Who is missing from our meetings, and why?
Wed, 11/07/2007 - 6:30pm — Webmaster
"Who is missing from our meetings, and why?"
This is one of two Fellowship Issue Discussion items presented to the fellowship. Discussion from these topics will be reviewed at the World level.
REMINDER TO STAY ON TOPIC
Obviously, the topic of Smoking has inspired some passionate debate, but I'd like to remind Forum participants that the topic of this thread is "Who is missing from our meetings, and why?"
Please keep your discussion to the listed topic. Thanks!
--Acting CIRNA Webmaster
Nobody but the suffering addict
who is missing? Retorical question as the only people that CAN be missing is the addict that is still out there. On a spiritual note, who is suppose to be there IS there, Believe That!
Who's missing from our meetings....
I agree with you on the still suffering addict who is emshed in their disease; and can't seem to find their way home.
I don't agree with who is suppost to be there is....
What about the long time member who everyone has forgotten about. I believe they are the ones that are missing from our meetings. We give phone numbers to the new comer so that they can get plugged in; but what about an old timers phone list.
It would be nice to get a call from anyone in the program just to see how the old timers are doing. Would you like to ride to a meeting with me.
What about reaching out to the old timers. I believe they are approachable and are willing to help anyway they can. Sometimes they are forgotten... which I believe is some of the reason they stop coming to meetings.
Is it some sort of secret wish that old timers get loaded again. With this kind of treatment from the fellowship, its no wonder they do.
Missing Oldtimers
The only oldtimers that are missing from meetings are those that have chosen not to attend. I have been clean for 17 years and I still attend 2-3 meetings per week "regularly". I do this because I choose to work a program, and part of the program I was taught is to go to meetings no matter what. Sadly none of the members who welcomed me to and taught me this new way of life in my town attend meetings here. Some have had life move them to other areas, but most choose not to attend or have gone out.
I believe there are two phases to this program-
1) we come in scared, desperate and unsure of how it all works and experienced members reach out and guide us.
2) we become the experienced member who must in turn reach out to the newcommer.
If I am absent from my home group for a period of time, I want other members to reach out to me because they are freinds who are concerned about my well being, not because I have been here a while. If I am unable to get to a meeting on my own, it is up to me to call someone for help. If I am unwilling to do that, then I have either made the choice not to go, or my pride and ego has gotten in the way of my recovery.
I agree that some oldtimers are missing, but I don't accept responsibility for there recovery. Thats one reason i love my home group today. There are many members with 15+ years that are active both in there program and the fellowship.
Who's missing from our meetings....
We need to start a non smoking meeting. for non smoking members. At times i feel that 95% of the people at na meetings are not REALLY CLEAN because they smoke cigarettes. This is a programe dealing with addiction RIGHT! I think smoking cigs is just another DRUG addiction. Smoking cigs should be put in our readings as a drug. sometimes my friend and I feel like not attending meetings because of this. CIGARETTES ARE A DRUG PERIOD.
Smokers
I don't like cigarette smokers who claim clean time. Cig smokers are not CLEAN!
smokers
I didn't know that cigarettes where a mine altering drug. And in my mind anyone that drinks those energy drinks need to raise their hand as a new comer because you drink them to change how you feel. So now someone can bring up coffee drinkers. And on and on it goes. Addicts with opinions
smokers
Iagree Ira, where does it end? I've never understood the willingness to give away freedoms so willingly. Are we going to get into the Psych Med issue again too? How about sex?, now that's mind altering! How about Pepsi, Internet, food, cars, clothes???Gezzz
i think that's ridiculous. i
i think that's ridiculous. i dont smoke, but give me a break. you guys are just looking for ways to stir up controversy. thats between them and their god.
Cigarettes are a DRUG!!!!
you don't see dogs and cats and other animals smoking. Theres better things to spend that money on. It really is a drug period. I've noticed that at meetings 95% of old timer don't smoke. Because they know its really a drug. as far as meds there prescribed by a Dr.
cigs
Cigarettes have 100-120 DRUGS/chemicals that effect the body and mind according to research and they are mind altering though less so that most drugs of addiction. They kill 8 times as many people yearly as all the drugs combined thougjh.
I'll never forget the deaths of two of the most important people in my recovery, Chuck C. well known and beloved in AA, slowly sufficationg from emphazema, died about a decade ago now. His lungs gave way before his heart did, they said. And, Chuck S., also welll known and beloved in NA, who died of emphazema about the same time. An addict who had travelling the county with wife Connie. I last visited him in a tiny, 500 sq foot apartemt in Garden Grove, CA, sucking on a nebulizer with oxegan tubes up his nose and still he gasped for breath. He could only say a few words to Sally and I before needing his treatments to get breath back. Over 80 years of clean time for those two, before they died. They helped thosands in those years, sharing there perspectives. They knew addiction recovery.
Now, I watch my wife, 38 years clean and off cigarettes 25 years. Still the passive smoke her father made with his smokes and her own few decades of
smoking combined with asthma effected her profoundly. One puff of your passive smoke means a possible trip to the ER for her and a almost certain regimin of anti-biotics to knock out the resulting brochitis. She's done a ton in recovery from getting a Master Degree and counseling addicts for most of her time clean. She was Chair of World Service when or basic text was conceived and worked on the literture committee to complie and edit it it and add content. She doesn't see cigarettes as being like other drugs for what is obvious, but still, if you work those steps and gain in self esteem, you should get to where you want to treat yourself better, and surrender to your powerlessness over them. Apply the program. Do it with a few buddies. There is great power in one addict talking to another.
As for the missing people in meetings. I think of them when we say the silent prayer for the addict who still suffers.