Dec 20 2008
No Longer Alone
Marty Mann, the first woman to stay sober in Alcoholics Anonymous, attended her first meeting in 1939. After the meeting, she went to Greenwich to visit her alcoholic friend. “Grennie,” she said. “We are no longer alone.” Her words remain one of the most quoted slogans in 12 Step fellowships.
Before I came to the program, I lived in isolation. I did not want my friends and family to get close enough to know how much I was drinking and drugging or see me shake, rattle, and roll in the mornings. I did not want them to hear me purge, smell the after effects or know when I was starving and excessively exercising.
When I first started attending meetings, they told me, “Keep coming back. We’re going to love you until you learn how to love yourself.” I did not believe them, but I was desperate and had exhausted my other resources. I had no place else to turn for help.
Step One of Narcotics Anonymous says:
“We admitted that we were powerless over our addiction,
and that our lives had become unmanageable.”
My first sponsor often asked me, “What’s the first word of the first step?”
“We,” I’d say.
“Right, and that means you can’t work this program by yourself.”
At meetings I heard, “An addict alone is an addict in bad company.”
Today, I am grateful I kept going back, day after day, because they were right. They did love me, in spite of my glaring character defects and endless questions.
And eventually, I learned to love them back.
Today, I am no longer alone.
Recovery Rocks!
Roxie
