to the last question...whom attends and where it is.. .sure 100% in this area anyhow..
i live in the west country of england...pretty conservative ..semi rural but within striking distant of a huge city and a fairly large coastal town.
in and around that coastal town is maybe..8 residential treatment centerers.
addicts and alkies brought in from surrounding areas tend to settle here in apartments or safe houses...
NA is on its knees here and its always talked about with a smirk...the common opinion is.. if your going to NA your going to score drugs...the town area has a huge drug problem....all the people that relapse after treatment tend to hang around...housing is quiet cheap for the UK.
The consequences of that is a weak..(at best) fellowship of AA...Inundated with addicts...with maybe some addict/alcoholics.
i know for a fact that at least two of these treatment centerers encourage drug addicted clients to attend AA and just identify themselves as alcoholics.
and spill there guts about their using...all over alcoholics anonymous.
AA meetings are now run by mostly addicts.....the real alcoholics either dont go or put up with it.
rarely are the steps spoken of........more of a group therapy environment..
repeated war stories....repeated problems.
Dont mention god here or you can hear the uncomfortable shuffle of the bs..."just do meeting brigade"...
its got worse over the few years Ive been sober......
often I'm the only real alcoholic in a room of 50 people....if i can bring myself to go.
i do still go to some..only for the reason my sponsor found me....to look for the suffering alcoholic...
two things i needed to mention now for the record.
i have no problem with addicts...some of my best friends are heroin addicts.
whom use ca...my problem is addicts in alcoholics anonymous..sharing about drugs....sponsoring alcoholics......drinking at weekends because they are not powerless over alcohol.....yet going through the steps with alcoholics.
sorry.....wtf.....its BS.
secondly its a fair comment to say...."hey whiner what you doing about it then".
Ive got 2 meetings off the ground...with a group of buddys.....i cant attend them offen but they function great without me!!!
i also continue to share a solution based message......i continue to look for the suffering alcoholic.....
I'm currently hunting a venue with three other real drunks to open a close meeting of alcoholics anonymous.
maybe even an invite only meeting......who cares what others think..I NEED TO BE AROUND PEOPLE THAT DRANK LIKE ME AND THAT HAVE RECOVERED.
i will be asking shortly for format ideas....so dog...jim stand by.
And lastly yes ....some of the blame lays at the doors of the real alcoholic old timers....that deserted the AA meetings in droves.......and just stay at home and grumble.
Drive out of this county and the good solid AA meetings are out there.
a buddy of mine is gonna introduce me to the meetings in ******* soon so who knows.