There’s people in my area, with clean time, cross sharing and throwing newcomers under the bus. Today I was in a large crowd talking to a newcomer when one of the regulars comes up and shouts”Where have you been?!? I haven’t seen you around are you ok ?!?!” The newcomer I was talking to has been making regular meeting attendance and working steps with his sponsor. However I watched this guys face turn a bright red and he decided to leave right then and there.
It’s a disgusting violation of the first tradition. This old timer embarrassed the newcomer just to feed his attention speaking. Another time a new person came in speaking out on his suicidal ideations, and how he wanted to get clean but couldn’t. One of these D Bags cross shared saying “suicide is a selfish thing! You have people that are gonna miss you and you’re a coward for that!” This was during a meeting. The person chairing hushed him. However that was it. He could’ve waited til after the meeting and privately offered help, but no, it had to be in front of everyone.
I could go in and on but I’m sure you all know what I’m talking about. So how does a group or area deal with these people as a whole? Because we can’t keep driving new comers away and the first tradition seems to not exist in my area as of lately. I want everyone to feel like this is a safe and compassionate place to recover. Not some attention seeking club for the “cleantime folk”.
Thanks