At our meeting, we leave the last fifteen minutes of the meeting for Q & A and considerations.
Our meeting is a closed meeting and our format clearly states that. In fact, we are so bold as to state that if you identify as other than alcoholic, you cannot attend this meeting.
We just adapted this format a few weeks ago. The first time we used it, a woman came in too late to hear the opening statement but in time to hear the chairperson read the topic.. Another part of our format is that the chairperson reads a a short passage from the book and calls on people. The formats asks you to share your current experience with what has been read or to share from where you are at in your recovery.
When the chairperson called on this woman, I could tell that she was in the wrong place by listening to her share. So when the questions & considerations part opened up I asked her if could pose her a few considerations. She said sure. I asked to consider the fact that she might not be in the right place. She asked me what I meant. I said that I gathered from what she had said that she wasn't alcoholic and this led to me asking her what she uses when she relapses. After she told me that a drug is a drug and me gently explaining to her that that isn't necessarily true, she said cocaine was "her drug of choice." I asked her could it be that cocaine is her drug of no choice and once again she asked me what I meant. I asked her to consider the fact that if she had a choice would she keep doing it, despite the fact that it had ruined her life.
In the end, we ended up giving her a C.A. schedule. She told us that she was grateful that we had taken the time to stack things up for her and that we may have even saved her life.
But remember this: If you come in our meeting and identify as an addict, you will be asked to leave. We will direct you to the nearest open meeting and give you a schedule for the fellowship that fits your problem.
Jim