sugErspun

Are you saying you are powerless over alcohol Barto?

Powerless to me, means I am f*****.(period) Better let someone else lead the way, cause I will put myself in the grave.

CAPTAINZING2000

:ghug3

bugsworth

sug, I know it is redundant to repeat this but I will...lol

The things you say are not aa really are aa...these slogans for example, are repeated over and over...a newcomer knows no different. I doubt in the middle of a meeting you jump up after someone has spouted a few popular slogans and say "wait, thats not aa"

The slogans become a type of "speak"...listen to shares...many people use them as often as they use popular adjectives and adverbs...the speak becomes aa speak...hence becoming aa.

Rob, pretty scary how few people really manage to achieve sobriety in aa.

CAPTAINZING2000

an they didn't have internet at the beginning of AA either

it's been a God send for people living in remote areas needing to be in touch with other alcoholics

sugErspun

Bugs et al.

When I talk AA - you aren't gonna get slogans. If you meet me, I am not going to be more concerned with your feelings than getting you the help you need, even if that makes you uncomfortable.

Not all meetings are the same - I am a member of AA and have a homegroup - there is a lot more to that group that meetings. Trust me.

I know things look different from the outside. I have been there. It's much nicer in here - because I base my life on a foundation of truth.

It works, it really does.

That is the only slogan you need to know about the solution AA offers.

sugErspun

Yeah - the internet just waters the message down even more.

When I see people posting the real solution on here, they are branded as fanatical, therefore pretty much outcast.

Sobriety is much much much more than 'Not Drinking'.

Rob B

Bugs, it truly is, it saddens me for what passes as AA these days. What saddens me the most is that it doesn't have to be like this. That is why I am so passionate about maintaining integrity and singleness of purpose.

Just because it is said in meeting doesn't make it AA, even though the "AA speak" is alive and well. Sometimes it's like sitting in a room with trained parrots.

I can't speak for Adam, but when someone represents opinion as program I do call them on it. I try to do this in a respectful manner, but as we all know, we are sensitive by nature.

The only reason I go to meetings anymore is to look for a new person to help before they fall prey to the middle of the road belief system.

Barto

I don’t really know whether or not I am powerless now. I do know that I used to try to quit drinking all the time and that I was never successful. I surrendered my drinking problem to the then God of my understanding almost two decades ago and I haven’t had a drink since. I think that without some sort of relationship with God as I understand God, I’m very likely to wind up drinking again and I know I don’t want what I had back then.

CAPTAINZING2000

I've been told the only thing constant is change

The foundation of AA remains the same as it always has.

Being on here is a useful tool in sobriety.

However, different methods work for different people

Barto

I think that the slogans that contradict AA literature, particularly the Big Book (aka “Alcoholics Anonymous”), are not AA – and there are some in this thread.

Yeah, but just think about all the ones that do.

sugErspun

Thanks Barto for sharing your experience.

That's all we can really do here.

I can relate.

CAPTAINZING2000

It's kept me sober a few 24 hours now!

Dee74

the internet (through SR) actually got me sober Adam, so I'm with the Captain on this one

my real solution - the solution for *me* - doesn't need to accord with yours.

D

sugErspun

I never claimed that it did (that your recovery was in accord with mine).

But people are posting slogans as "AA slogans", when it is really just things they have heard in AA meetings - there is a difference.

Some people need a miracle to recover, not technology.

Please understand that. That is the message AA carries, only a miracle is going to save the alcoholic that the book was written for...the kind that wound up in sanitariums, jails and cemetaries because the just could not stop no matter what.

They exist. I am one of them.

Please consider that some are sicker than you.

Dee74

I answered a post of yours about the net, and offered my experience. All this other stuff is ground we've covered before, and I suspect 'ne'er the twain shall meet'.

I'm certainly not going to get into a who was sicker than who thing Adam, or who's a real alcoholic or not...that's bollocks.

We're both sober. That's a good thing.

Have a good day
D

Dee74

....we now return you to your regularly scheduled program LOL

D

bugsworth

sug, I have no doubt that you are not a slogan user, it is evident in every post. I mean that as a compliment....I also have no doubt that your convictions stem from your experience and accordingly it is your truth. I respect that...as I am sure you respect mine. Some are sicker than others on that we agree...but alcoholism is kinda like pregnacy....either you are or your not....can't be a little pregnant...

Rob, It seems to me that you have found your place within aa, regardless of your feelings about the failings of the organization. Funny really, so have I...maybe you and I are not so unalike? lol

lovingseren

"Run like the dickens if anyone tells you they have all the answers"

lovingseren

It is precisely this kind of attitude that stopped me from going back to AA.

I now realise that there are many, many compassionate people there, thanks to SR I have met many of them here.

Seren

CAPTAINZING2000

It takes a roomful of people in the rooms of AA to make a meeting. I didn't want to hear a dried up old fart that acted like they weren't enjoying AA telling me how to stay sober in AA.

The sponsor I have now is a director at a rehab. I don't call him every day, cause he knows I'm involved in AA. I'm not around this program I'm involved in this program.

Everyone has their way of working a program that works best for them. I'll read people's post that, can quote the Big Book word for word. Some on here are really big on the steps.

What's worked for me is service work. I make a point of taking people back and forth to meetings that need a ride. I sign up to chair, I open up a church an hour early every week to make sure the coffee is ready and it's not freezing cold or, too hot.

What you do today, to keep you sober do it again the next day and the next day.

I haven't a clue how to work anyone's program other then the one I'm working. This is a selfish program filled up with we's. I didn't get sober by myself and I can't stay sober that way either.

Digest the best, disregard the rest.



What ever slogan you can relate to that helps you in your recovery swipe it and use it.