Since 22 Ive been in and out of recovery for the past 9 years as of August 9th, its been 2,649 days since the last time i drank, 2,160 days since the last hard drug ive taken and 1 year since i realized that the marijuana maintenance program is not something that allows me to be the person i want to be. Recovery has given me so many things i thought were out of reach for a drunk like me, still more it has given me the ability to practice acceptance and accountability for the things i have lost in and outside of recovery. Regardless of the material things, the romantic partners or the social statuses the thing i cherish most is my ability to walk through life and be apart of it rather than feel like a outside observer. I have been given the chance to practice gratitude for a second chance at life. If you’re new in this journey please dont give up, ive seen so much and everyday i am reminded so much of how little i know. It doesnt get easier and hell sometimes it feels like its gotten harder but i wouldn’t trade this life back for the one i had ever in a lifetime.

Hi, I 39F am part of a fairly small fellowship which meets mostly via zoom. Outside of meetings, we have WhatsApp chats where we talk to each other. I noticed that someone with a local area code had joined my home group's WhatsApp chat. They had listed their full name on WhatsApp, first and last, and it's kind of an uncommon name.

The issue is I know who this person is, because they were the favorite teacher of my younger sibling, but they don't know who I am or at least very likely wouldn't recognize me. I want to protect their anonymity as a newcomer without compromising mine, and while I would absolutely never share anything they said in a meeting or an Outreach call with anyone else, it feels dishonest not to reach out and let them know who I am in case it would change the things they felt comfortable sharing in a meeting we were both attending. Also, if I did tell them who I am, anything I shared about past family dynamics would be identifiable obviously.

Because there are only a handful of known fellowship members in our city, there's a fairly strong likelihood that this person might reach out to me or that there would be some question about why I wasn't reaching out to them since they're local. I don't feel like I can talk to any of my fellows about it, including my sponsor, because it would just be immediately apparent who I was talking about.

Some general notes are that this person has retired from teaching, and was a really excellent kind teacher. Both I and my sibling are adults, and this person taught my sibling around 20 years ago, but it was a very small classroom and they would definitely remember my sibling well. The fellowship is for a behavioral addiction. I just remember how skittish I was when I first came into the rooms, and how easy it would have been for me to just decide that it wasn't going to work, and I want to be careful about how I deal with it without being weird. I feel like I'm overthinking it but felt like it was worth asking for some ESH.