Online Recovery

Dateline: 01/28/98

Is online recovery real, or is it virtual? Or is it virtually real?

It is unfettered by time and space in its efforts to reach out to other hurting people and "spread the message."

As the Internet itself has grown rapidly in the past few years, members of many different recovery support groups were included in the millions of people who went "online." Many of those support group members have naturally gathered themselves together to fellowship and share their experience, strength, and hope.

For many of us in the online community, recovery on the Internet has been a wonderful supplement to our personal journey of recovery -- another tool we have added to help us work the "program."

While online recovery should never substitute for person-to-person support group membership, due to its limitations in providing true personal contact with others in recovery, recovery on the Internet does has many advantages.

"Meetings" on the Internet are virtually continuous and are not restricted by geographical differences. It is unfettered by time and space in its efforts to reach out to other hurting people and "spread the message."

But for many others, who were formerly "lone members" or limited by physical disability from attending regular "face-to-face" meetings, Online recovery has been nothing short of a gift from a power greater than ourselves.

Compiling Your Stories

I would like to compile here a collection of testimonies about the importance, or lack thereof, of online recovery fellowship. What has your online recovery experiences meant to you? Has it really helped in your personal journey toward wholeness?

Your Comments Please post your comments about online recovery on the bulletin board here at the Alcoholism site at About.com.

Particularly, I would like to know if access to online support has filled in special needs you may have. Do you have any disabilities or other circumstances that make attending face-to-face meetings difficult or impossible?

Please post your comments about online recovery on the bulletin board here at the Alcoholism site at About.com, under the topic thread "SURVEY: Virtual Recovery." If you wish to do so completely anonymously, please see these tips.

I know how much my online recovery experiences have meant to me. I'm looking foward to hearing from you. I may use portions of some of your comments in future weekly feature articles, on a first-name only basis, of course.

Online Groups
These are some examples of how support group members have joined together online in order to solve common problems.

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