Recovery

[hampshire73]

Doc, I know what you mean. I'm not currently in regular contact with anyone I knew in TWI, and it's been like that for around 20 years. I feel the need to talk about what I have learned recently at GSC and other places, but I can't talk about it to people who weren't in it -- they wouldn't understand.

In the past year, I've been trying to find and contact people I was close to in the past. This was because I was in lockdown on the Virginia Tech campus during the shootings last year, and I thought about all these people that I cared about but haven't spoken to in years. I resolved that if I got out alive, I would do something about it. So since then, I've been looking people up and emailing them. Anyway, since finding GSC, I have emailed a few of these people, and I noticed that if I mention TWI in the message, they do not respond to me! I don't know if they didn't get the message, didn't remember who I was, or don't want to have anything to do with anyone who mentions TWI. It was depressing.

Anyway, I'm finding it therapeutic to participate in these bulletin boards. It's all that seems "available" to me at this point.

Waterbuffalo, I was active in Al-Anon for several years after leaving TWI, but I started going there because I was married to an alcoholic. At the time, even though I hadn't been active in TWI for years and had joined a denominational church, I didn't know what I know now and didn't think of TWI as a cult, so I didn't know I needed recovery for that. Now that I know, I will think about applying the 12 steps to this. Thanks for mentioning it!

[waterbuffalo]

hampshire73, hi. nice to meet you. I don't go to Al Anon religiously, but I do whenever I can. I always seem to hear some nice tidbit that I can apply to my life, and it's nice that no one is tracking my attendance or anything like that. Some of the people who attend are also in therapy and we even have some therapists who attend for themselves, not for their professional life. Everyone seems to be trying to live in the now while taking responsibility for the past actions that may have caused others harm. Yeah, it's been beneficial to me. Glad you're looking back into it if that's what you think might benefit you :-)

[hampshire73]

Hi, waterbuffalo!

Years ago, I heard an Al-Anon speaker from Texas say that the whole state of Texas was qualified for Al-Anon because at the time both the governor and the lieutenant governor were alcoholics.

The only requirement is to be bothered by the drinking or drug abuse by a friend or relative. Everyone is twi qualifies because of vp's drinking and our relationship to him, imo. His illness affected us all.

You said it!