Still doing my 90x90 = I've missed some days though with the busy spring schedules. I have not been keeping track. When I miss days, I do two the next if I can. Sometimes I just do two if I can, so I bank up for when I can't. Mostly... I feel as though I've made this a part of my life, and going to a meeting is in the front of my mind, when I have some free time. That is the point isn't it? At this point, I'm thinking about what I will tell my sponsee's some day. I would like to be a good example, and be able to say that I did it, when I tell them to some day. I'm still so new myself that I don't think rearranging my life to extremes - making AA more of a burden... which I find burns me out on AA really fast - is the best for me right now. This lifestyle has set in nicely, and I always make sure to do extreme rearranging if I just don't feel like going.
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Thanks for everything. Peace and Love on your journey.
Tasha, don't let this stress you out. I think 90/90 is about getting to meetings daily unless it's just not possible. Double up on other days is fine. I think that we've all found that "meeting makers make it". So this is really about commitment and of course staying sober. Getting to so many meetings in a short time also helps to get the program "onboard", I like to say. You work the program hard enough, for long enough and then the program works you.
I agree with Dean dear. It's all about committment, that's all. My sponsor used to say, get to as many meetings as you can in the first 3 months, okay. That's what he called 'taking responsibility' for ourselves, plain and simple.
-- Edited by Mr_David on Saturday 2nd of June 2012 10:44:42 PM
Oh I feel a cute little story coming on. This is of course an excerpt from my latest book AS BERNIE SEES IT. So take it or leave it.
"A common suggestion in AA is the attending of 90 meetings in 90 days. Theres a funny story about how that slogan came into being. Apparently, an alcoholic appeared before a judge who had just heard about Alcoholics Anonymous. The judge had been prepared to pass a sentence of 90 days in the local jail but he decided to give the drunk a choice, so his judgment was that the drunk either spend 90 days in jail or attend 90 AA meetings. The drunk never appeared before the judge again on alcohol-related charges and follow-up reports indicated that the meetings had sobered the drunk up. So, the judge began handing this sentence out to all drunks who appeared before him. Over time, the phrase was shortened to 90 meetings or 90 days and somewhere along the way it slurred into 90 meetings in 90 days."
In Bill's Story on page 15-16, it says "We meet frequently so that newcomers may find the fellowship they seek." So I go to meetings frequently. In my first 6 months I went to 15 meetings a week, but it was easy because I didn't have a job or a place to live. So I lived in AA until AA taught me how to live. As I got sober and some of the things I had lost began to return to me, I found myself going to less meetings. I been sober going on 15 years and I still go to 4 or 5 meetings a week because that's as frequently as I can manage. But I don't go to meetings now for the reasons I went back then when I was a newcomer. Back then I was seeking fellowship and sobriety and all that good stuff. So I went frequently. I never took much stock in the 90 in 90 concept because I wasn't planning on being here that long. Oh well. Now I go frequently for the reason Bill gave. Because there are newcomers who seek what I sought.
Frequently does not always mean daily. But I'm pretty sure it doesn't mean once a week either. One of the things I tell my sponcees - oh did I just say tell. I meant suggest - is that until they figure out how many meetings they should be going to, they should go to as many meetings as they can manage to get to. Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age but we ought to encourage newcomers to be willing to go to any lengths - their lengths, not ours. I could talk for days about this but I don't really have time. I gotta go to a meeting.
I wouldn't worry about it Tasha. Go as frequently as you can manage. It seems to be working.
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Not all my days are priceless, but none of my days are worthless, anymore.
Bad news I am afraid. When I came in the meetings were an hour and a half long but what with inflation and all, they are now only an hour long. That means to get the same dosage of AA as I did, you now have to do 135 meetings in 90 days! Perhaps the trick is to get to as many meetings as you honestly can without defaulting on your other responsibilities (I don't mean social, I mean don't abandon the children), and make sure you get on with those steps.
In my experience it is important to remember that it takes a lot more than meetings to get sober. I have seen manic meeting makers fall by the wayside because they missed this important disinction, and I have seen many with moderate meeting attendance achieve long term quality sobriety. The difference seems to be one group swaps one addiction (alcohol) for another (meetings), while the other group abandons their old way of life and learns another (the 12 steps) with support from the meetings.
When I was babysitting, I watched 5 kids, cleaned the house and baked cookies for 1.50 cents per hour. AND = I only got paid for the time I was there, not drive time included!
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Thanks for everything. Peace and Love on your journey.
There is some great posts here. Again the wisdom of the AA program in its inception is shown. In the early days they knew alcoholics needed as men;y meetings as they could get to especially in the first 3 months or 90 days. Today the phyislogical reason as far as I can relate it is it takes about 90 days to repair damage we have done. So many thing that were just done because it worked science is now finding out the how and why of it. Doesn't change anything about my addiction I'm an alcoholic and this program works with or with out the science of it.
yeah but those 90 minute meetings had a smoke break in the middle right?
I am going to have to file a complaint. We had no breaks, we smoked all the way through and then had the meeting after the meeting which included tea and more smokes. It is obvious from this that I could well have been inadvertently subject to an overdose of sobriety, generally positive feelings, and encouragement to take the steps, which might have accelerated my recovery to beyond the natural speed of these things. This would explain the excessive and undeserved amounts of joy and freedom I have experienced since being exposed to this overenthusiastic treatment. I am considering asking for a refund!
