SavingSelf

Fantail--thanks so much for this great question/thread. And you got some really great responses. I am a little over six months sober now. I have tried many times in the past to quit "on my own" but kept going back to drinking. I decided to try AA despite my many reservations about the steps/literature not speaking to me personally. But with an open mind and a "take what I need and leave the rest" approach---I feel AA meetings and the people I have met in them to be really helpful to me. I am still sort of on step 2-3 right now and will try to get through them slowly. But I am not sure I will ever feel as "connected" to the actual steps as some people in AA seem to be. And for me that is ok. I get so much more out of the meetings/people than I ever thought I would. And I finally am ok wih admitting I am an alcoholic and can't ever drink again (one day at a time). Those things, for me, are the great benefit, and dare I say miracle.

Thanks again for your post!!

visch1

In looking back I was given some great AA suggestions which for too long I rejected, then the pain became worse everyday it seemed and I started to take advice that is given at meetings. KEEP COMING, don't pick up the first drink and ask for help. I never have been religious but had a closeness to the ideas of the Native American Indian thought of having a Creator. I quickly got a sponsor and heaven forbid USED him for many years. Most sponsors will say that they probably get more than a sponsee in the relationship. Also remember if a relationship doesn't work there is nothing saying we can't get a new one. It all works IF we work it, there is a wrench for every nut. BE WELL

wiscsober

Keep an open-mind -- one meeting won't give you a well-informed idea of what AA is about. Read the literature and history of AA. Go to different groups and meetings. Talk to a lot of members.

The more you help others the more you get help.

If I come to the meeting tables only wanting I usually leave wanting. If I come to the tables to help I usually am helped.



Keep it simple...don't drink and try to help other alcoholics achieve sobriety...by helping others you almost guarantee your own sobriety.

Powerlessness over alcohol is central to the AA program. Willpower is fruitless overcoming the drink.

We have willpower over many other areas of our lives and rightly use it so.

At some point, AA even advocates, is the hope you can embrace your religious and spiritual beliefs in a brand new way.

Don't drink, clean house, help others.

Pete55

One thing for sure, Alcohol knocks us all down in the end, it does not discriminate.
I know I'm Powerless over Alcohol
In the "We admitted", it's as if the authors of the BB are saying, "Look, this is what happened, this is what we found that worked and this is what happened after we put in practice what we found, we recovered from death's door,prison or the gate of insanity. We were not cured of the physical aspect alcohol does to us, the obsession was removed, and the emotions dealt with via the practice of the 12 Steps, and we thought it was a good idea at the time to tell others, then someone suggested we write a book".

Early AA history paints a progressively different picture than what it is today....
From what I have researched and read, I "feel" that utter desperation as if I had the same experiences myself as those 1st 100 AAr's.
I did not want ANY concept of "God" in my life after my humiliating last drunken episode, in fact I threw every bible and everything and anything that I had collected over the years if it even hinted at "something out there".
Also I threw out this toy rocket I had in my room.....everything that did not make sense went in the bin, except for one book I still have today, I hung on to the last thread, just in case! < grin>


THEN I rang AA.

At my first meeting I nearly walked out when I heard the word "God", but the reality was, there was no where else to go...I HAD to listen, I was desperate for a solution and that was 6 years ago.

AA, or the idea of one alcoholic talking to another came about in 1935, Bill W and Dr Bob.
Did they think that idea will turn out to what it is today?
I don't so.


Thanks for that link to the Bhudist's 12 Step wording.

honeypig

Secular Buddhist Association

The Easier Softer Way - and more specifically Speaker Tapes - The Easier Softer Way is the podcasts (scroll down a ways to find the heading "Buddhism")

Thought I would post these 2 links in case anyone interested in a Buddhist perspective might find them helpful.

CupofJoe

Hi Fantail,

Glad you're checking out AA.

If you're in San Francisco, there are also a lot of agnostic/atheist groups here. They might be interesting for you to check out. (And theists are welcome, too, of course!)

If you look up aasf.org, you'll find them, or feel free to PM me if you're interested, but have trouble finding them.

Best to you.

Threshold

I had all kinds of issues and resistance and fear about some aspects of AA. The wording of the steps and the BB were hard for me to push past. In the fog of early recovery when the whole world felt like a threatening place I was very unwilling to put my life into the hands of...WHAT?

I don't believe in any sort of anthropomorphic something out there. I don't believe there is "supernatural". People told me I didn't have to, that I could define HP as anything I wanted, but in the meetings most people who were vocal about their concept of HP used the Christian "God".

In time I learned that most people who had a different understanding of HP simply didn't share details, but I was clearly not alone.

What I came to see was that, as others have pointed out, the 12 Steps are basic spiritual/life principles that are taught/gleaned from the pot of human wisdom. They are not new, they are not unique to 12 step, they are timeless because people have found they work.

Others told me that I didn't have to understand the steps to work them, so I went ahead and began and trusted the folks who told me "more would be revealed" and they were right.

I had a staunch atheist, perhaps angry rabid atheist is more accurate, friend who attended Al-anon and refused any idea of a god, so she used a door knob as her HP and dang if it didn't work! I figured if someone like her could find recovery in the steps then I could.

I have found alternate wording of the 12 steps and 12 step groups founded on other types of psychology and spirituality to be helpful in my recovery. I still have trouble grasping some of the traditional wording and stumble over "translating", so I have made use of the experience of others before me who had the same issues.

In time I've come to some understandings of HP that I am very comfortable with and that don't violate my understanding of my relationship with the Universe.

All tools that help me move forward in recovery are worth keeping in my toolbox and practicing using. The fellowship of meetings is a great tool for many people, and I was always told to look for the similarities, not the differences. Principles before personalities. Those two approaches helped me get the most out of the meetings I attended.