I am going to be real here and share. I have 3 years and 7 months sober and i am struggling because I no longer like AA. I have a sponsor, I am working all 12 steps of AA on a daily basis, and I am mostly going to women's meetings daily. I have sponsees, I am chairing meetings, I pray and meditate for about an hour in the morning, I am redoing my steps because I have a built in forgetter. I am very defiant, self reliant, and independent. I feel like I cant make friends in AA. I have tried going to different meetings as well but I just cannot connect with anyone. I will not pick up no matter but just wanted to see if anyone could relate?
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I have one AA meeting I do in person regularly. However, I’ve been involved in NA since 84 and find it more my flavor. It’s more gritty and less stringent. Yet, I still crossover to keep in touch with old timers. Sounds to me you’re pretty involved and so far has helped. The 3 to 5 year mark is when life steps in full force. Have had long periods of sobriety myself and have been extremely involved with service work and the program in general. Yet, I fulled myself into thinking I could be an earth person. I’m gung ho this time and not gonna stop the meetings no matter what. Just hope you can find a balance and don’t think you can be an earth person. Once recovery latches onto your dna it never leaves you. My higher power is in drivers seat now. And I’m glad he is.
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Thank you.
What is an earth person
People who aren’t alcoholics or drug addicts. Lol. We addicts aren’t part of them or their earth.
LOL no I know im a real alcoholic.
Thank you for your honesty Carmen. Personally I love AA and need the meetings several times a week with the Steps and the Traditions to maintain my emotional sobriety. I also believe very strongly we all need sober people in our support systems. Does that mean exclusively AA? Not necessarily. I think that’s why these online communities are so helpful. Those are my thoughts for what they’re worth. Peace and blessings!
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Thank you
I’m in the tempest program and I love it. I was involved with AA previously and it worked for me than. Today I am learning so much from Tempest. 3-5 meetings are available per day. Take a look you might like it.
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I've been struggling myself, I've tried AA and it's not my thing. I can see merits in the program but I'm atheist, and the whole faith based mentality doesn't work for me. Sadly that is pretty much the only option in my area. I'm still searching for an alternative and hanging in there tho.
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I hear it a lot. Got bored with it, didn’t need it anymore, someone pissed me off…so I stopped going to meetings. Next thing you know…I’m not going to chance it. Sobriety is worth a little pain and aggravation (annoyance really).
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Lol ya im not going to quit. Its just annoying. You are right tho. I gotta hang in there
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Out growing a sponsor can happen. Sponsoring others helps me.
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I just changed sponsors 
I like my AA peeps and all. Once in a while one will say something that dents my sensitive ego and I just want to show them by not going back to that meeting. Then I get over myself and everything works out fine. lol
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There is no written rule about who you keep as a sponsor in either program. But it does strongly suggest you have one. Pray on it… Meditate on what season you are in and answers will come. Works for me
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Lol
I tried NA and AA for maybe a year or so but couldn't get into it either. I did legitimately try, I went to meetings multiple times per week, worked the steps, had a sponsor, shared in group, and read the big book but I struggled to feel comfortable in that setting due to social anxiety. when I did push myself hard and speak from my heart, or from a place of despair, I felt invalidated because there is no crosstalk so no one would offer support or words of wisdom before immediately going on to the next person. I'm not recommending this, but the only thing that worked for me was a strict Buddhist practice. I haven't tried it, but there is an alternative to AA called SMART recovery. Check it out if you're interested.
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Yep Carmen!! I relate… I get that way when I get disconnected from God or (higher power if you prefer)… If I am not going to enough meetings or too many of the same meetings where people say the same thing all the time; sometimes I need to shake it up and try some new meetings!! I have a ton of fun with my friends in sobriety… we had a sober party tonight for my (& another friend’s bellybutton) bday; it was a blast!! If you are not having fun, shake it up girl… I go through phases in my sobriety; over my almost 7-1/2 yrs sober I find if I get board with meetings & don’t like the people, feel like I don’t belong; honestly I am usually not working my program hard enough. On the other hand sometimes I have been working it so hard where I get stagnant, so there needs to be a happy medium for me. Pick some new meetings, sit back and listen, talk to some new people and maybe make a few new friends. There is a lot of fun to be had sober girl, don’t give up yet!!
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I was 5 years clean when I got tired of the political bs in my area. People wanting to rule instead of carrying the message to those still suffering. Our area got sick with power struggles. I quit going around. Didn't use, talked to a few core people from my circle of recovery daily. I lapsed on keeping contact with my sponsor, meeting attendance and service. I quit doing what I was doing to keep growing. I lost my enthusiasm for recovery. Once I started returning the things to my recovery that I had allowed to slip and getting that honesty back from my recovering family I began to feel the enthusiasm for recovery to return. I found myself going to more meetings, reaching out to more people and once again bringing recovery back into my life and relationships including my home life. I found I had allowed my "life on life's terms" to place my recovery on a back burner. My priorities got skewed by attempting to reallocate time to focus on that productive, responsible member of society thing instead of my recovery.
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