[MajestyJo]

Thank you for sharing, I find a lot of the same things here in Canada. I have heard spiritual speakers, but they seem few and far between. We all know how to use. Tell me what you did to not use and how the program is working for you.

When I am asked to speak, I say, "I am not here to do a 4th and 5th Step, I am just here to qualify to stand up here and tell you my story. Then I tell a few incidents of what happened, how I got to the fellowship, and then for the most part, how the program has worked for me. For most people, you are lucky if you get 10 min. of sharing. For me, it is about 20 minutes, because it is about passing on the words of recovery.

One of the nicest things that happened to me was a woman who asked me to speak for her anniversary. She said, November is a bad month for me, I don't need to hear some guy getting up and standing in front of the room, with his hands in his pockets, rattling his change. I need a spiritual message and when I think of spiritual, I think of you. I volunteered with this woman for 4 years in the local jail doing meetings and one on one with women and young offenders.

A lot of people have a problem with the word God. I try to remember to say Higher Power, so no one is excluded, but I find myself saying, "my God." I always stress that a Higher Power is a God of their understanding and I give them the option of thinking "Good Orderly Direction, a Group of Drunks/Drug addict, depending on the group you are speaking to. I have spoke at AA a lot, but have spoken at CA, and Al-Anon too. I make a point that it is the "God of their understanding." I also stress that I had to build a new relationship with my God.

Cocaine Anonymous says, "Cocaine and any other mind altering substance." I didn't do cocaine but I used a lot of mind altering substances and their basic text is the Big Book of AA. I went to NA too, I knew I was an addict, but a lot of them didn't see me as such because I didn't use street drugs. Even though they say, alcohol is a drug too, they don't like the word Sobriety. Sobriety according to my sponsor was Soundness of Mind. They say, "That words belongs to the OTHER fellowship." That was about 10 years ago, so don't know what is happening in today.

I went to AA for my denial, NA for identification, and to Al-Anon to find myself, because a lot of my issues were childhood based. I remembered the fear at 5 years old, and was told by my mother of my other 'sins' prior to that. For me in today, "Sin means Soul In Need, always looking for something outside of myself to make me feel better, what ever the substance is." Drugs are but a symptom of my disease, the problem is me. In today, I go within instead of looking outside of myself. I pray and ask for help and then listen for the answers.