aa Spoken Here Community Group
Fellowship Where you can share your thoughts, feelings, stories and get support to gain and continue sobriety.
Hi all,
My sponsor and I both do some service called home responder which is where the central telephone office in London passes calls out to someone in the callers local area and a 12step call is then arranged for them.
I know this works in different ways in different places but the principle is basically the same, putting callers to AA helplines in touch with people in their local area who can help them.
We have both noticed, having been both home responders and doing 12 step calls for quite a long time, that the number of new people calling the telephone helplines is deceasing by quite a big amount as time goes by. A year or so ago I would get maybe 3 or 4 calls a week in my 4 hour shift, my sponsor the same. Now we are lucky if we get one a month between us.
Lots of people have been thinking about this and one of the reasons cited seems to be the internet. People can find details of AA and turn up at meetings without calling the helplines. And of course there are many alcoholics who find help through groups like this and hopefully end up in AA.
Therefore in a sense those of us here are the first contact that many people have with AA. I was wondering what people thought our responsibility for the 12 stepping process for these people is or isnt?
I was taught to 12 step according to the instructions in the big book - briefly - talk and get identification around the problem before talking about the solution. Talk about phenomenon of craving, mental obsession spiritual malady and help someone to see their powerlessness before introducing them to the solution, a higher power. On the basis that they are more likely to understand the solution if they understand the problem.
However I see on here all the time (not particularly this group I have to say) new people posting a tiny bit of their experience and the replies they get saying go to an AA meeting. Without finding out any more information about the person or sharing any information about the solution and what AA is about they just jump straight in with go to AA.
I try not to do that as I think that as part of a potential 1st contact I have a responsibilty to try and fulfill at least some of the purpose of 12th stepping. What do others think?
Btw I was also taught not to expect meetings to do the job of 12th stepping - it should be done by the sober alcoholic - not by expecting the newcomer to grasp everything from sitting in meetings.
My sponsor and I both do some service called home responder which is where the central telephone office in London passes calls out to someone in the callers local area and a 12step call is then arranged for them.
I know this works in different ways in different places but the principle is basically the same, putting callers to AA helplines in touch with people in their local area who can help them.
We have both noticed, having been both home responders and doing 12 step calls for quite a long time, that the number of new people calling the telephone helplines is deceasing by quite a big amount as time goes by. A year or so ago I would get maybe 3 or 4 calls a week in my 4 hour shift, my sponsor the same. Now we are lucky if we get one a month between us.
Lots of people have been thinking about this and one of the reasons cited seems to be the internet. People can find details of AA and turn up at meetings without calling the helplines. And of course there are many alcoholics who find help through groups like this and hopefully end up in AA.
Therefore in a sense those of us here are the first contact that many people have with AA. I was wondering what people thought our responsibility for the 12 stepping process for these people is or isnt?
I was taught to 12 step according to the instructions in the big book - briefly - talk and get identification around the problem before talking about the solution. Talk about phenomenon of craving, mental obsession spiritual malady and help someone to see their powerlessness before introducing them to the solution, a higher power. On the basis that they are more likely to understand the solution if they understand the problem.
However I see on here all the time (not particularly this group I have to say) new people posting a tiny bit of their experience and the replies they get saying go to an AA meeting. Without finding out any more information about the person or sharing any information about the solution and what AA is about they just jump straight in with go to AA.
I try not to do that as I think that as part of a potential 1st contact I have a responsibilty to try and fulfill at least some of the purpose of 12th stepping. What do others think?
Btw I was also taught not to expect meetings to do the job of 12th stepping - it should be done by the sober alcoholic - not by expecting the newcomer to grasp everything from sitting in meetings.
The same phone is there, and it seldom rings. Then we have our local central office which use to have 2 working the phones now one and hard sometimes to get anyone as its pretty quite.
Have had a lot of talks about this, and with all the rehabs out there feel that is one of the reasons we do not see the wet drunks anymore. And in a way its good as have seen one two many people seizure in a meeting bringing them in after getting a call.
Personally I enjoy H&I work going into half way homes the most, then hospitals, jails or fire camps. And working one on one.
I usually just listen when someone wants to talk, and if idenfiy share what it was like and what happened. The what it was like seems to hit home a lot more than all the work after its just to overwhelming for a newcomer as they probably as I did here about one in 10 words you say anyway. Also found when someone is ready its pretty simple to work with them if they ask me to. And can always be a friend get them to meetings, talk on the phone with them until they get a sponsor and start the steps.
For me it was so confussing hearing so many people's opinions, and the steps were like another language. But the language of the heart seems to be something we all can understand, and when the student is ready believe the teachers shall appear.
It works I have found even in ways that may not have for me. People's difference make the world go round. It is the long haul that is the proof of how life without alcohol works for someone. I was always a third inning ball player, this time I stuck around for a few more 24 hours I was ready to be teachable.