Meeting Disenchantment
Leaving treatment and entering the real world is a big transition and it is very important to have support through this process. But what happens when you’ve been out on your own or living in a sober house for a while, and going to a meeting every day starts to become tedious and repetitive? Meeting monotony is not as uncommon as you might think.
It is completely normal to experience some annoyance when the same folks are repeating the same slogans every week at the same meeting. The difficulty now is deciding what you are going to do about it. Skipping a meeting because you are frustrated is a terrible idea, and whether or not you enjoy going you might just hear the one thing that you’ve been missing.
One option is to change up your meeting schedule. Try going to a meeting in the next town over, or pick a meeting that you haven’t been to in a while. Trying new meetings should be fun and exciting, not a chore. This could also pique your interest in a different meeting format. If you’ve been going to mostly speaker meetings, you should really try a Big Book meeting or Step Meeting and get back to the basics. Or maybe you’ve only been attending coed meetings, and what you are missing is the intimacy of an all women’s or all men’s meeting.
At High Watch, we try to keep things interesting by offering a number of different meetings, each with a different vibe. Some people choose to attend our Transitions meeting for newer alumni while others prefer our Tuesday meeting. Speakers at our Friday night meetings are always current High Watch staff, each of whom offers their own unique perspective. Of course, our most popular meeting is our Saturday night meeting which follows our weekly Saturday Night Dinner.
But maybe it’s not just the feel of the meeting that’s got you down. Look inward and ask yourself why you are feeling this way. Have you lost gratitude for the meetings? Maybe you are starting to become distracted with what is going on around you because let’s face it, life comes at you fast when you get sober. There are a million reasons why you may be getting irritable but what is important is that you really check in with yourself to identify what is affecting you so that you can become more aware of it the next time it starts to arise. Also, have an honest conversation with your sponsor about the way you are feeling because chances are they’ve been in that exact same position at one time or another.
Everybody goes through phases in their sobriety. There will be times that you feel as though you aren’t growing anymore and life is getting stagnant. During these times, pause, and remember where you once were. You are headed in the right direction so long as you continue with your program of sobriety… and attending meetings is one of the best ways to do it.
Meet the Author:
Jenn Worthington, Alumni Relations Coordinator
