{"id":20,"date":"2013-12-11T00:04:03","date_gmt":"2013-12-11T00:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nashvillerecovers.org\/wordpress\/?p=20"},"modified":"2013-12-11T00:04:03","modified_gmt":"2013-12-11T00:04:03","slug":"not-an-addict-how-bout-going-to-a-12-step-meeting-anyway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/2013\/12\/11\/not-an-addict-how-bout-going-to-a-12-step-meeting-anyway\/","title":{"rendered":"Not an addict? How \u2019bout going to a 12-step meeting anyway?"},"content":{"rendered":"

OK, so you\u2019re not an addict or an alcoholic. You\u2019re what we in recovery sometimes call a \u201cnormie,\u201d or a \u201cMuggle,\u201d if you\u2019re a Harry Potter fan.<\/p>\n

So how would you feel about going to a 12-step recovery meeting anyway? Scary, ain\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

But why would a normie go to one of those anonymous meetings? Well, part of my job is to try to reduce stigma around those in recovery for substance abuse issues. So I asked one of the Nashville recovery community\u2019s most well-known dudes how to do that. He said, \u201cEncourage interested people to go to one or two open meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Quote<\/a>What? Interesting idea! Maybe if normies see what happens \u2013 and doesn\u2019t happen \u2014 at these\u00a0 meetings, it\u2019ll humanize the people who go.<\/p>\n

An open meeting \u2013 and it\u2019ll be designated \u201copen\u201d on online directories and published lists \u2014 is one that is open to anyone, any student, any professional, any anyone who might be interested in seeing what recovery looks like in the rooms.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve taken a dozen or so of my normie friends and relatives to several meetings, and I interviewed them for this blog.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say that going to meetings helps to humanize those with substance abuse problems,\u201d my older brother, Scott, said. \u201cYou see that they are real people, not just alcoholics or addicts.\u201d<\/p>\n

How about that?<\/p>\n

My twin brother, Todd, said something similar.<\/p>\n

\u201cI probably had a more stereotypical view of what an addict was, so that has changed,\u201d Todd emailed me. \u201cThe meetings always have a wide socio-economic spectrum of attendees.\u201d<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s more \u2013 normies tell me that they are surprised and moved that there are so many people who get together to help each other. And most of my non-addict friends and relatives take away great messages about living better from those meetings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the theme of serenity and I would like it more in my life,\u201d brother Scott says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn a similar note, I like the idea of finding ease of comfort without having to resort to an outside source (alcohol, drugs, food, sex).\u201d<\/p>\n

My friend Christine went to several meetings with me, and when she moved to Philadelphia, she said she really missed going to those meetings. Christine loved the community and she loved hearing about how people learned to live spiritual principles.<\/p>\n

I told her there are meetings for friends and relatives of alcoholics.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh no!\u201d she said. \u201cI want the real shit!\u201d<\/p>\n

Ha! Indeed. I\u2019m so grateful that so many people without addictions have supported me on my journey. And I\u2019m really glad for those who have stepped out of their comfort zone to go to meetings with me.<\/p>\n

It also helps me get perspective on what I\u2019m doing.<\/p>\n

My college buddy Chris Leary \u2013 who has gone to two meetings with me \u2013rocked me with this.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess before I thought alcoholics were lost,\u201d Chris said, \u201cand those meetings are where they can be found.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OK, so you\u2019re not an addict or an alcoholic. You\u2019re what we in recovery sometimes call a \u201cnormie,\u201d or a \u201cMuggle,\u201d if you\u2019re a Harry Potter fan. So how would you feel about going to a 12-step recovery meeting anyway? Scary, ain\u2019t it? But why would a normie go to one of those anonymous meetings? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}