We go to meetings to feel support, to gain other perspectives, to grow. I have been to meetings that filled me with inspiration. I have been to meetings where I am horribly disturbed or triggered by some shares. Sometimes, I have had the courage to walk out. Sometimes, I have stayed - frozen to my seat with discomfort. Sometimes, I have stayed past the really yucchy stuff & someone else has spoken up & turned it around.
I love meetings, & sometimes hate them. Sometimes meetings help me feel part of a vital community, sometimes they help me feel absolutely different and separate.
Having attended a vast amount of meetings through decades, I have learned that my sobriety has to encompass a far wider variety of tools than just AA/NA meetings. I also hold my community here at SoberRecovery as significant, my work community, my yoga community. I need to have places & communities that support my sobriety when I feel overwhelmed by the dynamics of 12 step meetings, or I will walk out & find myself alone.
Recently, I found a very integral member of my NA home group on the Sexual Predator List as a pedophile. (Those lists are published on the Internet in the US, don't know about other countries).
This brought up a lot of stuff for me. I was sexually abused as a child and have strong feelings about it. I have hugged this guy many times at meetings, held his hand during the circle at the end. He had felt like a kind sobriety "uncle" to me. I have never gone back to that particular meeting because I cannot bear to sit beside him in that small room, knowing...
We have to weave a wide net to support our sobriety. Humans will disappoint us. We need to have support in many directions.