New Hope Al-Anon Group Tuesdays 7:30pm 240 8th St Auburn, KS

Many people come to Al-Anon to get help in stopping someone else's drinking. However, Al-Anon, as a program, recognizes that the friends and families of alcoholics are often traumatized themselves, and in need of emotional support and understanding. As the spouse of an alcoholic, Lois W.—the co-founder of Al-Anon—wrote that she needed help for herself:

After a while I began to wonder why I was no

t as happy as I ought to be, since the one thing I had been yearning for all my married life [Bill's sobriety] had come to pass. Then one Sunday, Bill asked me if I was ready to go to the meeting with him. To my own astonishment as well as his, I burst forth with, “Damn your old meetings!” and threw a shoe as hard as I could. This surprising display of temper over nothing pulled me up short and made me start to analyze my own attitudes. …

My life's purpose of sobering up Bill, which had made me feel desperately needed, had vanished. … I decided to strive for my own spiritual growth. I used the same principles as he did to learn how to change my attitudes. …

We began to learn … that the partner of the alcoholic also needed to live by a spiritual program.