AA or Bust - Really?
Am I reading AA wrong in that it seems like some people have hit such a hard bottom that they honestly feel that if they do not go to a meeting every day that they will pick up again? There is a man in my meetings that has been going nearly every night for 22 years or something like that...and sober the entire time. Is it for real in his mind that if he misses a couple of meetings he will drink again?
Then there are some that I have only seen at 1 or 2 meetings in the last month and they don't have that belief, that they have to be there or they just can't do it. Are these people so insecure that they believe that they have to go or lose their sobriety? I don't feel that way, I feel that it is a useful program of support and that I will eventually get through my 12 steps but that life also must go on outside of AA. Most that are there that much and for so long have no family, have no kids, all they have is a job (some not even that) and the meetings. I don't feel that is any kind of a life, maybe I am not with it about that but that is not going to change if all that they do is sit in those rooms, imo. It seems really sad to me. I find it a bit disheartening from time to time in the meetings because I never want to be one of those people who have to be at a meeting 2 or 3 or 7 days per week for fear that I am not strong enough on my own to control myself otherwise.
I completely agree with working on the steps and looking beyond the here and now in order to stop, but every day...seriously?? The last 2 meetings that I went to all I really took in were these people saying over and over again, person after person, "if it weren't for these meetings I'd go back out and drink", and the people saying it are there every day, some 2 and 3 meetings per day.
I need some other opinions on this matter because I have really felt down after the last 2 and I am going to keep going, but why is there such a dependence on it? I know it works, it is helping me already, but I can't imagine having such a low sense of self control that I would have to be there that much. I was trying to do as many in as little time as possible but then a light went on and in that short time I had missed so much of my own life outside of work and meetings.
Are these people not just trading their addiction to alcohol for an addiction to meetings?
A little input would be greatly appreciated.
Donna