Recovery in the Lifestyle : RitL is a fellowship of BDSM lifestyle people and guests who are in recovery or would like to be. It is based on the 12 steps of recovery and recognizes that anonymity is most important for us all.
 

The History of Recovery in the Lifestyle

Written by Stormy

On July 17, 2005 my life changed once again in a positive direction Recovery-in the-Lifestyle (RITL) had our first meeting! It took months of putting it all together but it was like starting any other anonymous group. It only takes 2 to have a meeting but at our first meeting 36 people came. We had recovery members, friends, and back then what we called supporters. Everyone was welcome as they are today.

Here in Ft Lauderdale we have a faithful member who came to the first meeting July 17, 2005 and has continued through all these years till today and the beauty is he has not had a drink during this time.

In the beginning before any first meeting even started, Jimmy Tatu introduced me to Doc. Doc has over 20 years in recovery, Doc sat with me and went over everything even reminding me of things I had forgotten about. His help will never be forgotten along with MJ, Sharron, Cage, Carol and so many others I can’t remember all the names. But does it matter? We all worked hard to make it happen.

The end of February I started correspondence with Linda at General Services in New York, this went on for 3 months with mostly phone calls explaining what RITL was, who it helped, where this meeting would happen. Many questions and too many that had no answers. The final General Service meeting was scheduled and I still was unsure of how to present the group, but I knew that next day and I had present them with something important. So I prayed and meditated the whole night. The next day GS called and said “Okay Stormy, give me something to bring to the table.” So I started to explain to her that I had 2 men over 6 feet tall that loved to wear tutus and wear makeup. “Can you imagine them going into an AA, NA, OA etc meeting and not be judged or laughed at?” She said “Thank you Stormy, that will do it”

Within 1 day I received an express envelope and I was then reading the official approval of RITL! As of June 2006, everyone can now read it on our website, here. Please take time to read it along with many other great letters of people who support our family. Now we are many in 9 different states, we have patches, informational flyers and growing each and every day.
 



Written by M.J.

A few years ago, Stormy came to me and told me this story. "Listen M.J., there are a few people here tonight who are in recovery and don't have support in our club. I'd like you to help me get something started that I've been trying to put into action. I need your help."

At first, I resisted, and didn't really have the time it might take. After some long talks together at our local lifestyle club, I said ok. We talked on the phone for many hours, trying to figure out what has now become "Recovery in the Lifestyle."

At first we agreed it should be a group. We asked the lifestyle group "SPICE" to undertake our meeting. They agreed. After our first meeting, with 20 or so attending, We just stood there both of us wondering if someday there would be support for our fellowship people and there supporters all throughout the Lifestyle. It was only still a dream at this time, which we hoped someday would become a reality and a worldwide fellowship.

So we quickly stood on our own, holding meetings before SPICE and keeping with the 7th tradition. Soon it was time to expand. So we called over to Command Performance and got our second meeting going. The first meeting there was a big success and we were on the map. We accomplished a lot of things in the first years Stormy got us at BASH, two years in a row in Florida, also BEYOND LEATHER and LAC then on to Atlanta and other states.. We are growing beyond our wildest dreams. Once we were two, now we are many.

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