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Old 07-31-2018, 03:41 PM
  # 14 (permalink)  
Ken33xx
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Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 2,775
Originally Posted by kevlarsjal2 View Post
Hi LFCNZ!
I joined AA at half a year sober. So I knew I was able to get sober without any spirituality or HP or God. I felt stuck at that point, mostly wanted a bigger support network as I was relying very much just on my partner then.

And of course, people in AA wanted me to try things their way. And I did. I tried to find a HP, I prayed, worked the steps, tried my best to believe in "something" that could be used as a HP. But it just never clicked with me. If there is something bigger, then I am sure it doesn't care or even know about me. And I don't think that preying to it will make any difference whatsoever.
I do believe in karma in a similar way to you though. But I also believe in human willpower. I just believe that we have to learn to use it more wisely, not wasting it on "wanting to make drinking work for me" but "wanting to recover" for example. Even the big book says a few times that this whole "either you choose spirituality or die an alcoholic death" is true for most but a few rare exceptions. It says that if your alcoholism is as severe as theirs, that then there is probably no human power that can help you. It always leaves it open that either you are an alcoholic but a less severe case or that there is an exception.
If you feel like you don't need it, then don't force it. If nothing else works for you and you have tried everything and every other way to stay sober then maybe it's better to give spirituality a try. And when the BB was written AA consisted of the worst and most hopeless cases that found spirituality as a way out of their problem.
As said, even the big book doesn't say that this is the only way for all alcoholics. It always speaks of "them", what worked for those people in their experience.

If people get too pushy or ask you why you even go to meetings if you don't want to work their program like they did, then you can remind them that the only requirement for membership is the desire to stop drinking.

I don't have a sponsor anymore and would only get one if they agree on me working the steps in my way, which does not include talking to or believing in a HP, no prayers but journalling and mindfulness.
I still go to meetings and I do find a lot of support there and take what I want but leave the rest.

If the Lords Prayer bothers you at the end of the meeting. Don't leave the room out like a guy I knows. Don't refuse to hold hands. Go along with the show. You don't have to saying anything except perhaps, "Keep coming back it works if you work it* when the prayer finishes.

Plenty of AA meetings do have a strong religious flavor but there are plenty that don`t as well.
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