'people are dying out there'

Yes they are kathy and you are right - where the hell is everyone. Sometimes when I get details of a 12 step call for a man and I have to pass it out to someone - you would think that there was no f****r sober for a hundred miles around - yet, the meetings are full and ,many of those that refuse to take the call will be in their next meeting waxing lyrical about how grateful they are.

Sometimes it makes me MAD!!

This si what I did - my name had been on the 12the step list for my area for a long time but in order to make sure I got plenty of calls I let it be known that I would NEVER turn down a 12 step call - that got me a regular supply!

Nickyj18022002 do the calls together and we'd not had any since before Christmas - man we were goijg CRAZY for want of a call - then this week we got three! It's a good time to get into this because , certainly in London, February is the busiest time of the year.

If you have had a spiritual awakening as the result of the steps then make it known that you are available to sponsor. If you haven't - you don't know what you are missing - get thee to a sponsor (there must be SOMEONE!!!!) and get the steps done - then you will be empowered to help the still suffering alcoholic.

Over here we don't have wind-up joints etc and so pretty much the only opportunity we have to carry the message is to wait impatiently for a 12 step call to land on our laps!

Remember this time, remember what it felt like not to be able to get the help that you want and need, then NEVER let yourself be responsible for being part of that situation!!

Good Luck

PM me if I can help

Lyn x

thank you for the reply unfortunately i have no transportation and there is no bus service in this town...so i can't get to a meeting but i'm sure glad to hear that there are still people like you out there willing to help..wont ask you for a ride lol your an ocean away..i'd have a long ride....thanks again for the reply

no its not always great here in my town either,

but i am desperate to be of help to others who want to get clean/sober.

Well done on your 3 years,
is there any chance you could start a meeting in your town if there isnt one?

I find it hard to get to meetings because of my kids, i once started a meeting in my town so i had one to go to.

Sometimes i travel on a bus to a meeting to my next town ,because otherwise i wouldnt get to one that week.

try ringing helpline again, maybe at different times of day ,and see what other people in your area do.

NA does not differentiate between drugs, and state alcohol is a drug, so NA is an option for you too,

hope you get the face to face support you need, i found i just have to keep trying,

i have been attending meetings in my town for months and did not meet one sober woman!, but today i went and met a woman whos long term sober and got her number!!! Miracle day!

just keep trying even if it seems to take a long time cause it will help.

your right i should try to get a ride to na cause aa is not going to give me a ride can't reach them...i'll try that since i do have a drug history too ...alcohal just happened to be my drug of choice...thankyou

I use the Big Book audio online as well as the Grapevine. Meetings are also online, but I found the format abit confusing for me.

Speaker tapes also are available and a sober radio online too.

Best of Luck

I was a "remote" once and the General Service office helped.

if i were a "remote" it woudn't be so maddening i'm not just not walking distance to a meeting..i use the big book and the bible and support of family and one oldtimer (phone mostly) who is just as disgusted with aa in this town and he's been sober for about 20+ years..he doesn't get around much anymore and lives quite a distance from me or he would take me..i'm thinking of calling the military base and seeing if anything is available there...thanks everyone for your replys...i've lived all over the U.S. and never seen anything like this.

Kathy, just an idea. Could you try asking someone you are living near to - a neighbour, a teenager who drives etc to drive you to and from the meeting and offer to pay for the price of the petrol or a little extra or offer to help them in return with something practical if you are short of money.

Alternatively you could ask someone just to drive you to the meeting. Once there, you could ask the meeting organiser to ask if someone could please see you safely home. Offering a little back shows people you are not using them in any way. I know it may be difficult to do this but it could well remind the group what service is about.

It would not hurt to call your sponsor one more time and just explain the difficulty you are in rather than not go to meetings at all. Suggest to your sponsor that it need not necessarily be her that gives you a lift. If she is no longer willing to be your sponsor for any reason, ask her to try and help anyway and then, at the meetings, you will have an opportunity to find someone else to be your sponsor.

Failing that, take a taxi.

Lyn - oh how I hear you - many people so keen to say how grateful they are, but sometimes... where is the action?

With much respect you are Remote....ck out the meetings online

Internet has connected us all to many resources including ppl to talk with over the voice part of your computer. See if ICQ has an AA group.

If you have military connection then that is the way to go....my gawd they have drunk spouses every day cause problems....hehehe They prob supply support groups.

I just reread your post...just in a military town....hmmm they prob could care less about you.

sry again with much respect

I hear Poor Me Poor Me....well you know the rest

i know isn't this about me me me lol guess i do have some resentment to work on...thanks for the reply mindlight

btw i'm not a military spouse anymore...but i don't think that matters with aa on base...ex marine wife and grew up military brat navy

I just signed up to telephone service today. I hope I do a reliable job and can at least be there for someone.
I'm also on the 12 step list.

If the service is not working well in your town, why not volunteer yourself to help?

if i can get to a meeting i might...my sobriety is not at risk right now...but i do miss the fellowship before it took such a downward slump in this town...i'll keep trying to get there

Hey Kathy - I'm sure this has been suggested but have you thought of trying to start a group where the focus is on Tradition 5:

'Each AA group ought to be a spiritual entity having but one primary purpose - that of carrying its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.' (Tradition 5 - Long Form - Big Book pg 563)

I have some experience of setting meetings up so if there's any help I can give you just pm me!

Good luck1

lyn

For me going on a 12 step call is really empowering as lyn says, for me it inspires me so much and hungry to do more. Just did to find that voice lol