Who Is an Addict?

I called Julie. When we worked together, that girl scared the crap out of me. She used to follow me around, she used to SIT by me in meetings... she was one of "Those" people, she was in NA, she was probably a Narc. That was how I felt about her before now.

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I called, I asked if she remembered me, and asked if she would be my sponsor. Until then, she didn't know I was going to meetings - we hadn't run into each other yet.

"I'd be honored to be your sponsor."

"Honored."

Obviously there was something wrong with her. Who the HELL would be "Honored" to work with me - I was an embarrassment, I shamed myself, I was a liability... "Honored?"

Julie asked me to do something that seemed odd to me. She asked me to just call her, at least once a day, for two weeks, even if I didn't have anything to say. She also wanted me to go to at least 4 meetings a week - she preferred I went to 7 a week or more, but she knew I had no car. She told me to get a list of numbers from the meetings, and to use it to get rides. I already had one of those! Also, there were a couple of meetings that were one town down the mountain from here, so I walked to those - it was about a 3 mile walk, and usually I got a ride home.

Sometimes my neighbor would give me a few bong hits, and a ride too. Yeah, I smoked pot before meetings (I didn't have a problem with pot anyway.)

I told my new sponsor that I didn't have a problem with pot, and that I had no intention of stopping that, either. I just needed to get off the meth.

Julie was a very patient, loving sponsor. VERY patient and loving, and very good at helping me understand, over time, at what it REALLY MEANS to be an addict.