I’ll be first to say that recovery meetings aren’t always what they are cracked up to be, after all, we are addicts and alcoholics not public speakers. Sometimes the whining is annoying or the guy with 30 days clean that is dead set on telling others how it’s done… well; he is just hard to stomach. Phrases get repeated ad nauseam and its not uncommon to here the same topic discussed twice in the same week, but even in the worst meetings I usually find something worth learning or reinforcing.
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One of the things I find most valuable about meetings is that they serve as a grounding influence that helps dissipate my tendency to think like an alcoholic. Yes the sage advice often to be found in meetings is helpful, but it is also the unhealthy behavior, rationalizing, and prevarications of others that improve my own introspection. I find experiencing this negative kind of input helps me better identify my own failings. (There’s quite a few.)
Meetings can serve as great reminders of where we came from or offer hope for the future and it becomes that much harder to rationalize taking up drugs and alcohol again. Even if you feel like your recovery is well in hand I advise attending the occasional meeting because without this recovery reinforcement alcoholic thinking can creep back into our lives. Once the old habits and cognitive process return, a relapse has actually already started. There is nothing more dangerous than an alcoholic left alone in a room with naught but their own thoughts, because thinking alone often turns into drinking alone.
