Recovered? Recovering? Ah, Who Gives A Rat's Ass . . .

Recovered:  To get back; regain; to restore to good life, consciousness, life, etc.

There's a guy at our meeting who's a major ringleader and self-proclaimed provocateur in a weird local controversy we have here in Vacation City about whether or not we call ourselves "Recovered" when we introduce ourselves at meetings.  He prefers to hear "I'm Seaweed, I'm a recovered alcoholic" to the standard greeting that I've heard from everyone everywhere in the entire world for 31 years.

Controversy:  Strife; dispute.  

I'm not even sure "controversy" is the right word.  I am sure that alcoholics like to stir shit up.  I'm not happy if I'm not in the middle of an argument over something that is absolutely not important and about which I could care less.  I just like to mix it up.  And I'm always amused that whenever a forceful personality starts up some shit about nothing there's always a group of groupies who pile on to fan the flames.

His opinion - which he is absolutely entitled to - is that new people are going to be wary of a Program if they think that someone who has been attending meetings for a long time still has the disease.  Most of us consider alcoholism to be like diabetes or high blood pressure - controllable but not curable - but not all of us, obviously.

Eh, maybe he's right, what do I know.  One of the biggest criticisms of Twelve Step Programs is that they don't have a great success rate.  I've heard under 10% from most sources, not impressive in a numerical sense.  Most of us would encourage anyone struggling with their drinking to go out and get whatever help they can get from as many sources as possible.  And I think we have so many members because the other solutions out there aren't that successful, either. 

Funny thing about this guy is that he attends meetings for a year and then loudly proclaims that he is going to take a year off, which he then does.  Another criticism is that Twelve Step attendees have substituted one addiction for another, that we've traded reliance on alcohol for reliance on meetings, and he trumpets this with a lot of smug satisfaction.

Well, whatever.  I have never gotten arrested after a long morning of recovery work.  And if all of the old-timers - the ones who don't say they're recovered - had taken a year off from time to time, depriving me of their wisdom and experience and calm advice, I'd have had a much harder time staying sober.

How about this: don't worry so much about your greeting and worry some more about your behavior.