Genie
There are no pledges in AA. Each person works their own individual program. Meetings are for support. Yes I think you would find great hope at meetings.People who understand. No you do not have to talk.
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Before I begin, this is not a debate on AA vs AVRT
Just sharing with Genie about AA
AA does not require you choose God as your higher power, The point of step 1 is to realize that you can't drink safely and I am sure if we all wrote down every dirty little detail of our lives on paper leaving out nothing of things that happened while drinking from our 1st drink till now, all the times we started out non chalantly to have a couple and ended up blitzed in a black out. I think it would be fairly easy to see how alcohol had more power over us then we had over it. That we were powerless - that our lives were unmanageable.We wouldn't be here otherwise.
Step 2 - Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
That can be whatever power you choose. Some people use the AA group. Spirit of The Universe, whatever you want as long as it is a power greater than you. Cuz obviously what we were doing wasn't working. There are plenty of agnostics and atheists in AA and are staying sober.
Insanity - well insanity- people struggle with that but if I look honestly at my drinking career, the black outs, The DUI's, The broken hearts of people I love, the lost jobs, the jails, the institutions etc. There were always consequences to my drinking whether it be outwardly or inwardly( My soul), but I still went back to it thinking this time will be different. To me that does not sound like someone with a sound mind.
That's like someone who puts their hand in a fire gets burned and then does it again and again thinking that fire doesn't burn. That's nuts! And I did it again and again.
AA is a great support system and I would recommend it to everyone trying to get and stay sober. Meetings are great! But recovery is in the steps and it requires effort. And I can't base my decision on AA from going to a few meetings. The Solution is in the first 164 pages of the AA Big Book.
It will never work for anyone if they go in with a closed mind. Some of the greatest gifts in this world are missed because people have a closed mind.