ACA = ACoA ??
 

Is ACA and ACoA the same program?
I went to my First ACoA meeting last night. It was good and I will go back next week. They only had one reading that was ACoA. The rest of it was Al Alon. I went to the ACA website and it looked like they have there own form of a big book and step manual. Also there first step was a little different.
Has anybody been to both types of meetings??? Or is it all the same thing?
Thanks!!!

I'm sorry, but I don't know the answer to your question. I'm sure someone here does though.

I do have a question for you though, as you said you enjoyed that meeting. I've gone to alanon/alateen, and I was just wondering if they were similar or not. Meaning, do they rely heavily on praying, a higher spiritual power, etc.?

They did do the lord's prayer at the end of the meeting. But it seems whenever someone brought a HP up they left the idea of what that means to you. They were not pushing on form of a HP to another... It did have the same open and close as most other meetings I have been 2 have.
I hope this helps
Now I have a ?? for you? My sponsor wants me to get the alateen 4th step coloring book. Have you even seen this or know where I can buy one?
OOOOOOOO another 4th step. :a108:

Hmm, I've always thought ACA meant ACoA since "of" is sometimes optional, but now I see ACA is something else!

I too wondered about the HP thing. So atheists would not work in these meetings since they don't acknowledge any HP ?

I've met a lot of agnostics, and similar folks who just simply don't "do" religion, in the rooms. I'm not religious at all myself. It doesn't mean I can't go enjoy the community and support of the group - nobody stares at you and forces you to declare what you believe :) My interpretation of a higher power is.....well.....my interpretation. For an atheist, they may interpret it simply as inner courage or inner guidance.

Um, ACoA does = ACA. I'm relatively new to it, but according to the ACA Big Book, they officially call it ACA, but some people call it ACoA or ACOA. Same thing.

And atheists (or at least agnostics -- see the chapter called "We Agnostics" in the AA Big Book) can function perfectly well in the programs. I guess there was a lot of discussion about what to do, before they settled on talking about "God as we understood him."

T (self-described "Vaughan Williams Christian," which, if you look it up, equals basically an atheist who goes to church because the music is good)

Thanks for clearing that up for me...:You_Rock_
It does not take much to confuse me.....


Is the ACA big book and step book new?? If not, I wonder why some ACA meetings don't have it... or use it???

Hello there Kendra, and pleased to "meet" you :)

Yes it is, just came out last year after a _long_ time geting written. Seems like all us dysfunctional people couldn't quite agree on what we wanted to say in a book ;) * lol *

There is a _lot_ of wonderful literature out there that is helpful to us "Adult Kids", and most of it good. There is very little available from the ACA central office mainly because there is so much support available elsewhere that there hasn't been much demand. The result is that every ACA meeting tends to develop it's own "style" and it's own "Format".

Al-anon is _much_ more organized. Some people say that it's because al-anoners are control freaks to begin with, and us adult kids want nothing more to do with being controlled.

AA meetings get together and the secretary will pick somebody out of the crowd to lead the meeting and choose a topic.

Al-anon meetings pass around a calendar and they know _months_ ahead who is going to be leading and what the topic is going to be.

ACA meetings just kind of happen. We all get together and chat and maybe we'll follow the format. Or not.

The wonderful things is that whatever the flavor, we're all getting well

Mike :)

Over in the Alcoholism Support thread, just now, there is a nice discussion of 'God of our own understanding'. There are some really great thoughts there which make it pretty clear that it does not matter what 'God of our understanding' means to you, as long as: 1) you come up with an understanding and 2) that HP is much bigger than you.
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...stand-him.html


:lmao Now I know why everyone's so much better dressed at alanon meetings than ACoA or AA meetings (and I look like a slob).

Sometimes they drive me nuts! My Al-Anon group is SO averse to doing ANYthing that might conCEIVably hurt ANYone's feelings, that it's tough to get stuff done. Three consecutive group consciences must be taken to decide whether we're going to add an extra sentence discouraging crosstalk to the welcome message. Three more group consciences to decide if we add another sentence clarifying what is and is not considered crosstalk, or to have someone make a little sign saying "Please Keep Statements In 'I' Form."

You can imagine how many group consciences and business meetings were required to decide that, rather than move to the upstairs room which, although nicely appointed, was not as big as the church-basement room in which we had been meeting, we would, in the end, opt to stay in the basement, because of its higher seating capacity. As it turns out, this was a good decision, because attendance has been rising -- thanks in part to an anniversary party with AA and Al-Anon speakers, as well as food, beverages, and a raffle. Which, of course, required several business meetings -- after which the treasurer's (yours truly) fiscal guidelines as to how much to spend on the party were blatantly ignored! :wtf2

I happen to have stumbled upon one of the more structured ACA meetings -- we are reading the Big Book from cover to cover, a few pages each week. As of now, we recently finished the sections on the 12 steps, and are now going through the parts where they talk about the Inner Child (or True Self, which I like better). It's good stuff, but intense!

T

That is GREAT!!! I'm hoping to find a ACA meeting like that. There are a few more local meetings I have yet to get 2.
Right now I'm reading the Al-Anon's step book. I am getting some good information from it... It's just hard for me to relate when ppl are talking about there active alcoholic. This is not my current situation. Not to say that I have not gone through it because I have. And I feel I need to point out that I did not get healthy and leave my active alcoholic... I joined him with the abuse of using xanx that the doc gave me because of my not being able to deal with my alcoholic. I left him and went to treatment.... This has been a few years now...