This recovery story is made available to copy and read orally by a member of DA under two conditions: (1) no name is attached, and (2) nobody makes any money off it. Feel free to read it for your own inspiration, and for that of your own local DA group.
It works if I work it....
Hello, I am a newcomer to DA and it has literally saved my life. I was having suicidal thoughts prior to coming into DA in May of 2002. Although I had over 4 years of sobriety and over 6 months of recovery from compulsive overeating, I was paralyzed by my debting, compulsive spending, and money issues in general. Someone from another 12-step program got me to my first meeting, where I picked up a desire chip after realizing during the meeting that I had come home. As members spoke of their compulsive spending, debting, and underearning, I resonated with their experiences completely.
Unlike my other two 12-step programs, where it had taken me months (or years, in one of them) to work the program seriously, in DA I immediately began to do everything that I could to achieve recovery. I got a desire chip and a sponsor at my first meeting, stopped debting that day, started recording expenses the next day, and started working the steps with my sponsor the first week. I then cut up my credit cards, read the Mundis book, and read everything I could about DA online and in the Currency of Hope . After a white-knuckled moratorium month, I had a pressure relief meeting with my sponsor and her husband (both DAs), and contacted my creditors to let them know my situation and what I could pay at the current time.
The suicidal thoughts have gone away, along with most of the insomnia and depression. I continue to work the steps with my sponsor, attend 1 meeting a week (the nearest one of which is held 80 miles from my home), hold a service position at the business group that no one wanted, make monthly spending plans updated weekly, and record every penny I spend immediately. One of the most rewarding things that has happened was being able to bring another 12-step friend into DA after she hit bottom with her creditors. To watch someone else get the RELIEF that comes from realizing there is a solution is an awesome experience, one I hope to have many more of.
I am grateful that I came into DA at the point where I knew I was powerless over debting and spending. This time, I am willing to do what those who have recovered have told me they had to do to recover. I spent many years in another program without the honesty, open mindedness, or willingness to do the work. By the grace of my Higher Power, I have had that HOW in DA. It works--IF I work it.
(name witheld in the interest of preserving anonymity)