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)