I have outside issues, you have outside issues... we all have outside issues!
What is an "outside issue"?
Normally, it means something you're not supposed to talk about inside a meeting.
Sometimes that means we're not getting into politics during business meetings—fair enough, and thank God!
Other times, it seems to mean: "Please leave your opinions, personality, questions, anger, weirdness, likes, trauma, relationships, mental health, medication, sexuality, and most of your actual life in the parking lot."
Hope Junkie is not a fellowship. We love them—well, sometimes... most of the time? It’s really hard to say, lol—but either way, we aren't here to argue with the fellowships, nor do we claim to represent any of them.
We simply acknowledge that we are part of a broader recovery community that comes with outside issues. For those of us who revolve our lives around recovery, the program's inside jokes become the fodder for our dark humor. We are equal opportunity when it comes to having a laugh at something—or everything.
We are definitely not here to decide which fellowship has recovery figured out. We’re not keeping score between AA, NA, CA, CMA, HA, CR, PA, OA, GA, SLAA, CoDA, Al-Anon, Nar-Anon, or whatever other combination of letters helped keep you alive. We’re definitely not interested in being the Tradition Police, chasing people around the rooms with a rulebook trying to catch them recovering incorrectly. And I don't feel like debating whether or not I'm breaking traditions. If a t-shirt gives you a resentment, do a Fourth Step, call your sponsor, and remember: that is an outside issue.
There are people who take policing other people's recovery very seriously.
We are not those people.
Outside Issues is where we talk about the stuff recovery literature doesn't always have a neat paragraph for: The culture around recovery. The weird shit that happens in meetings. The things we disagree about. The things we probably take way too seriously. The things nobody wants to say because somebody in the back row is already clearing their throat.
Some of it will be thoughtful. Some of it will be stupid. Some of it might piss you off.
Good.
Outside Issues isn't trying to be an authority on recovery. We're here for the people in it: the misfits, the old-timers, the newcomers, the chronic relapsers, the rule-followers, the rule-breakers, and everybody still figuring out how to live life without losing their damn minds.
We're here to talk about the messy, funny, uncomfortable, contradictory parts of being human that don't magically disappear when you pick up a chip.
We're all just trying to survive, stay reasonably sane, and maybe learn not to take ourselves so damn seriously along the way.
Take what you like. Leave the rest.
Apparently, that works for blogs, too.
