Old 10-24-2010, 12:44 AM
  # 58 (permalink)  
akrasia
Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 602
"Action plan" (for her)
-Talk to the chair so he or she reminds everybody its about recovery and its alcoholics ANONYMOUS, you don't have to say anything and you don't have to give your telephone to anyone and you can go anytime and you can leave at any time...
-Sit close to the other women
-Wear earplugs so while walking from AA to the car, no catcalls etc can get to her
-Close car windows
-Wear dark glasses (works for me to avoid unwanted eye contact)
-Dress conservatively
-Have a working mobile phone available at all times for 911 and Police # in speed dial
This is nonsense.

I absolutely agree that what she reports is entirely plausible. She needs to be assertive about this, not just sit there cringing with her cell phone ready to dial 911. Her plan of action needs to be 1. tell them to knock it off, and 2. have an immediate word with the chair of the group, who then needs to tell (not ask) the offending parties to knock it off or leave. If these two men can't manage to act like decent human beings then they need not to be there.

She's not going to get any benefit from going if she's getting sexually harassed the whole time. And if the chair of the group won't take responsibility for sorting that out, then it's not an AA group, it's just a mess.

And that's where her responsibility comes in: if she's going to take her recovery seriously, she needs to just recognize whether a group is really a recovery group or a mess.

It's definitely possible that this "AA" group has been taken over by predatory pervs--so instead of dithering and wringing her hands and wearing earplugs and running to you she needs to just be like, "Right--so this is useless. On to the next option!"

I guarantee there are other options for her recovery within reach to her, if she's serious.
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