Honest Sharing in Recovery
How do we share at meetings and what do we share at meetings? Many opinions and
points-of-view arise when this issue is brought up and I have had the privelege of mentally storing
and remembering a few which I will share with you now:
1. What you have to share is not only for you. It is for the addict who needs to hear your message.
2. Don’t share anything you don’t mind making the rounds (meaning that human beings are gossipy
creatures and that your dirty laundry maybe should stay between you and your sponsor.
3. Honesty, open-mindedness and willingness. Experience, strength and hope. Stay focussed on positive
solutions and recovery in whatever you’re sharing because meetings are not group therapy. Do
not share on outside issues.
These are opinions about sharing in the rooms. Share your opinions and points-of-view with us. Also
feel free to send in stories, poems, or anything that is on your mind: recovery oriented!!

When I come to a meeting I know I have to get honest sharing at a table. The newcomer needs to hear along w/the other people sitting at the table.. I also need to share whats on my mind and get it out whats goin on in my head and in my life.. The more I talk about it takes the power out of it.. If we dont share and share honestly how can we find the solution to really whats goin on.. I need these tables and to hear whats goin on.. So thanks to all of you who come to the tables and share honestly your ESH I need to hear them..... Luv

Honesty is one of those "indispensable" spiritual principles that came easier for me as my recovery progressed. Initially I was so afraid to let people into my life by revealing my true feelings to them. By not being honest when sharing, I was depriving myself of what I consider one of the most important things our remarkable Fellowship has to offer, the therapeutic value of one addict helping another. If I do not allow those in the rooms to share in my happiness or lessen my grief, I revert to old ways of thinking that "I" rather than "WE" can find a solution.

It is most important to share truthfully about your recovery.It is important for the newcomer to hear your story and how it has helped you to get clean and stay that way.We all lied for years to get what we wanted,we have to tell the truth to ourselves and others or we will get that sick using mind back.We have to fill our self full of such things as honesty,openmindedness,willingness.We have to share with our sponsors and friends just a like.I have learned to live a new way of life and care about myself and others through recovery. RCM

Personally I believe what the book says - We share in creative freedom. One of the greatest things in NA is the freedom to be ourselves. If I'm speaking from the front or from the floor I say a prayer that HP open my mouth and open your ears and open OUR minds...that way, whatever comes out - GOD'S FAULT (hee hee). I don;t think my life is an outside issue and if it ain't practical it ain't spiritual. More importantly it aint all that useful. Somtimes the addict brave enough to free themselves is the solution and the very thing that enlivens the meeting into the most powerful vehicle. I dont care if you cuss or cry or call yourself something other than what I think is PC for NA (is that an oxymoron?) We can handle it. Of course if you up front - well than you are a trusted servant and may have boundaries established by the group. There is nothing more aggrevating to me than some addict interrupting someone sharing to defend some non existent virtue. I was at a meeting once and sae the HG members had signs and whenever someone cussed they held up signs that said "Obsenity". Because they were in a church. I was in an NA meeting and had dropped my buck in the basket to make sure that was where I was. After the meeting I saw the same HG memebrs raising hell and cussing a blue streak outside of the meeting in front of neighbors windows where they really could jeopardize the meeting place. So sad and misguided. If you don;t like cussing then DONT CUSS...Set and example we dont moralize whe empathize and if we cant empathcize with the addict where they are leave them alone and pray someone else can. Set examples - and if your example shines - folks will follow. If not keep working at it.

I share whatever I need to share. How am I to know where my solution is held? I tired of humiliation some time ago so I try to practice humility and be where I am at. Ive seen to many great people leave us. fronting their freedom. Free yourself. We can handle it and newcomers are not as fragile as we think - manytimes they are the ones who step up and tell me just what I need to hear - or they thank me for my hoensty and how it encouraged them. Honesty is the antecdote an 20 days and 20 years. Dont get it twisted.

I find that in sharing honestly about the things that I have done that I'm not proud of, mistakes I've made, not knowing how to do or handle something, it shows me that I am human. When I hear myself share these things out loud, I have more self-acceptance. When I hear others share they went thru/did the same thing, I become more comfortable with myself. I used to not care about what others thought about me when I shared because I didn't care about others...what they thought didn't matter. Today, I don't care what others think about me when I share because I know I am only human. I am doing the best that I can, to the best of my ability. I don't strive to be perfect anymore, I only strive to do my best for that given day. The more I honestly share my "stuff", the more I own up to it. As I own up to it, I am forced to look at it and change the behaviors or learn how to handle things that are new to me. As I do these things by following the suggestions of others, applying the steps to my life, I can hold my head high. I can look in the mirror and feel good about what I see looking back at me. I can't change the past. I can only change how I live today. I can't do that alone....this is a WE program. I need other NA members to show me how to live, to share their experience strength & hope with the things I go through/things we all go through. They can't do that if I don't share what I am going through. This is how it works, we share our experience -struggles, strength-how we got through it & hope-the end result, to help one another to just not use no matter what.