Congratulations, you are about to take the hardest step of your life......and the one that can be the most rewarding. For me, i had to really hit the bottom hard before I madi it into my first meeting. I was a nervous wreck (not to mention shakking and somewhere between hungover and still drunk, God, what an awful feeling that was!). After that first meeting, I stayed around the rooms for two weeks , and stayed sober. Then I made a concious decision to pick up again. I thank God every day now that I made it back to AA just a few months later and now have a little more than five years of continuous sobriety. OK, that being said, the link Carol sent you is a great one. I have been to meetings in several states and though the format changes from place to place, it doesn't change much. The meeting is typically opened with a prayer (we are not religious, do not let this offend or scare you), then someone may read the 12 Steps (these are "the program" you will hear about) and/or the 12 traditions and/or other excerpts from AA literature. The chairperson may ask if htere are any newcomers or anyone coming back from a relapse or may not. if they do and you're comfortable raise your hand and tell them you are new. This will usually garner a bunch of phone numbers for you to call when you feel like taking a drink, or just to develop some relationships with people who don't drink (I personally didn't know any of those! lol!). This will also help in eventually finding a sponsor. The meeting could be a speaker meeting, a topic (discussion) meeting where someone brings up a topic and anyone who wants to can share on that topic, a combination of these two, a Big Book meeting where the Big Book is read and discussed, a step meeting where the group studiers and/or works one of hte steps, or a million other variations of this theme. The meeting will typically be closed with a prayer. I guess, upon typing all this, what you can expect at an AA meeting is a group of drunks, like you, who don't want to drink today and who have found a way to stop. The meetings will vary, but this will always stay the same. I was told to do 90 meetings in 90 days and this helped because I went to different meetings until I found one where I was comfortable. Good luck and Welcome! tk
