The primary purpose of the Pills Anonymous Group hosted on MSN is to allow those who are currently in recovery from addiction to mind-altering medications to share their experience, strength and hope with those who would LIKE to be in recovery from the same addiction.  We let you know how we became able to deal with pain, with anxiety, with life on life's terms - all while remaining clean and sober.  If you are new here, this may seem impossible, but that's the miracle of recovery - the impossible becomes real.  If you want what we have, do what we've done and you will get the same result.  This site is not a substitute for "live" meetings, but it's an incredibly valuable addition to those meetings and a place we want to be a safe haven for those seeking to learn about 12-step recovery.

This is an open online community, meaning that the site managers and assistant managers - all volunteers -- don't pre-screen either members or messages.  There are scores of loving members here who are working a strong recovery program.  There is, however, a 12-step saying that "some of us are sicker than others."  What that means is that sometimes - here or in "live" 12-step rooms - there is member behavior which is not kind or loving.  The best way to deal with such members online is either to ignore them or "kill them with kindness," because they often seek to disrupt solely for the purpose of getting you to react negatively.  Rest assured that managers will quietly, usually by private email, try to discourage such behavior.   Some of those same "trolls" ultimately get into serious 12-step recovery themselves and become valuable contributors here and offline.

To quote AA's Big Book, "we are not a glum lot."  There's a lot of good-natured clowning and joking around.  There are message threads that have very little to do directly with recovery.  It's like standing outside an AA or NA meeting before or after the meeting takes place - ya never know what you might hear!

That said, we do have deadly serious - life and death serious - message threads and online meetings about 12-step recovery.  We encourage you to participate in those and all this site has to offer, including useful downloads and links.

Here's a quick overview of the types of comments and discussions you may find here, and some of the guidelines we must set to protect members who want to feel safe here:

Personal Attacks and Flames - These are directed at a specific person or group of people in a derogatory or antagonistic manner. Frequently personal attacks are identifiable by the words "you, did x" or "X (name of person) is a _____"

Attempting to discredit a person through their posts on another group or list, or through their past actions, constitutes a personal attack. In PA, we attempt to grow - this can be a daunting task, especially when our past actions are constantly thrown in our faces despite our efforts to change and make amends.

Attacking because we feel attacked is also considered a personal attack and will be handled as such. Please try to bear in mind that the person with whom you are disagreeing may perhaps be spiritually sick and leave it at that.

Personal Experience - This is based upon our own lives and the lives of those we have learned from. Our experience can be based on the Big Book or NA basic text, as in fact many of us have found, and it can at times contradict what others have stated to this board. Keep the personal attacks out of it, and this is fine.

Personal Opinions - Again, these are thoughts and opinions which we have as individuals. Please feel free to discuss them within the parameters mentioned above. Try to stay focused on the primary focus of the group, and keep the flames and personal attacks out of it.

Debates - Are logical arguments and/or discussions held between two or more parties on a specific topic. These do not revolve around the person or character of any person.

Arguments - We use the word argument here to define mean-spirited attacks, veiled assumptions and threats, and questions which are meant to derail the purpose of this group. 

Questions - We want to make a distinction between any questions you may have and what we have defined above as arguments and debates. Please feel free to post any questions you may have if they are related 12-step recovery, how you related to a particular message, or if you feel your question otherwise is pertinent to this group.

There are members of this group who do not belong to PA or, often, any other 12-step program. We wish to welcome you as friends. You are welcome here. We ask that you, as well as all members of this group, abide by the guidelines we have posted.

The managers of this site reserve the right to delete posts which do not fall under the guidelines we have here written. We also reserve the right to put members on moderated status, or to delete and/or ban them should the situation warrant. If this situation should occur, it would never be done by only one or two managers, but a majority of the managers' votes.

We have tried to create a loving, supporting family here. Yet, we realize that we can not be all things to all people. We welcome suggestions for improvement and will do our best to implement suggestions which will benefit our common welfare.  Some members find that other sites are more suited to their beliefs or needs, just as some people prefer one 12-step program to another.  We encourage all to do what they need to do to stay in the light of recovery.