If they aren't predators, trying to reel you back in, they are vultures looking to pick your carcass. Now and again, the ones looking for real support show up though. Stay strong people, ODAAT.
I've posted some long posts on letting go of my career losses and how that has been key to my recovery. But I just figured out a catchier way to say it and thought I'd share.
I'm assuming I'm not the only the one that feels like my GA group is a little different. Thought it might be helpful to have a thread where many different GA experiences are described in one place because it is by no means a monolithic program in how each group does things. Hoping if people see some real life stories of groups it might help them jump in one.
My group is one night a week, in person, more or less run by an 85 year old with 25 years in recovery. We don't do a lot of literature, just at the beginning of a meeting. We really do a lot of mutual support and discussions.
The one thing I know my group does that is off-book is our old timer leader isn't an advocate of complete abstinence from any form of gambling. His motto and the consensus of our group is don't do the things that got you in trouble and don't do anything that triggers you. So like I will still play golf games for very, very low stakes with friends, and will do bucket raffles at charity dinners, and neither trigger me to go pump $15k into a slot machine like I was doing before. Another guy was told by an online GA group he couldn't put in for lottery drawings for hunting and fishing permits anymore, whereas our group he does as long as it doesn't lead to triggering thoughts, which it does not.
We also are not super religious. Higher power is at play in our meeting for sure, but we don't talk a lot about it.
Also we have good coffee and everyone in our group presently is at least six months since their last bet. Anyhow, that's what GA looks like for me.