Originally Posted by
michaelg 
And I can see making an exception perhaps for someone in dire straits that couldn't get to their own type of meeting. The problem with my AA home group is that it has become half drug addicts shipped in several times a day from a treatment center. All female and a good bit of them young. No respect for where they are. And it has chased off the real alcoholic old timers. I was all for letting them come in and share. Until I saw it destroy my group. We brought it upon ourselves though.
I'm another who came in through treatment. I was picked up off a park bench and spent seven weeks in a rehab. They gave me a toothbrush and a Big Book; two things I desperately needed. They also brought in AA and NA meetings where I gained that first spark of maybe there's another way. From there it was a halfway house where it was mandatory to attend meetings and get a sponsor who took me through the steps and taught me about being of service in and out of the rooms.
It was because of the real alcoholic old timers who stayed that I'm alive to be one today. It's the reason I stay.
Merry Christmas and all that.
-allan