Originally Posted by
Need4Change 
I'm so sick and tired of this and as much as AA is touted, it just didn't help me to "talk" about my drinking problem with a group of other people all sitting around in a circle.
I had to resurrect this post to say that we don't sit in a circle. We have a rectangle table. We also don't talk about our drinking problem. AA doesn't teach us to deal with our drinking. It teaches us to deal with Sobriety. You see, we can, and do, put drinking behind us. Sobriety is something we have to deal with every day, therefore we need support. How many different meetings have you been to. Every one of them is different.
I had a pre-conceived notion of AA when I first came into the program. I figured it was a bunch of beaten down old drunks sitting around feeling sorry for themselves. That notion was engraved in my head since I was about 10 years old. I was watching Tweety and Sylvester on TV and Sylvester got sent to Birds Anonymous. There were weathered old cats with bags under their eyes telling their stories of how many birds a day they ate. This notion stuck with me for years. Even when I went to a few meetings about 25 years ago that is what I saw. My mind had been conditioned to think this was what AA was all about. MY mind had played a trick on me. I wanted no part of it. I refused to see that these people in AA were loving life and laughing in these meetings. I couldn't see it. My brain just wouldn't let me see it.
There is a woman in my Mon/Thurs meeting that lost her legs in an accident. That was 12 years ago. I was speaking about the power that our brain has in that meeting. I asked her, "do you still feel your feet"? She said "Yes, I do"!
That folks is Brain Power in action! She feels feet that haven't been around for 12 years. If she can do that, surely you can condition your mind to do anything. Quitting drinking and learning to like AA is no exception. You, with Gods help can condition your mind to take on a whole new attitude towards sobriety as well as AA.
I hit three meetings a week and it comes as natural as brushing my teeth in the morning. I don't think about it. I don't take it as a commitment and I don't have to push other aspects of life to the side for it. It just happens.
I suggest you try several meetings. Convince yourself that you want this, you like this and you need this. Most important, tell yourself that you deserve this.