wyld_phyre, welcome! Another option you may look at - more phone than online - is The Coffee Shop Big Book study phone meetings. See http://www.coffeeshopbb164.com/ for details. There's a daily phone meeting at 7am ET which is very good. If 7am isn't realistic for you to "attend" in real time (I hear the Toddler challenge!) you can always call the number at ANY time during any day, and hear the recording of the most recent meeting. It won't give you the opportunity to share your own stuff, but at least it lets you hear what others have offered.

No matter what, remember two things.... 1) You are NOT alone, and 2) The program is a "We" program, never intended to be worked alone. Good job already finding ways to connect with other OAs online (here and elsewhere). Finding someone local to you to share your recovery can only help as well - I don't know what your options are but I would sure hope you can find a meeting you can attend in person at least from time to time, and/or some fellows nearby with whom you can share. OA and the 12 steps are not a set of instructions you can download and then work on your own. Relationships with others in recovery who will share their experience in real time, and with whom you can share yours, are a critical element to how it works.

Welcome, welcome, welcome!

I personally have never gotten much into phone meetings as they eat up my phone minutes in a hurry. Since I don't have unlimited minutes, that's a factor for me. I have sat in on two meetings and did not understand the format of how to share and such. But that can be overcome. I did enjoy hearing people's voices as it seemed more like a face-to-face meeting than online meetings. That was wonderful.

Our face-to-face meeting was recently disbanded and I miss it. The nearest meeting to me now is 90 miles away. But I have tried to increase my contact with other OA'ers since our meetings went away so I can keep my feet in the program.

Glad to see this group here!

Welcome, wyld_phyre and thagberg2011!

@wyld - Congratulations on your first day of abstinence! That is awesome!

@thagberg - That is great that you are attending a meeting. I find the meetings extremely helpful. It may not all make sense at first (it probably won't), but as they say ... Keep coming back, it works! And you're worth it! Once you get acclimated and find one or more meetings you like, you'll need to pick a sponsor. Look for someone who has what you want.

The OA literature is also great! If you don't have them already, you'll want to purchase the OA brown book (OA 12 & 12) and the OA workbook.