Fulbright Scholar [1]
I am in my kitchen making a grilled cheese and ham sandwich for lunch when I realized the time is 11:47 am. Immediately, I got excited because the noon, brown bag, AA Zoom men’s meeting will be starting soon and I am looking forward to joining the 100 + men I got sober with and those new to the recovery from alcoholism. I also became a bit stressed because I didn’t want to be late for the meeting, nor did I want to burn my grilled cheese sandwich which I usually do when distracted.
I am a 76-year-old professor, Fulbright Scholar, living in a small town in a northern state in the US. I am considered to be at high risk for becoming infected with the coronavirus and have been isolating at home, alone since 15 March 2020. As a recovering alcoholic, being involved daily with other recovering alcoholics is key to maintaining sobriety and a happy, healthy life.
Today, 22 April 2020, Earth Day, is cold and windy. On my morning walk, I passed only two women, we waved. In my small hometown – where there are fewer than 30 people per square mile compared to New York City which has over 27,000 people in that same area – social distancing is easy. But it is not helpful for those in AA and other recovery programs.
The core concept of AA and other 12 step programs is one person, face-to-face with another person, each sharing their experience, their strength, and their hope that they might recover from alcoholism and become useful citizens helping others to also recover. Attending meetings, daily, often more than one a day, helps alcoholics to not drink and to live a better life by sharing their feelings, problems, and life challenges with fellow alcoholics who understand exactly how they feel in that moment.
When social distancing was put in force the vast majority of the 71,000+ AA groups in the US and Canada, and 52,000+ groups in 178 other countries shut down their meetings immediately.[2] How was this community of more than two million recovering alcoholics to maintain their sobriety? And while there have always been limited AA meetings online, the AA community as a whole embraced Zoom – large and small meetings were created instantaneously. Within a week there were over 40 AA meetings serving the people in the three small communities in my rural area – many more meetings than we ever had before. While, most members of AA have difficulty with the new Zoom normal in recovery preferring the traditional face to face meetings – my experience has been a bit different.
During my Fulbright assignment, I was posted in a country where there are only 15 AA meetings a week and one meeting in the city where I was posted. Only one person spoke limited English and my command of their language was confined to “Hello”, “How much does this cost?”, and “I love you!”, and Oh yes, “I want water” – another useful phrase. This combined with poor living and food conditions had me by the first week’s end in that dark hole of alcoholic self-pity.
That was over two years ago and it was then I first found online AA meetings – chat meetings – four meetings a day morning, midday, evening, and night – seven days a week. Fortunately, I had internet – and I was welcomed immediately into this loving and understanding community. With the support of 40 to 60 chat group members at each meeting, I was quickly able to turn the view my situation from negative to positive and enjoy my Fulbright posting.
More than two years later, I still attend the AA 8:30 am morning chat meeting – we have people from the US, Canada, United Kingdom, Norway, Egypt, India, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere in the world, all in a community of recovery. What the AA community has found is that because of social distancing / social isolation – more alcoholics are attending more AA meetings that ever before. AA members are linking up with fellow member they have haven’t seen for years. Take for example, the noon men’s AA meeting I mentioned earlier. I got sober in the meeting almost 35 years ago. That meeting is 100 miles south of where I live, in a small city. Pre-social distancing, the venue was a Unitarian Universalist church and typically had 60 to 70 men meeting face to face, weekdays, at noon. During social distancing, the Zoom version meeting is now seven days a week with over 100 men attending. Today there were 108 men including those like me, who live away returning for the fellowship and support with old friends and to have the opportunity to help newcomers.
While many AA Zoom attendees complain that “the meetings are just not the same” and that they miss the face to face meeting companionship – today’s communication technology has given alcoholics worldwide the ability to stay connected, to maintain their sobriety, and to help those alcoholics seeking recovery for the first time or returning, as we like to say, from a field trip. In this way, I see the AA community as coming closer together as a result of the COVAID-19 virus and social distancing – a truly unexpected benefit. I have been well prepared by my Fulbright experience!
[1] Members of AA, Alcoholic Anonymous, believe it is best not to reveal their personal identity in public or media settings. This is not to protect themselves, but rather should they fail to remain sober they have not provided a public spectacle of themselves while representing AA.
[2] https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/smf-53_en.pdf It is estimated that there are more than 1.4 million people in recovery from alcoholism in the US and more 2.4 million worldwide – January 1, 2019 estimates