From my experience at AA, years ago when I attended some open meetings with my ex, I didn't share. Then last year, we attended a meeting together and I was asked if I'd like to share. I shared from the perspective of being a family/friend of alcoholics. No-one said anything to me, but I did sense some were suspicious of my presence there. It was probably not the right thing to do, but I didn't know at the time. I told them I'm from the Alanon fellowship and I'm a pretty honest person and maybe I said things, albeit very tactfully and in a non-blaming way that they may not have liked to hear. I don't know...Things changed the next time when I went on my own and shared that I had started to pick up the drink on occasion and although I haven't said I'm alcoholic, I did say I felt it could lead to that if I wasn't careful as I drank alcoholically when I was a teen/young adult. After that, people were friendly and spoke to me and said thank you to me for sharing. I went to one on Saturday night. I wasn't going to share but I was the second one they called out. I sat up the front and said "hi, I'm Floss and I don't know what I am". Lol. I shared that my co-dependency issues had always been my number one addiction and now that I was on my own, my own buried crap had started to surface and that sometimes when I go out with my friends, I drink way more than what is considered normal even when I tell myself I'm only going to have one or two.
So, whilst it's an open meeting to share, and I was welcomed, I could tell by reactions that I was more 'accepted' when I shared from my own drinking experiences and not the experience of growing up with/living with an A. Anyway, I still don't know if I really should be there but I know that's just my insecurites talking as I relate a lot to what they speak about and I've been told to keep coming back as the only real requirement for attending is a desire to stop drinking. I don't think I'll be attending a 'closed' meeting really soon...