11-08-2013, 01:23 PM
Going to other meetings will broaden your options, especially when looking for a suitable sponsor. However, if you have been going to that particular meeting since 2009 then surely you would be comfortable enough to ask someone in your existing group. In my opinion, the earlier a person can get a sponsor the better, before the bad habits are picked up, which sounds like what has happened with you.
I have heard a million and one excuses to why someone does not have a sponsor, yours is one of the more common ones. There is no harm in trying it.
One other thing that changed the way I looked at things was I starting to look at the Steps. Not just with one person, with a group. The more the merrier I say! The 12 Steps are there for a reason, but very few in GA even attempt them. Probably because they are scared. I was! I was scared of what I would uncover.....everything I had been hiding from for the previous 25 years.
The suggestions made on the back two pages of that orange book are not just for new members. However, I have an illness that constantly tells me I am not ill. It tries to tell me that "I don't need to do those things, it's for the ones who are really struggling", etc.... Well, how I look at it is nobody can do everything that is asked of us in the entire book but as long as I strive to do as much as I can then at least I am 'keeping my side of the street clean'. I am giving myself the best chance to 'recover'.
Abstinance does not equal recovery
In order to have the best chance of never gambling again I must change. This is the difficult part as it requires the most effort. I put every ounce effort into my gambling when I was in action, do I really think that by putting the least amount of effort into my recovery I am going to change, I don't think so. I tried that for the first 9 months and all I did was dig a deeper hole.
Big Dave (Eastcote/Uxbridge)
I have heard a million and one excuses to why someone does not have a sponsor, yours is one of the more common ones. There is no harm in trying it.
One other thing that changed the way I looked at things was I starting to look at the Steps. Not just with one person, with a group. The more the merrier I say! The 12 Steps are there for a reason, but very few in GA even attempt them. Probably because they are scared. I was! I was scared of what I would uncover.....everything I had been hiding from for the previous 25 years.
The suggestions made on the back two pages of that orange book are not just for new members. However, I have an illness that constantly tells me I am not ill. It tries to tell me that "I don't need to do those things, it's for the ones who are really struggling", etc.... Well, how I look at it is nobody can do everything that is asked of us in the entire book but as long as I strive to do as much as I can then at least I am 'keeping my side of the street clean'. I am giving myself the best chance to 'recover'.
Abstinance does not equal recovery
In order to have the best chance of never gambling again I must change. This is the difficult part as it requires the most effort. I put every ounce effort into my gambling when I was in action, do I really think that by putting the least amount of effort into my recovery I am going to change, I don't think so. I tried that for the first 9 months and all I did was dig a deeper hole.
Big Dave (Eastcote/Uxbridge)