ive been going to the meetings and was told i HAD to take the chips starting with the 30 days. i dont feel comfortable doing that and now i dont want to go to that meeting.
its real close to my house and the speakers are real good so i would like to keep going to it any suggustings

Whichru, the old-timers taught me that this is a "suggested" program of recovery. They also told me to take what I could use and leave the rest. That worked for me, and I figure if it ain't broke, I ain't gonna fix it. It's been working for me for over 18 years that way. If you don't want a chip, just say "no thanks" and don't take a chip. Keep going to those meetings and keep taking what you can use and leaving the rest. Tell them an old-timer who is a friend of yours told you that it's possible to stay clean and sober without chips and you know it to be true. Hugs! Just hang in there. Let me know if I can ever be of any help or if you want to talk.

Ditto what Toi Ama said, Whichru; it's your program & you can keep track of your progress any way you want to. My sobriety date is June 23, 1978…so now you can tell them 2 old timers support your decision to not use the chip system! :D

How's it going w/finding a female sponsor?

Adrienne

Ditto with what was already said. And I have to say to that chips doesn't make recovery for me what makes my recovery for me is going to meetings, working the steps and participating in my recovery and I don't believe I could of stayed sober and clean by just receiving chips I have to work it. If you enjoy going to where you are going then by all means be honest with yourself and them and tell them no thanks your recovery isn't based on receiving chips it is based on you working the program by doing the steps, and going to meetings. And you can tell them three oldtimers told you too my sobriety date is may 30, 1994. And if you ever need to talk don't hesitate to pm me okay.

hugs,
cherrie from tx

I was told that I should have a cake on my sobriety birthday, too, but I never have. I get on my knees and humbly say thanks for another year instead. For me, personally, the thanks is far more important for me than the cake.

thanks everyone .ill do that and ill keep going the sponsor thing is not working out but ill keep asking

When the right sponsor comes into your life, I think you will know it. When i first got into recovery. I was told I had to find a sponsor. So I asked this lady I had heard speak at mtgs quite a few times. I knew she had 4 Years so I figured I better ask her. Oh boy!!!! What disaster that turned out to be. She was more screwed up than me and that was saying a lot at that time let me tell you!!!!!!! You dont have to take a chip. Thats insane! If you dont want one why should you have to take it? Keep going to the meetings you like. Dont let others deter you.


Good luck,
Kelli

The first person I decided to ask to be my sponsor scared me so bad I never got the words out of my mouth. Instead I almost wet my pants. Being the sick person I was with two weeks off the stuff, I decided to ask this woman with one leg to be my sponsor. I figured that since I had just relapsed after almost two years clean and sober, I needed a tough, no-nonsense sponsor and this woman was definitely that. She had only one leg and didn't use a prosthetic leg, she just used a crutch and man, she talked TOUGH about it all. No-nonsense R us! After a meeting, I got the courage up to go get her phone number. Being extremely nervous, I said "Thank you and I'll give you my phone number if you want" just to be polite. She SLAMMED her hand onto the table and said, "If you want what I have, you call me! I don't want your phone number because I damn sure don't want what YOU have!" I muttered another thanks (I think) and slunk off back to my seat-------or somewhere. LOL I never did call her but I didn't ask anyone to be my sponsor for quite awhile again, either. When I finally did get up the courage, the next woman said she wasn't committing herself to sponsoring anyone at that time. When I finally got someone to sponsor me, she was everything that aggravated me------she NEEDED a bra, and I could have worn mine backwards---I was so thin people would have just thought it was my shoulderblades. She had HUGE blue eyes and blonde hair and was a homemaker alkie who all the men drooled over but she had stayed with just one guy for years and not been unfaithful. I had been married multiple times and not always faithfully. I was always the one the guys overlooked if possible except that I was beyond easy and was always throwing myself at some guy. Her house was always clean, mine--------well, we won't go there. But bless her, she said "yes" when I asked her to be my sponsor and she loved me till I could love myself. That was what counted. I chose her to hear my fifth step and she guided me through the rest of the steps. I'm sure she helped save my life, bless her heart. And I was desperate enough to open myself up to this Goody Goddess no matter how much she bugged me for all that she was that I wasn't. I say this now with humor because I grew to love her and I'll always owe her a debt of gratitude. I moved away and we've lost contact but I've heard she's still there and still sober herself. I'm very glad of that.

Thats awesome!!! Thank you for sharing that!!!!

Kelli