On-line conversations
Monday, June 9th, 2008- (by Martha)
- 8 responses
- Category: Uncategorized
I make my living reporting for public radio, which means that I spend my days having conversations with folks I don’t know well. And as I do a lot of feature work–as opposed to hard news, a lot of those conversations go on for quite some time. A successful in-depth interview requires me to help the person I’m talking to relax and just talk to me about what they think or feel or have experienced.
I used to think that to be successful, this kind of interview had to be done in person. But then, as I began to do more and more national work, I was forced into doing more and more of these conversations on digital phone lines. And you know what? It’s now my preferred way to have a good let-down-your-hair conversation with someone I don’t know. Why? Because it removes all distractions and allows both me and the person I’m talking about to just think about what we’re saying–and then say it.
It occurred to me over the weekend that blogs allow a similar kind of quiet, focussed, in-depth conversation. Since this is a website about sobriety, those of us who participate just focus on what we want to say about that and then say it to each other.
All this is leading up to a question. I’m curious about what you see as the place of blogs in your sobriety?
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I started blogging in order to document my triumphs and my downfalls and to then compile these in book form for my three children. I hoped it would help to explain my life-long battle with alcoholism. I was 57 when I finally started a sober life.
I am a reticent New Englander and it is not easy for me to share my innermost feelings, so bogging has been the perfect instrument for me. I have 19 years of continuous sobriety thanks to the AA program and I know that my journey is one of triumph over sorrow and that I can share this hope with those who, like me, thought there was none.
I am very thankful that we have such a wonderful (and FREE !) venue for our thoughts. It has truly re-opened a vein of creativity in me that has been closed for years and, not least of all, it has given me a whole new family of cherished friends.
I blog because it helps me to share even when I’m not at a meeting. If it helps someone besides me, then that’s an added bonus. I’ve always liked writing and this is one way to write and to try to work on my recovery at the same time.
Interesting question. I blog to keep it honest.
my blog is very important to me and sobriety. since i don’t go to meetings and such, this is my daily check-in and i’ve learnt so much from all other other blogger too. plus it’s my honesty check!
The 5th day I was sober, the first day I could drag myself out of bed, I began scouring the Internet for anyone out in the electronic abyss sharing personal stories about recovery from addiction to methamphetamine. I didn’t believe at that point that permanent recovery was possible.
I found nothing. I only found information about how great crystal meth is and how to make meth. I decided that I would have to become the voice I was looking for.
In the beginning I documented the minutiae of detox. I counted days on my blog and I wrote honestly about my fears, my feelings, my physical experience. I was apparently filling a void because I soon attracted a circle of devoted followers and supporters that encouraged me along the path.
Over time blogging has become an important part of my spiritual practice. I write to focus on the solution. I write to find out what is really going on with me. I write because I’m better on the page than I am in meetings. I share my experience, strength, and hope with others, to solve our common problem and help others recover.
I realize that the Internet isn’t exactly a hotbed of mental health, but neither are meetings. Hopefully I share the solution more than I share the problem. I still write to be the voice I need to hear.
Blogging has been instrumental in my recovery. I found a blog on Day 1 which inspired me to create my own. I identified with the blogger and thought maybe I should try creating my own. I was never able to journal with pen and paper and I have found blogging a great way to work out my thoughts, emotions and experiences. Or sometimes its just a chronicle or maybe just some fun. Perhaps I needed the feedback or the keyboard. As time has passed, blogging has provided me an outlet, a meeting between meetings, resources I never would have found on my own, connections to people from all over the world with and without addictions confirming that we are all one and the same, Children of God.
When I got sober, the situation was much the same as Chris describes except that there was no blogging in the sense we think of it. Some people were posting thoughts and ideas on the Web on pages of their own, but there was no coherent way to find such things except for listservs, and you had to wade through a lot of garbage to find any real support.
Support and information were limited mostly to local contacts and the AA Grapevine. (I exaggerate, perhaps, but not much.) I remember doing bulletins for my treatment alumni association on an IBM — Selectric.
Most of recovery is pretty basic. My Buddhist practice has taught me that looking for basics and first causes, and trying to be clear about them, is what most investigation is about. Those things were hard to find back in the day. More accurately, they were there — as they are now — in the words of the old timers, the Big Book and Basic Text and the other literature. But it was the same old phrases, the same old stuff expressed in the same old ways and I wasn’t satisfied.
As a newcomer, I wanted more. I wanted to twist it, turn it over, look at it, analyze it, distill it, and come up with the definitive answer. I wanted something new. It took me a long time to see the wisdom in those slogans on the walls, the gentle yet complex psychology of the 12 steps, and to appreciate fully just how talented and inspired (by whatever) those old timers were.
Along with the ups and downs of my own journey, those are the sorts of things I try to convey when I write about recovery — the old wisdom, the wonder, of recovery and the steps, combined with the new science. Blogging is perfect for that.
As those old timers were so fond of saying, if I don’t give it away, what in the world am I going to do with it?
As Jung put it “There are those who go digging for an artesian well and come instead upon a volcano.” Sometimes our difficulties are within our depths and it is wise to proceed with caution.
I wish you peace and patience within and without, and healthy doses of the love that works best for you. Be gentle with yourself.