[QUOTE=Ago;2504425]
So why would you "be keeping your mouth shut? Because you aren't an alcoholic.
If our newcomers can't "identify" with the problem, they can't embrace the solution. You are an addict with certain recognizable signs and symptoms, and I am an alcoholic with certain recognizable signs and symptoms, and while they both fall under addiction, they aren't the same exactly, although the solution is.
Separation is necessary, but that doesn't preclude coming together for a common solution.
[QUOTE]
Yes, I know I am not an alcoholic. And yes, because I picture the senerio where I -could- be in a spot without an NA meeting, but an AA meeting was available. I am not going to go, and then raise my hand and say that I will not commit to not drinking, because that, my friend, would be LYING. That is what I meant by keeping my mouth shut. If I really needed a meeting and AA was all that were available, I would like to know I could go so I have somewhere to be safe. I don't have to share and I don't want to be expected to think or act a certain way in a crisis situation where I wanted to use. So keeping my mouth shut means I would not say "Hey I know this is an AA meeting, but I am an addict and I'll drink if I want to!" or cop an attitude about drinking because it may affect someone who has a problem with drinking and that's not cool either. At the same time, I expect enough respect that, if I HAD TO GO, I am welcome. I wouldn't want to share, I would just want to listen and learn, and of course, NOT FLIPPING USE! LOL. Heck I might even really learn something! Who knows?
But, this is why I don't go to AA. It kind of makes me feel like they want to be secluded, seperatists, and overprotective. Like just because my poison is crack cocaine, they are better than I am. That if I go in there, I won't like it simply because of that. NOT because I am not an alcoholic, but because it makes me feel like they think they are better and the whole seperatist thing.
And NA is open to all, which is something I like. Dunno about gambling and sex addictions, but ALL mind altering substance addictions. Hense why I am more often caught calling alcoholics addicts rather than allowing the seperatist attitude to take ahold of me and give them a seperate "name" or "category".
I will never believe separation is necessary. If it were, then we'd need a seperate 12 step program for every addiction. I know there is a CA (which I don't see as necessary either), but we'd need a HA, a MA, OA, WA, and so on and so forth.
And I could NOT identify with the slammers, tooters, and pill poppers, whatsoever in those NA meetings, when I first started going. Never used a needle (ACK! scared of those things!). Wasn't addicted to snorting junk nor popping pills. And yes, we've got alcoholics too, and I cannot identify with that either. But I kept going back because NA taught me not to be looking for the differencesbut to look for the similarites.
Newcomers need to be taught, as I was, in much the same manner. No one is more or less special because they are addicted to something different. I would no more turn away an alcoholic looking for help than I would a drug addict or someone addicted to things like sex or gambling. If someone needs a place to go, let them go.
But I will agree that it is AA's perogative to believe in seperation and being secluded. It's their group. Not mine, and it's not for me. I don't have to go and I don't have to believe in that seperatist, alcoholics are different from addicts, way. I am extremely happy for and proud of those for whom it does work. As long as someone is clean/sober/hooha happy, and it works for them, go for it. 
And in the end, that is all that really matters (that's what I really believe anyway).