My Journey to Al-Anon Family Groups
by Marlene, Tasman

My journey began in 1981. I had heard about Al-Anon Family Groups earlier but didn’t think it was for me. I had tried everything to help the Alcoholic so what info would they have that I hadn’t already tried, plus belonging to a group and talking about MY life just wasn’t me.

I went along with this for a good twelve months. I had a friend who went along every week and would tell me I should go it would be good for me. She also had a saying. “It’s not your problem” I couldn‘t get my head around that. My alcoholic was a teenager, surely as a responsible parent it was my problem, another good reason not to get involved.

Finally things really got too much, I had tried everything. I was broken, I had gone up to the Church to just sit and pray and hope that somewhere there would be an answer. I hadn’t been near a Church for many years and when I arrived I was shocked to find the door locked. That was it, even God didn’t want me. So as a last resort I turned up at the Al-Anon Family Groups doors.

At my first meeting the members shared a little of their life story. I sat there and heard a little of my life story in each of their sharings. I was totally in the right place; these people didn’t try and tell me how to run my life. Instead they shared how they had dealt with a similar problem. Finally in this crazy world I felt I was being heard, I could relate to these people, like I had never been able to relate to anyone else. I felt heard, understood and accepted.