In more than one place in the AA Big Book it says “…and when all else fails, work with another alcoholic.”

In the beginning when I would call up my sponsor and start whining, he would say, “Why don’t you call ______.” Usually this was some new, wide-eyed crazy guy we saw at his first meeting, or someone who just went back out.

Something I would do, since I saw my sponsor doing it, would be to take newcomers aside after meetings and talk to them for a while, maybe thirty minutes. My sponsor would stand over to the side and smile. One time, after one of these newcomers stopped coming, I asked him, “Am I doing it right?”

He said, “Naw, but it doesn’t matter. They’re not listening, anyway. But you are getting something—you’re still coming.”