Why Meetings are an Important Part of Recovery
“Meeting makers make it” we are told when we first arrive in the rooms of recovery. “Make what?”, you ask? Addicts and alcoholics that go to meetings are more likely to stay clean and sober. Another old saying, “People who don’t go to meetings, don’t get to hear about what happens to people who don’t go meetings,” is also true. So, we go to meetings.
At first, we’re told to do “90 meetings in 90 days,” or a meeting a day for 90 days. It takes the human brain about 90 days to learn a new habit. When we’re new to recovery, a new habit is exactly what we need. And many of us don’t realize that we get to go meetings. We go to a meeting every night, so that we can hear the message. The NA message is “An addict, any addict, can stop using drugs, lose the desire to use and find a new way to live.” We go to meetings to find a sponsor, make new friends and build a support group. It is around this time it is suggested we get a homegroup.
A Homegroup: Where Everyone Knows Your Name
A homegroup is a meeting that we make a commitment to attend every week. (Unless it meets several times a week, even then we go at least once week.) It is there where we learn about Service work. We come early and leave late. We learn how to make coffee. We help set out the literature and arrange chairs. At the end we put away the chairs and clean up after the meeting. By making this small effort we realize, maybe for the first time, that we can make a difference in our own life and in other’s lives as well. People can count on us!
It is also at the homegroup where we learn how to get along with other addicts and alcoholics. We attend the group’s business meeting where we make decision that affects the group. We learn how to disagree without being disagreeable. We also learn about the 12 Traditions, mostly by breaking them! Other homegroup members become like family to us, we love and support one another.