more convenient time-wise.
After many years of trying 12-step recovery I found a new therapist. Since then, therapy and SR have done it for me.
Do your best
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 67,047
I use a mixture of things I need to be open minded in my sobriety if I was to turn down advice or think there is only 1 way I'd be a fool
So yeah pretty much anything I take inspiration from and I like it like that the good the bad the ugly a broad range of opinion helps me to make me see my choice clearer
Love the forum
So yeah pretty much anything I take inspiration from and I like it like that the good the bad the ugly a broad range of opinion helps me to make me see my choice clearer
Love the forum
voices ca**y
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: St. Paul Minnesota
Posts: 4,359
I have just used SR. I was 5 weeks in and lurking on here I felt a kindred just reading posts. I thought I might need face2face accountability but SR has proven to be enough. I don't think I could have been as honest if I wasn't behind a screen.
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