I literally fell into recovery. At 9:00 o'clock in the morning I had just gotten into work and was leaning over to put my lunch in the refrigerator. That's when I blacked out, my face hit the floor suffering significant scrapes and a dislocated a finger.
My coworkers brought me home after that incident and I remember one of them saying, “Don't drink all day”. When I got to work the following morning the president of the company met me before I got in the door. I was asked not to return.
At that point I knew I needed help. Coincidentally, I had my annual physical a few days later. Explaining what had happened to my physician he scribbled out a number on a pad. It was for a mental health treatment center where I entered detox. During my six days in detox, they had two to three 12 Step commitments each day. At first I found them helpful, but eventually they became redundant. I completed detox and went into a day program and where I learned about SMART Recovery. I went to my first meeting during that program. At the time there were four meetings within driving distance. I usually attend it all of them. At one point I attended 10 meetings in 10 days throughout the area.
I love the sense of community I get from the meetings and tools used by SMART. A few months into recovery I was in Wisconsin visiting my sister and went to a meeting near her home. It was a Friday afternoon and the facilitator was a wonderful young lady. Being the only one in attendance I asked her what would happen if she couldn't make the meeting. Did she have someone to take her place? She responded, “No I'm the only one in the area”. This got me thinking that perhaps I might want to take the Host training so I could fill in if needed back home. Within a few months I was encouraged to do that by a couple of facilitators. After the Host training I was hooked and took the Facilitator training.
It took me a few months before I could establish a location for my first meeting. I actually ended up with two meetings when a facility had emailed SMART headquarters looking for someone to have a meeting there. I started that one.
Before my first meeting at the other facility, I was informed that the meeting I had planned from 7:00 to 8:30 wouldn't work because they closed at 8. I edited my materials and the listing on SMARTFinder to accommodate that. A few meetings later I was told if they didn't have a client for one of their clinicians at 7, they couldn't keep the building open for me. Fortunately, it was summer and I would bring a tent, chairs and citronella candles to hold the meeting outdoors. In fact, we had drive through recovery one evening when it was a little chilly. Three young ladies decided to sit in their car where it was warmer and literally pulled up and did their check-ins from the car. When the weather got cooler I rented a U-Haul truck, using a heater and battery powered lights holding a meeting in the back of the truck. As the weather got colder, people would call to ask if the meeting was indoors or in the truck. When it was indoors, I filled the room, but the outdoor meeting only had a handful of attendees. During this time, I was trying to find another location nearby that would accommodate my time and day. That didn't happen and it came to the point where I had to put the meeting on hiatus.
Through the Director at the other facility where I was holding meetings, I got a lead for a different location and settled in there with my second meeting. Several months later COVID hit and I went online with both.
When we were offered the opportunity to use Zoom I got together with the other facilitators in the state to figure out how to employ that platform. I'm proud to say that Rode Island was the first and I believe only state to transition all our meetings to Zoom.
It is very gratifying for me to be able to help others deal with and overcome maladaptive behaviors. The SMART Recovery tools are applicable to many parts of life. I've been facilitating over three years and have had some attendees right from the beginning. It’s very rewarding seeing how they've overcome their behaviors and grown as individuals living more balanced lives. It is also wonderful to encourage others to become facilitators.
Along with the two local online meetings and one in person meeting at Anchor Recovery here in Rhode Island I've also done what I call “pop up” meetings. In my early days as a facilitator (pre-covid) I attended two sober music festivals where we presented SMART attempting to spread our program.