Northwoods Recovery: Room for the unready

Northwoods Recovery meetings tend to attract a diversity of dissimilar individuals; sometimes drawn to our gatherings by less than altruistic motives.

The Recovery organization I’ve chosen for support has only one qualification for membership; the desire to stop using. I have stopped using drugs, but because that choice can too easily fall victim to relapse, continuing attendance at weekly meetings in support of sobriety — mine and others — is strongly advised.

Of course, until drug use is finally curtailed, prevention of relapse will not be the primary issue. Not every attendee of Recovery meetings is motivated by a desire to stop using drugs.

Although rarely identifying themselves as such, some are compelled to attend by probation officers, or as part of a court-ordered program to avoid jail time. While having a good deal of sympathy with that position — I was there once or twice myself — I still find it personally annoying to be in Recovery meetings with some who only pretend to possess a genuine desire to stop using. 

But it’s not my place to judge whether others share my sincerity. One can never tell at which point the transformation to a real Recovery will occur or what path we’ll take to get there. This journey is not the same for everyone; mine is no better or worse than any other addict’s. 

At a meeting early in my Recovery I became acquainted with Bob, who though practicing strict sobriety now has a rather checkered history with Recovery. At one point he shared that some years prior he’d relapsed and misplaced his desire to stop using. But for a long time he continued coming to meetings high; not to fool anyone, but simply to be in the same room with recovering addicts, as if the proximity to sobriety might somehow induce in him a similar state. Ashamed of his relapse, he envied the rest of us our sobriety but despaired of ever finding his way back to it himself. 

Eventually though, his higher power led him back to Recovery. Perhaps just being present at a meeting was the catalyst; who can say? Bob is in a good Recovery today and nothing else matters. 

We hold meetings not to congratulate each other for recovering, but to deliver a message to the still suffering addict who one day might listen and take advantage of the opportunity presented to prove for themselves:

We Do Recover.