With thousands of meetings a day in the United States, 500 AA and NA meetings every day in the Los Angeles area alone, 12 Step meeting locations of every recovery program have literally been hijacked by the coronavirus. And you wonder where everybody went. As the Grandfather of all 12 step Programs AA has a popular and well-known slogan that is used so freely: One Day at a Time. And it’s used by far more than just people in recovery. Well if you every wondered the meaning and how it applies to life, we’re here, this is it and this is when to apply it.
Life on Life’s terms and deal with each day’s problems as they come instead of worrying about the future, take one day at a time and don’t expect things to change overnight.
Stay at Home, Shelter in Place, whatever it’s called we are living in COVID19 times and it has set a fear and level of uncertainty like we have never seen in modern times. So, what do you do, where do you go for meetings, where do you get recovery? Well the good news is, addicts are some of the most resourceful people known on earth. Here are a few tips to use.
Meetings
A meeting is two or more people sharing their experience, their strength and hope. If not in person then by phone, email, text or some other way to connect have recovery take place. Contact your local central office for a listing of meetings gone virtual. People are getting creative by utilizing tools such as FaceTime, Skype, Zoom and other platforms that allow video chat to feel more connected when we can not be in the same place.
With meeting closures and nearly all shut down at this time many have gone virtual. Here are a few links to the Los Angeles area.
- https://lacoaa.org/news/
- http://greaterlosangelesna.org/meetings/
- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-s3EVFEuF6Z65Jsl4ICW6v0aliGCAcmWmkzAqXooWaI/htmlview#gid=0
Fellowship
Right now, it may not be in person but long before now most people in recovery have known where to find their peeps on social media. It’s mostly Facebook, some are groups, but most are by individual profile. Most conversations and celebrations of recovery time takes place in “recovery talk” code. Many meetings had phone list and emails as ways to contact you. Now is a great time to reach out to people and stay connected. Have someone hold you accountable and set a cadence with one another on how often you setup times to talk. We need to be there for each other now more than ever.
Rehab Recovery
Most rehabs are on lock down and or in shelter in place quarantine based on where they are located. It is a challenging time to enter rehab right now and based on your location you will have to call to see what is available. For more information on substance abuse and mental health contact the national helpline. https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/national-helpline and for help with online treatment locators go to https://findtreatment.samhsa.gov/
For more information on recovery books and ways to celebrate recovery visit My 12 Step Store. We are open 24 hours a day online and we are here for you and open locally from 10AM – 4PM daily during the pandemic crisis to support any questions you may have. You are not alone.