New Brochure Text Available - Key Practices of WorkAnon

Hot off the presses, here's the core text for our new Work-Anon brochure...

Work-Anon Key Practices In Our Program of Recovery
For Friends, Families, & Co-workers of Workaholics

Serenity and Recovery
We regain our inner balance through working the Twelve Steps and connecting with other recovering Work-Anons. Through deepening in our recovery, we are released from painful self-defeating patterns, including self-abandonment and neglect, chronic feelings of insufficiency and inadequacy, compulsive perfectionism and rescuing, and trying to please or control others. Our lives in recovery blossom with inner strength, conscious contact, wisdom, detachment, self-valuing, fun, and program friendships. Our interests and energy expand…. Welcome home to Work-Anon.

Key Practices of Work-Anon Recovery

Working the Steps Through individual and group self-study & writing, we learn about the roots and alternatives to intergenerational patterns of pain and the possibilities of amending our behavior, attitudes, and feelings with ourselves and others. Conscious contact awakens us. We uncover hidden assets and new ways of being.

Meetings Attending meetings helps us prioritize our own recovery. We learn from and stay in touch with others and share our growth.

Self-Care In Work-Anon recovery, we learn to establish new habits of self-nurture, exercise, rest, and renewal.

Writing We write in our recovery journals to cultivate habits of gratitude, attention, and focusing on the solution.

Detaching With Love We learn to detach with love from the workaholic’s demands, judgments, & behavior. We no longer cover or enable. We discover choices and set healthy boundaries.

Meditation Inner quiet increases conscious contact.

Bringing the Focus Back to Ourselves By bringing the focus back to ourselves, we return to our source of power and clarity, the ground of our being. We are strengthened by focusing on what we can effect instead of being distracted by trying to control things we cannot.

Healing Our Inner Selves For those who experienced neglectful, abusive or judgmental childhoods, attending to our “inner child” relieves chronic, self-defeating patterns and releases energy and vitality.

Cultivating Our Own Health and Joy Recovery releases us from living inside the disease. We discover hidden talents and interests. We learn to cultivate our own health and joy. By working the Steps, we learn to live as deeper wisdom guides us. We are revitalized & come alive.

Service We provide service to continue to learn and enhance our recovery. Only through helping others can we keep the gifts that recovery brings.

Program Literature Our spirits are renewed and new habits affirmed by reading program literature.

Join Us

Work-Anon has but one purpose: to help families, friends, and co-workers of workaholics. We do this by practicing the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Work-Anon.

Through calling into our phone meetings and using the key practices, we hear the experience, strength, and hope of others recovering from the effects of work addiction in the family or workplace. We believe that work addiction is a family illness and that changed attitudes can aid recovery.

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Upcoming Conference with Work-Anon breakouts

Great news is that we will be having some Work-Anon meetings at the upcoming Workaholics Anonymous Conference, slated for the last weekend of October outside of Austin, Texas.

The theme of the conference is "Sponsorship and Service: How it Works" - be held Friday, October 28th through Sunday, October 30th, 2011 in Wimberley, Texas at the 7A Resort, with an optional Pre-Conference day on Thursday, October 27th. For more information see the 2011 Conference Flyer. Preregistration is required. Register by August 31st, 2011 to take advantage of a $50 Early Bird discount. Register by May 31st, 2011 for a $75 Early Early Bird discount! To register, print and send in the registration form and pay with a check or pay online for your registration, room, and pre-conference. Here is the mail-in registration form. Online registration is also available.

Work-Anon Recovery and Serenity in 2011

Work-Anon will kick off the new year with phone meetings the first and third Sunday of January 2011 at 8pm Eastern. The meeting times are held at 8pm Eastern time, 5pm Pacific. They run for one hour. We read from recovery literature and then have rounds of sharing of experience, strength, and hope. 2011 features a focus on recovering through the steps!

Sundays, January 2nd & January 16th, 2011 - 8pm ET
1-218-936-4700 and a participant access code of "12 steps" or the numerals 1278377

We also recommend members attend open Al-Anon meetings and check out the PDF of stories of friends and family members of recovering workaholics (available as PDF in Workaholics Anonymous literature). Many of our members have also furthered their recovery relief by reading these Al-Anon conference-approved Books (using word substitution of "workaholism" for "alcohol" and "compulsive work, worry, or work avoidance" for "alcohol," etc.):
- How Al-Anon Works (basic program "how-to")
- Paths to Recovery (questions and stories on the Twelve Steps)
- From Survival to Recovery (writings by adult children)
- Hope for Today (daily reader with meditations, inspiration, and quotes)
- One Day at a Time (earlier daily reader with meditations, inspiration, and quotes)

Looking forward to having you join us at our meetings! Please type your email address into the box on the right if you'd like to sign up for email reminders of upcoming meetings!

Work-Anon Presence slated for next W.A. International Conference at the end of October 2010 in the Bay Area

At the next international W.A. conference, October 29-31, 2010, in Menlo Park, California, Work-Anon will have a presence by offering meetings and sharing information and resources for friends and families of workaholics. The conference theme is "Carrying the Message: Living the Steps." Conference information, registration forms, and online payment for the upcoming W.A. conference are available. Join us!

New Work-Anon Meeting - Last Tuesdays - 7:30pm

New second Work-Anon Phone Meeting will occur the last Tuesday of each Month at 7:30pm Eastern. Same call-in number for all meetings as the first and third Sunday meetings: 1-218-936-4700 with a participant access code of "12 steps" plus the pound key - or 1278377#. Here are the dates and times for the Last Tuesday Work-Anon meetings for the rest of 2010:

Last Tuesdays – 7:30pm Eastern, 4:30pm Pacific

5/25/10 - 7:30pm Eastern
6/29/10 - 7:30pm Eastern
7/27/10 - 7:30pm Eastern
8/31/10 - 7:30pm Eastern
9/28/10 - 7:30pm Eastern
10/26/10 - 7:30pm Eastern
11/30/10 - 7:30pm Eastern
12/28/10 - 7:30pm Eastern

We are also still holding our 8pm Eastern first and third Sunday meetings, same call-in number.

Meetings Dates Set Through the End of 2010

We have now set twice monthly phone meetings through the end of 2010 for Work-Anon. The meetings are held on the phone, first and third Sundays, 5pm Pacific, 8pm Eastern. Call-in number is 1-218-936-4700 and a participant access code of "12 steps" or the numerals 1278377. Here are the dates:

Sundays, June 6 & June 20, 2010
Sundays, July 4 & July 18, 2010
Sundays, August 1 & August 15, 2010
Sundays, September 5 & 19, 2010
Sundays, October 3 & October 17, 2010
Sundays, November 7 & November 21, 2010
Sundays, December 5 & December 19, 2010

Updated Work-Anon Meeting Guidelines and Format

Work Anon Meeting Guidelines
v1.4

Opening:

Welcome to the twice-monthly telephone meeting of WorkAnon. My name is ____, grateful recovering Work-Anon, and the meeting chair for this evening. Work-Anon Family Groups are a fellowship of relatives and friends of workaholics who share their experience strength and hope in order to solve their common problems. We believe that work addiction is a family illness and that changed attitudes can aid recovery.

Work-Anon is not allied with any sect, denomination, political entity, organization, or institution; does not engage in any controversy; neither endorses nor opposes any cause. There are no dues for membership. Work-Anon is self-supporting through its own voluntary contributions.

Work-Anon has but one purpose: to help families, friends, and co-workers of workaholics. We do this by practicing the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Work-Anon.

For Newcomers: (or For newcomers but to be read each meeting as a reminder to all)

For some of us, Work-Anon was a last resort: we were in pain, we were desperate, some of us had abandoned hope. We came to our first meeting – and we kept coming- to find relief from the terrible pain we had grown accustomed to feeling. We knew that our suffering was related to someone else’s work addiction, and we knew that we were unable to lead a normal life because of it.

As newcomers to Work-Anon Family Groups many of us wondered what the group would be talking about. The things we heard – and did not hear- at meetings may have surprised us. We may have thought members of Work-Anon might teach us how to stop the workaholic from acting out with work. Some of us had come into the program believing that once the workaholic found abstinence, our pain would magically disappear.

A great many myths were laid to rest at our meetings. We heard that we could not make another person stop working compulsively; that abstinence does not necessarily mean “happily ever after;” and that we are each responsible for dealing with our own pain. We also heard about placing our trust in a Power greater than ourselves.

When we first come to Work-Anon Family Groups, full of hurt, frustration, and anger, we may see the workaholic as the immediate source of our pain. Our impulse may be to focus our discussion on that person. We may also be so unaccustomed to looking at ourselves that we tend to talk about everything but ourselves. In Work-Anon we come to realize that much of our discomfort comes from our attitudes, and to learn about our responsibility to ourselves. This helps us discover feelings of self-worth and furthers our spiritual growth. The emphasis is lifted from the workaholic and placed where appropriate – on ourselves. When we tell our story, therefore, it is not the work addict’s story, it is the story of our own recovery.

We continue to come to Work-Anon because it succeeds in reminding us to focus on ourselves. It succeeds because it is a positive program that is grounded in the common experiences of its members; people whose lives have been affected by someone else’s work addiction. We welcome you and hope that here you may find experience strength and hope and learn how to recover through using the Twelve Steps and this fellowship.


[Chair will read the Twelve Steps and the Tradition corresponding to the number of the month.]

Meeting Format:

By group consensus, we avoid crosstalk, which means we speak in the first person and do not give advice. In our shares, we focus on our own behavior and thinking, not that of the workaholic. Members of other fellowships, including W.A., are encouraged to focus their share on the program of Work-Anon.

Our format is that we will read from Work-Anon or Al-Anon literature (with word substitution). Then we open the meeting up for a round of sharing. Feel welcome to share up to three minutes so all will have time to share. We pause at 45 minutes through the meeting to answer any newcomers' questions. Anyone who likes to can exchange phone numbers and email addresses directly after the closing of the meeting.

[Chair reads from Work-Anon or Al-Anon conference-approved literature and pauses for rounds of sharing.]

Closing:

In closing we ask that all respect the anonymity of everyone here and all that was shared. At our meetings, we share our experience strength and hope with one another, keeping the focus on ourselves and on the Work-Anon tools of recovery. Personal recovery through spiritual growth and the common welfare of the group are of prime importance. By concentrating on our own feelings and attitudes toward our situation, rather than on the details of the situation, we contribute to the group’s unity and our recovery. We talk about how the disease of workaholism has affected our thinking and our behavior. We talk about the part we played in our problems and how we change our attitudes and actions by applying the Work-Anon program to our lives. We may find that basing our group discussion on a Step, Tradition, Concept or Slogan or various other program tools helps to improve our understanding of the program, foster growth, and bring serenity.

Will all who care to join me after a moment of silence, please join me in the Serenity Prayer followed by “Thy will not mine be Done.”

God, Grant me the Serenity

To Accept the Things I cannot change,

Courage to Change the Things I can

And Wisdom to Know the Difference.

Thy Will Not Mine be done.

Amen

Updated 8/19/2007
Corrections 01/20/2008 and 5/11/2009
Updated with format highlights and crosstalk statement on 3/7/2010