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Visit Seniors In Sobriety for the information and awareness that older adults need to regain control of their lives.

Alcoholism is a disease that robs you of everything you hold dear. It keeps you from your friends and family and, just as importantly, from yourself. But it is never too late to find your sober space and look forward to living your best life. If you’re a senior early in your recovery, keep reading for a few tips on how to maintain a forward trajectory and never look back.

Keep going to your meetings.

As an alcoholic, the support you receive is crucial in your recovery. No matter how long you’ve been sober, make a point to go to meetings regularly. Seniors in Sobriety’s list of senior-centric meetings can help you find your tribe. However, remember that you are not boxed into one type of meeting, and you can attend all ages functions at churches, treatment facilities, and other meeting locations.

Plan for the future.

When you are in the throes of your addiction, you may have faced depression, confusion, and other negative feelings. Some of this stems from a chemical reaction that your brain goes through, even as you detox. But feelings can also linger once you are sober if you have nothing to look forward to.

Make a point to plan for your future. You can do this by going back to school, changing jobs, or prioritizing your health. You might also start saving money for a new home. Although it’s a long process, you can save up a down payment – preferably at least 5% – although some lenders have no-down payment options, depending on the type of loan you qualify for and your preferred payment terms.

Avoid negative patterns.

As an alcoholic, you no doubt succumbed to many negative patterns in your lifetime. Footprints to Recovery notes that negative self-talk is one of these. Once you learn to identify and become aware of your behaviors, you can then take steps to change them. Another example of a negative pattern to avoid is going into your old “haunts.” While you may have sober friends that eat dinner at your favorite bar, it’s probably best to change your dining preference to something with far less temptation.

Exit toxic relationships.

Toxic relationships are those that make us feel less than the person we are. They may be verbally or physically abusive or you may be in a partnership with somebody with keen manipulation skills. Whatever type of toxicity you allowed yourself to live with, sobriety is the best time to walk away from this situation. Toxic relationships are harmful to both your physical and mental health.

Complete your steps.

There is a reason that the 12 steps have been around for so long. It’s because they work as a roadmap to sobriety. Even if you’ve already completed them once, don’t be afraid to go another round. Remember, you don’t always have to complete them in order, and you may bounce back and forth from one step to the next. If you are already familiar with them, find a sponsor to walk with you as you admit you are powerless, make amends to those you have harmed, and experience your spiritual awakening.

Alcoholism is not a disease contained exclusively to young, healthy men and women. There are an unfortunate number of seniors in their 50s, 60s, and beyond affected each day. But, you have resources, and there are plenty of ways that you can take control of your life now so that you can maintain your sobriety in the future.

Image via Pixabay

Article submitted by Teresa Greenhill

Teresa Greenhill – info@mentalhealthforseniors.com

Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly: One of the realities of sobriety offered by the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. As I grow older, it also has become an urgency of getting things accomplished for service to Seniors in Sobriety. For me the struggle has been between honoring the spirit of Concept Ten’s description of service leadership balanced by service authority with continually trying to encourage the development of a better informed group conscience of Seniors in Sobriety itself. And one of the limiting realities of aging is that many of us will pass away sooner than later. This suggests that we might want to encourage more seniors to be involved in SIS service so that our institutional knowledge of being elders in recovery can be passed on more gracefully, without the need for complicated documentation, discussion, or procedures.

So I put out this invitation to all of you. Please introduce at least one of your elder meeting friends to SIS (via the website: seniorsinsobriety.com ) and also encourage them to sign-up for our emails that let folks know about our bi-annual conferences and other SIS activities. (email me if the website link is troublesome, mackcolin

We continue to develop our SIS online meeting (via Zoom) for Sunday afternoons and will alert you on this website and via email when the remaining details are worked out. Apologies if my announcement last fall raised any expectations that we weren’t yet equipped to meet. Stay tuned.

Seniors in Sobriety is hosting a hospitality room/booth at the AA World Services International Convention July 2-5, 2020 in Detroit Michigan. As of this writing, I know that Mickey W. will be attending. Others of our core steering team and followers will also be there to meet and greet our seniors.

Best wishes to you and your families for a joyous holiday season and a Happy 2020 New Year!

Colin M. – webservant

2018 SENIORS IN SOBRIETY UPDATE
(This is a post of the email sent in early December)

2019 SIS International Conference Info
The location for the 2019 Seniors in Sobriety International Conference will be in Reno/Sparks Nevada.  The dates selected are May 17-19th 2019.  The planning committee has chosen The Silver Legacy Resort and Casino in Reno.  They are working on a program, and other details required to host a successful conference.  They will publish a registration form and it will be available on our website: https://seniorsinsobriety.com
Via email: registration
or hard copies by mailing:  SIS 2019 Conference Registrar – P.O. Box 11011 Reno, NV 89510-9998

We will keep you apprised on any changes or modifications of conference information as soon as we receive it.  Please click on the link under 2019 Conference Info on the website if you want to download the pdf of the conference flyer.

In the same vein, Joe R. and and Erika H. from Reno visited Mickey W, Chris S. and I in late November.  We had an opportunity to get an update on conference planning and to discuss our newly formed SIS Steering Committee with them.

SIS Organizational Info
Since the wrap-up meeting of the 2017 SIS Intl. Conference in Van Nuys, Mickey W., Chris S., and I have noodled over better means of assuring SIS continuity over the coming years and have made some decisions in the absence of any governing body or group conscience.  In a phone conversation I had with Chris (and later with Mickey) we felt it would be prudent to recommend every other year SIS conferences at least until after the 2020 AA World Services Conference in Detroit.  We were able to identify some helpful folks from two interested communities, Reno NV and San Francisco, CA.  (Please see postings on the website for further mention of these developments).

Further discussions over the past few months and a serendipitous event led Mickey to open a bank account and a Yuma PO Box for SIS.  The Woman’s Conference in Phoenix gifted SIS some of their excess revenue and it has been deposited into the newly formed SIS Steering Group account as has the excess revenue from the 2017 Van Nuys Conference.  We have drafted guidelines for the group and are working on a set of job descriptions for a “Conference Planning Handbook” that will simplify the start-up efforts of future Conference planning committees.  The focus of the Steering Group will be to assure continuity of SIS going forward, to support conference planning, and to provide resources for CEC groups and committees within existing AA and Al-Anon Areas, Districts, or Groups throughout the world.

Six charter members of the committee were nominated from members who have been active for the many years SIS conferences have been held.  Their terms, replacement, and or rotations will be specified in the Guidelines according to a quorum vote.  This group will meet electronically six times a year (and more if needed) and also face to face at the wrap-up meeting of each conference.  All members are to be volunteers.

We invite the input and participation of all Seniors in Sobriety at our meetings and for conference planning and SIS/CEC Outreach activities and projects.

We encourage you all to visit the website regularly (at least once or twice a month).  Your web servant and other submitting members will continue working to add more content that will attract senior readers as well as those looking for conference and outreach information.

Please visit the website https://seniorsinsobriety.com for SIS information.  And tell your senior friends to visit the website and click on the contact area at the top right side of the home page to register their email address with us.  I also continue to encourage you all to please send me your senior experiences and photos and I will publish them in a post or newsletter.  So far no one has taken me up on the request so please consider doing so or encouraging your friends as well.  We continue to need the support of all recovered Seniors including more information about YOUR adventures.  (We all certainly have enough other stuff going on that isn’t particularly fun or adventuresome, right?)

In Love and Service,
Colin M. – Webservant

When we last communicated, my wife and I were in Sioux Falls South Dakota.  Since, we’ve headed west to Oregon and Washington.  The good news is we will be wintering in Winter Haven CA which is right on the Arizona border next to Yuma.  That’s where Mickey W. hangs out and we will be working with him all winter on SIS stuff.  There also will be a meeting of SIS worker bees in Yuma sometime in October.  As of now Chris S., Mickey W., I, and hopefully one or more of the 2019 planning committee members will get together to discuss SIS organizational issues and more of the details of the 2019 (and maybe 2021) conferences.

I’ve already let the cat out of the bag a bit already, but the current state of 2019 is that their new Planning Committee chair is Kit B. (Applause) and he is moving forward with organizing the effort.  Tentative date will be sometime in May 2019 and the venue will be in the Sparks/Reno area of Nevada.  Although there’s no formal report from the committee to post yet, I have been in contact with Kit and am working to make archived information available to him and his committee.  Also, a set of job descriptions and other event planning documents have been handed over from the September 2017 California Conference.

Travel-wise we discovered another great AA meeting place- The Hut-  in La Pine Oregon where seniors abound (The Sun River Resort area outside Bend Oregon is a well-known retirement community anyway and there’s also a great meeting there at the Nature Center on Monday evenings from 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.) Fascinating to me was the metal “A” on the door, which when the sun is shining throws a second shadow “A” behind it.

In Love and Service,

Colin M. – webservant

 

Looking back over the past few months of correspondence and activity, it seems appropriate to suggest that we continue to provide a newsletter update every two months rather than monthly.

Your web servant has been attempting to get some help with ideas, articles, and other content for our website. So far I have not gotten any submissions or comments so I will assume that the information provided is meeting the needs of those of you who are visiting the website. But please don’t hesitate to email me with suggestions, criticism, helpful hints and other guidance regarding what you wish to see or have read.

We still don’t have any “formal” organizational structure for SIS itself (other than conference planning committees) despite requests to a number of you to assist with developing some sort of group conscience. And although reluctant to make any major changes to our current direction, I will continue to work on the inspiration provided by my higher power and think up material that is of interest.

My own travels this year are taking me to meeting halls and new cities throughout the US. The personal details are better left for a speaker meeting some day. But a few highlights might be of interest.

I am including a few pictures that I have taken, with attention to the spirit of anonymity so no group members are pictured. However the “story” behind the meeting halls and groups is worth sharing in my humble opinion. These are not, specifically, senior friendly meetings, but each had many elder statesmen in attendance. One had a special parking sign for seniors though. (see picture)

I attended the 6th anniversary of the founding of the 3-6-12 Hope group in San Antonio Texas. Two of their founding members Rudy F. and his wife Yoli, were gracious to invite me to their potluck after meeting Rudy and another meeting the previous night. They both have multiple decades of sobriety and provide caring leadership in the San Antonio community.

Due to our itinerary, and the length of stays in various locations, meetings have been few and far between. But when nearby larger cities, the Meeting Guide was very helpful – in Areas where it has been adopted. Otherwise, the online presence of Intergroup and Central Office websites was of help in locating meetings, especially those that were held nearby public transportation bus stops.

As we were wending our way North through Alabama, we found a campground near the freeway in Hartsell Alabama. While trying to find the local Walmart for groceries, we took a wrong turn and found ourselves in front of a single story WPA stone building. Above the door was a small hanging sign with the letters AA. On the door was a meeting schedule. I came back the following evening for a scheduled meeting and discovered a smokers meeting. The room (see picture) is mostly brown from years of smoke, and a fascinating array of memorabilia and visual aids was on the walls and in display cases. What struck me about the meeting hall was that it included a separate Al-anon meeting room as well as a non-smoking meeting room where business meetings are held for the various groups and programs. (See pictures)

My most recent meeting experience is in rural South Dakota where I was referred to the Parker meeting in Parker South Dakota. Located 35 miles west of Sioux Falls, it is held in the original VFW Hall and displays an AA sign on the outside that was furnished the group by the General Service office in New York in the early 1950s. The current meeting has about 20 members whose sobriety exceeds 400 years. The meeting is not attended by many Parker residents. Instead, members drive – some from as far as 125 miles- to attend the Parker meeting once weekly on Wednesday night. It’s simply an amazing experience.  As I write this post, the rain and threat of flooding prevent me from attending tonight. But weather permitting I will be there next week.

And, of course, I have been reminding everyone I meet about SIS and our conferences, but have been careful not to publicize. Hopefully some of those I meet will take interest and, God willing, we will eventually have a conference hosted by a committee East of the Pacific Region.

Well, as we say, I am rambling. Hopefully these musings will stimulate some of you to PLEASE submit your experiences with other senior friendly meetings and interesting meeting places as you walk your paths of seniority and recovery.  And pictures are OK as long as no members are identified without their permission.

In Love and Service,
Colin M. – Web Servant