The "Hot Seat"
Hello Everyone,
This isn't my first time here, but it's my first time writing a post.
Anyway, wanted to share with you a short version of a hellish AA 'intervention.' But first, a little background about myself. I'm an atheist, and as such, I didn't really feel that included in the whole AA thing. I went there for about three months before getting enough of a backbone to admit to my sponsor that I really didn't enjoy it very much on account of the overt preaching that went on there.
Anyway, I drank again and I got into trouble because my parents flipped out when they saw me drunk, and they called both the police and one of the guys I met in AA. Given my personality temperment, I'm not good with police officers, sober or not. I don't like them, and they know it; they don't like me for the most part. Adding to that was the fact that I was pissed off, both because I started getting pissed back at my parents when they knew I had been drinking, and also because I was pissed off at myself for drinking again.
The cops came, and I got into a real big argument with them, my parents, etc. The dude from AA came and offered to let me cool down at his place (which was really a good idea at the time). All in all, I'm grateful for this, but he also took it into consideration that now was the best time to shove religious nonsense down my mouth whilst I was incapacitated mentally.
It says in the AA Big Book that you should talk to new 'converts' when they're just coming off of a heavy binge; when they're shaky and most malleable. I really detest this sort of crap, due to it being very analogous to brainwashing. Anyway, he gave me a sermon about this god crap and I had to listen to it for a couple hours. When that was done, I got to go home, and we set out a date for another 'meeting.' Little did I know what I was walking into.
The meeting itself consisted of two AA members, who sat on either side of me, and my parents, who sat across from me. We started discussing things about the weather and such, small talk, and then we all of a sudden changed the topic under the direction of the leader and started talking about the alcohol.
This is when it got really bad. The two AA members obviously had a problem with the fact that I didn't like spirituality...they said that I needed to be spiritual or die. I came back with the fact that this was obviously a false dichotomy.
This went on for nearly two hours; I was sweating, because I had to deal with people basically berating me for the entire time. They asked me questions, then interrupted, saying that I was in denial about having a problem. They called me names, and told me that I wasn't ready to quit...unless I admitted to believing in a higher power.
Honestly, I have enough of a problem as an atheist in everyday life; so much of our culture revolves around religious beliefs that I don't ascribe to. This sort of dehumanization was really too much for me to take at the time, but I survived. Noone wants to hear that they're a piece of crap--that was precisely what these dudes were equating me to.
I guess my point is that I'd really like to hear about other secular people's stories about this sort of thing.
Thanks for listening. Oh, and it's been almost a month since I last used.