I received a letter from my husband saying that he wants me to help get him sponsors for his addiction. What are sponsors and how will they help him? What do I need to do or well really where would I go to get help for him? If you can help please do so either PM or just let it be read.....Thanks

If he doesn't have literature, have him write to this address to request, if he doesn't have it, the NA Basic Text and the Step Working Guide in SOFT COVER. He needs to tell them he's incarcerated and needs to get a copy ASAP. You can also possibly ask your local H&I Chairpeople if they can send in books. My area doesn't do that so this is the route we went through to get literature. I wrote world service to bitch that their text wasn't on line and that I don't have a CC, their books aren't at Barnes and Noble and I have no way to get my Pooh the books. They responded and told me to have him write this address and they would send him a book.
NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS
World Service Office in Los Angeles
PO Box 9999
Van Nuys, California 91409 USA

You can send this to him w/out having to buy a book. This is a link to the Big Book online
http://www.recovery.org/aa/bigbook/ww/ - printed I think its about 75 pages - that is the first part of the book, the basic text - if you print the stories that's just alot more.

Find your local chapter of both NA and AA. Both websites are at www.na.org (http://www.na.org) and www.aa.org (http://www.aa.org). Locate the H&I committee for your area (hospitals and institutions). They should have an address that HE writes to. Again, just provide him with the addressess and make HIM do the work.

H&I sometimes responds slow so its best if he writes them alot and just keeps telling them he hasn't heard from someone and is anxious to work steps. If his mail lags a few weeks behind, he may want to write a letter each week for the first month, then every 2 weeks afterwards. But it make take a bit to get the first letter if his mail delivery is slow.

He should also find out if they run meetings inside the prison he's at and attend those as well.

You can also visit meetings and pick up all the free literature and just start mailing it to him. But don't farm a sponsor out of a meeting. Give him those addresses and have him do the work.

And to answer your question, a sponsor is someone that helps a newcomer to work their 12 steps. They are the person that shares their experiences and the one person that you are to trust in to share all your dirt. Its advised that a sponsor walk and talk a program - not just have clean time but someone who works and LIVES a program of recovery. He should even look around the prison at meetings. I'm sure there are guys in there that are clean and sober and have worked 12 steps. Those are the guys he should be haning out with if at all possible, as if you can just "hang out" in prison. But you know what I mean. Sponsorship, to me, is CRUCIAL to my long term recovery.

Ya know, if you want to understand all this more, you would benefit from an Alanon meeting. Alanon was created by the wife of one of the forefathers of AA and also is 12 step based. It will just help you to help yourself first, as well as him because each of you will be working a "program" to better yourselves.

If you need help finding meetings or anything, PM me anytime :D

I found the Step Working Guide in Word Format on my computer. If you want to print it to mail to him so he gets it right away, PM me your email address and I'll send it over. If you don't have word, let me know and I'll convert it to a text file.


Ciao :D

Thank you impoohbearsgirl for all the information you were able to provide.