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What Keeps Me

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Service is what keeps me in the program. There is no “as if” in it; my life truly does depend on it. Doing service at the group, intergroup, and region levels gets me out of my own head.

Doing service for others enables me to be useful, and that is a positive feeling.

When I do service, I feel like I am part of the group rather than an observer looking in from the outside. When I first came into program in July 2004, doing service was a way for me to connect to people. Ours is a disease of isolation. I am usually very shy, but people who hear me now don’t believe it. I also used to weigh almost 250 pounds (113 kg), and I am now half that. Helping to set up chairs or put them away, talking to a newcomer, setting up literature—all of these are opportunities to connect with other people, share my program, and leave the meeting knowing I am among friends.

If I weren’t doing service, I wouldn’t still be here.

— Edited and reprinted from The Transformation newsletter, Central Ohio Service Intergroup, July 2010

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