I have very limited experience with AA. I went to one meeting where some dude hit on me and I felt generally creeped out by the people there, though they were nice to me, and I never went back, and never found (or even really tried to find) another meeting to attend. The other reason I don't do AA is I can't accept the religious aspects of it and feel like if I was going to commit to AA I would need to be able to accept the program as it is.
The above statements are accurate, have absolutely nothing to do with anyone else, why they should or should not choose a particular program, or what they should believe. Yet, I find myself walking on eggshells when I mention my experiences (I always put a little parenthetical note that I'm not AA-bashing) because I have noticed on several threads a tendency to write off anyone who does not conform to AA's dogma. The attitude conveyed is, "Fine. Don't work AA. Just keep on drinking, because there's no hope for you." I'm not sitting in an AA meeting, and I don't post on the 12-step forums (in fact, I don't believe I've ever even looked in on a 12-step forum), so why should I have to stick to their party line? That idea that there's no hope for anyone not in AA is extremely destructive, in my mind. I have to believe that every druggie and alcoholic is capable of coming back, because if there's no hope for someone else, I feel like there might not be any hope for me.
