How have you used technology to aid your Al‑Anon recovery?
Please share your experiences by commenting on the topic below. The opinions expressed here are strictly those of the person who gave them. Take what you liked and leave the rest. Member sharing on the Member Blog may be used in future Al‑Anon publications.
This month we’re asking you to share on the question, “How have you used technology to aid your Al‑Anon recovery?”
I have one!! Never would have gone to an in-person meeting. Cannot get enough since finding out about the electronic rooms fb/apps/phone calls …begun anyway = )
About 13 years ago, a member of Al-Anon made an announcement that Al-Anon had phone meetings. I had a home group in area and many meetings to attend. I also had a small 6 yr old at home. So I decided I was going to try this Al-Anon phone meeting. The language was the same, the meetings focused on Al-Anon literature. It gave me a chance to go thru many Al-Anon book readings and listen to each members share using Al-Anon literature. So today even during Pandemic. My recovery stayed steady and the good thing was more Zoom meetings have… Read more »
At the beginning of the pandemic, in April 2020, my home group decided to suspend in-person meetings. I had heard about the use of the Zoom application for online meetings. My wife (and fellow member of Al-Anon) and I decided that I would purchase a license that would allow me to host meetings. We then started three recurring weekly Al-Anon meetings as I learned how to operate the Zoom app. We sent invitations to these meetings to our Al-Anon friends and those who were members of our home group. At first, attendance at the meetings on Zoom was limited, but,… Read more »
Last year during the pandemic lockdown, my sister was in her final illness in another city and I was stuck at home alone trying to manage my grief, helplessness, guilt and anxiety. When I found out our local Family Intergroup was offering weekend share-a-day workshops on Zoom, I started attending and it made a big difference. The group became very large, with people from different parts of the world, and it was a relief to hear the same things I was experiencing talked about from a wide range of perspectives. I used to think Zoom meetings couldn’t be as helpful… Read more »
I have never been to an in person meeting. I was desperate, afraid, alone and hurting when I found a list of world wide Zoom meetings. In those virtual rooms I found help, I found compassion, and I found love. I found hundreds of strangers willing to reach out their virtual hands to listen, to give comfort and to share their stories. I found people who have felt like me, who have thought like me, and who have been where I am. I found laughter. I found tears. I found stories of strength and perseverance; stories of joy after sorrow.… Read more »
Zoom made it possible for me to get hourly support throughout the pandemic. Technology makes it easy to look up and find a meeting. Technology made it possible to feel Al-Anon as a world-wide fellowship. This awareness and strong connection started at the beginning of lock-down with Al-Anon Without Borders weekly full-day experiences. I still attend a meeting weekly in Wales, UK as a result of developing connections and friendships world-wide.
Zoom meetings were out of the question for me. I found them impersonal and distracting and they brought out defects of character that I’ve been working to get rid of, such as impatience and anxiety. I’m grateful that Zoom meetings were available for those who needed them and found them helpful. But what really works for me is writing so I was very grateful to find the WSO blog early on in the pandemic. I enjoy having a topic to relate to and feel comfortable expressing my thoughts and feelings in a safe environment and I find reading the thoughts… Read more »
Zoom meetings really brought out the crazy in me. Every technical problem, feedback noise, or off topic rambling would send me straight to crazy-town. Fortunately I’ve been in Al-Anon long enough to not trust all my feelings as facts. Principles above personalities became the slogan to use for zoom meetings!
I also found YouTube to be a great source of AA and Al-Anon speakers. I really missed the conference we all worked so hard on. It was sad that it was canceled due to the pandemic.
I started using the WSO Blog when it was first introduced. It was a godsend to me because my work hours and commute didn’t leave much time or physical energy to attend meetings. I like that the blog is something I can access any day, any time. I also love the way members sometimes continue to post shares to topics from previous months. I can revisit a topic and get fresh perspectives as well as reinforcement of the past shares. Lately I’ve also started participating on the AFG app. I’m not a social media person; using the app is a… Read more »
Right from joining email groups to hosting our local Al-Anon adult children of alcoholics meetings on conference call apps to accessing the latest E-book versions of CAL, I have tried to use technology as a true blue millennial that I am to aid my Al-Anon recovery. And, let me say this I don’t see more people my age in meetings (I am 28 and an adult child), but now I hope that technology, which is something peeps my age and even younger, have full access to will make it even easier to access Al-Anon program from anywhere and at anytime,… Read more »
When I was a child, I looked forward to winter. No, I didn’t enjoy the cold, but I did love snow days. Nothing was better than realizing that I didn’t have to go to school. In 2020, Al-Anon members had plenty of opportunities not to go to school. The pandemic shut down many forms of face-to-face connections including most Al-Anon meetings. Did Al-Anon declare a snow day? No way! Tech-savvy members set up electronic meetings so we could continue to meet. At first I felt awkward at these meetings but gradually I got used to this new way of sharing… Read more »
I joined my local Al-Anon meeting three years ago, August 10. A small group of three, we met in the community health center, reading Steps or discussing a daily reading topic. After Covid restrictions our meeting location was no longer available so I would phone the others once in a while. I asked about a Sponsor and was informed “that our “group is too small to have Sponsors; we are each other’s Sponsors”. Thankfully, last November, an out of town friend invited me to her meeting on Zoom and a month later I discovered Zoom meetings were everywhere when I… Read more »
This is a very simple example, but I’ve found that texting makes it much easier to reach out to Al-Anon friends when I’m struggling. Not being able to admit when I need help is a major character fault! Talking about my feelings face to face is extremely hard, and picking up the “1000-pound phone” seems impossible, especially when I’m having a bad day and my coping skills are low. Texting feels a little safer and I can take my time to get my thoughts together if I need to. It makes it possible to reach out to others in program… Read more »
Technology has given me the opportunity to attend meetings all over the world, especially Zoom meetings. I also have the ability to read Al Anon literature on my phone instead of carrying a book in my purse as I used to do. At the touch of my fingers, I can connect to my lifeline of support.
The pandemic truly opened my eyes to Al-Anon’s international platform through attending meetings far beyond the borders of my City, State, even across the ponds into the UK and Australia. The accents were often quite different, even within the U.S. — New Jersey, Massachusetts, and the Southern parts of the U.S. — but the Al-Anon message was always the same: the principles of Tradition Five, regardless of accent and language spoken. The more savvy techies among us were only too happy to help work out the bugs of the technology, from suggestions to actual fixes. As the Alateens like to… Read more »
When COVID shut things down I was so happy to learn about virtual meetings! Right away one of the members in my group who is tech savvy provided us with a way to connect online where we could see our other members and have a meeting. What a blessing! My two meetings a week keep me spiritually, emotionally and mentally grounded. I couldn’t imagine not seeing my Al-Anon family. Thanks to my Higher Power who works through the members I didn’t have to. We have been meeting virtually online for over a year and although one of the meetings has… Read more »
When it first became clear to me that the problems in my home were the result of someone else’s drinking, I was embarrassed and I was angry. I had previous experience with 12 Step programs that left me thinking they didn’t work and it made me mad that I was going to have to deal with it all over again. After all, he was the problem, not me! At the time I was the member of an on-line bulletin board service that no longer exists. One day I found a group named “Recovery” and started reading without posting – we… Read more »
I now attend one meeting a day (at least) because of how easy it is to use the Zoom videoconferencing platform. Even if I cannot get to an entire meeting, a half or even a quarter of a meeting makes a big difference for me. Also, although nothing beats an “in person” meeting, I have had to move to a new city this year and it is fabulous to not have to leave my meetings behind.
My name is Kathi and I am a very grateful member of the world wide fellowship of Al-Anon. I have to say that pre pandemic I used technology only for connecting with those I sponsor and that was basically email and texts. I also used conference calls for meetings with those I sponsor who did not live near me. I have been part of an email meeting for a long time. And then during the pandemic, I learned about zoom, the Al-Anon app, my involvement in the email meeting increased. As a result of technology I am getting to more… Read more »
I find it impossible to answer this without doing so via a question: How HAVEN’T I used technology to ‘aid’ my Al-Anon recovery! Given technology is a mainstay of my professional life, coming to rely more on ‘technology’ as a member of Al-Anon has been essential and pretty much ‘standard practice’ even before the reliance on digital tools to attend meetings and stay in touch with others in the fellowship. When COVID hit, I had just broken a bone and was confined to my home. Living by myself and immobile, using at least a phone and internet-based resources ranging from… Read more »