My Home Group

My Home Group

I have been in AA just under a year now. It really has been a wonderful journey. A lot of that is down to finding a good home group.

I vividly remember that first meeting. I was terrified, shaky and clueless. I had reached the point in my illness where I had been drinking daily in isolation for about two years, so the last place I wanted to be was in a room full of people, especially people who looked happy and sorted. Most of all I thought life must be well and truly over if I have ended up here!

But that feeling soon went. People came and shook my hand. They could spot I was new. It was pretty obvious, I was like a deer in the headlights! I got a cup of coffee and a biscuit. Then I met the man who I’d spoken to that morning on the helpline, and one of the men who had twelve-stepped me that afternoon. It was such a relief to recognise somebody. I started to feel less vulnerable.

They told me to sit down and listen and I identified with lots of shares that night, the drinking and the things in peoples’ heads that made them pick up that first drink. I went to lots of different meetings and people started telling me to find a home group. I chose the Road to Recovery group in Plymouth.

The group meets 3 nights a week and Saturday mornings, so after just a few weeks I was seeing and talking to the same, friendly faces and basically starting to feel at home. One night, nearly a year ago, it all fell into place. My ears opened at last and I heard everyone at the meeting that night share passionately about the solution: they had a way out on which they absolutely agreed. They spoke to me: the newcomer. So I got a sponsor, started taking suggestions, took the Twelve Steps and got well.

I love my home group today. I look forward to meetings. I happily do service whenever I am asked because I am so grateful to have been shown a new way of living. I have made so many friends and we do lots of fun things outside the meeting.

I hear older members of the group call it their family, their place of sanctuary. When I was new they used to tell me to keep coming back, and to stick around long enough for the magic of AA to start working. Well, it did and today I am happy to be part of something really good. 

                                               Matt, Road to Recovery Group, Plymouth