rowd44

I have been in recovery mode for a few months. I go to AA regularly and really enjoy the meetings and gain a lot of insight and also have an opportunity to share some of my thoughts which I hope helps others.

I do find there are a lack of professional people that go to AA. Please don't take this the wrong way. I am a professional and their are professionals at the meetings. However there appears to be less in ratio to non-professionals.

Is this coincidental or do professionals feel out of place or are there other reasons?

awuh1

I have known professionals in larger metropolitan areas that never let on who they are. Other occupations, like judges, have a VERY difficult time attending. There are often special meetings for the folks who desire, (and often require) an extra degree of anonymity. Sometimes an AA central office can put a caller who needs this in touch with these groups.

GracieLou

I was a professional drinker. The ways I moved my life around to be able to drink and still maintain a job and a home might impress the average CEO..lol

I am making light and I am not taking you wrong. I do understand that at most meetings you are not going to run into the banker or the doctor.

I work in an office. I am not high on the totem pole by any means but many of the people I associate with either do not have jobs, are in school or work labor jobs. I learn quite a bit from them.

I have it easy. My kids are raised, I am not married and my job is not physically demanding. It really makes some of my issues seem trivial compared to what I see some of them having to deal with AND stay sober on top of it all. I feel a real sense of gratitude for my life when I see what others have to go through.

Of course I am sure there is a whole bag of issues that a professional has to deal with that I will never see as well.

I guess my point is that although or lives and our problems may differ there is one that does not. We are all alcoholics.

Wastinglife

I don't remember anyone mentioning their occupation at AA. How would you know who is a professional or not?

caboblanco

This seems a little on the snobby side. What makes a professional better to have at a meeting than a non professional? are non professional all smelly bums with nothing intelligent to say?

aasharon90

Addiction doesn't pick favorites. It doesn't care
if it affects suits or the poor. The housewife, the
athelets, young adults, criminals, business man.

It doesn't show favoritism. It doesn't reward
anyone or give them a pass because they are
better than thou.

At the beginning of my recovery journey 23yrs
ago, I went to smoke filled rooms and I didn't
smoke. Then I went to the so called rolex group
of drunks thinking that that was the place I
felt the most comfortable and could show I had class.

As time went on throughout the yrs. I came
down off my high horse and became humble
and grateful that Im in the company of recoverying
alcoholics and drugs of all race, color, creed, all
whom I could relate to.

I learned that I am just one small piece of the
puzzle, one small part of a larger mosaic or
picture. I am just one small piece of the pie to
make a whole one.

The judges, priests, lawyers, whom ever is affected
by the addiction of drugs or alcohol, I am on the
same level as them no matter who they maybe.

Today, im in good company which helps me
stay on track and continue on my recovery
journey each day I remain sober.

Kathleen41

There are plenty of "professionals" at the groups I attend. In fact one of the wealthiest, most well known man in my town attends. I myself am a credentialed "professional." I rarely show up to meetings wearing my work attire, and don't list all the letters that I've earned when I introduce myself as an alcoholic!! So I think they may be there, and you are unaware.

There are of course many professionals who fear going to a public AA meeting. I don't know what they do. I swallow my pride and go anyway; on a rare ocassion I run into someone I know, and it usually works out just fine. My mother in law has been an alcoholic all her life, and had tried various self help methods. She refused to go to AA due to the public nature of her profession. She still binge drinks today in her 70s. It's very upsetting to my husband. It is unfortunate that people think this way.

Nevertheless

There were a lot of "professional people" where I used to attend AA. You had to get to know them to find out what they do. There were also a lot of "unprofessional" people.
In a Hospital emergency room,you also find professional and unprofessional people.. The ratio changes with the neighborhood of the hospital and so does AA.
Of course if the booze demon bites one of these said "professionals" really hard. They will slide down the "professional" list to "unprofessional" category in short order. And getting bitten by the booze demon certainly does effect the ratio. Drinking away everything you have can and does happen to professional people.
I think the AA outline is in place so we don't judge other people though. We are supposed to take care of ourselves,and let the man upstairs dictate the ratio of professionals.
Just my opinion...
Fred

GroundhogDay

It could also be that fewer professionals admit to having a problem. High functioning alcoholics with money to burn seem to be less convinced they have a problem, or less inclined to care since money can always fix their problems later.

tomsteve

it all depends on what the definition of professional you have.
I see tables full of professional alcoholics at every meeting.
if yer talkin about doctors,lawyers,judges, police officers, etc, theres more than you know at meetings.
do you go to meetings and ask everyone what they do for a living? do you tell everyone what you do for a living?prolly not. it isn't our purpose at meetings.
some don't go to meetings in their hometown. some go to underground meetings, some go to caduceus meetings, some go to IDAA meetings.
why they do it isn't important to me. they do it and the world is a better place for them getting help and carrying the message to others.

IOAA2

Over the years in AA I've known many "professionals" in attendance, from airline pilots to lawyers, doctors and many regular Joes. I'd guess they have the same ratio if a poll were taken on the street. I find that a large proportion, maybe like the general population have a problem with their ego accepting the fact that there is a problem with alcohol. A big problem I had when I came to AA was I really had no idea what an alcoholic is. I worked in the area of the city where "real alcoholics" lived in doorways, abandoned cars and passed out on the sidewalk. They were regularly called bums and were "cast asides." This image did not attract people to label themselves alcoholics even WHILE sliding down the same slippery slide called denial. BE WELL

Threshold

In the area where I got sober there were (I was told) certain closed meetings for those who needed to maintain anonymity at a deeper level due to the nature of their position.

People in the meetings very often did identify what they did for work, in fact more people did so than not, and we had a few regulars who worked as professionals, but very few who identified as such.

I didn't care one way or the other who the person sitting next to me was or wasn't, since we were there to address our common problem, and no matter which meeting or group I attended, we basically self selected so what's the difference? Certain meetings were held in particular neighborhoods where few people owned cars and needed a meeting they could walk to. Others were lunchtime meetings downtown for people who only had an hour to duck out. Some met at 6 AM weekday mornings, for folks before work, others at 11 AM on Sunday for those who didn't attend church. No harm, no foul, no insult, no greater or lesser than...just people with legitimately different needs.

dox

From wealthy rock stars to homeless people; we see all sorts at meetings.

We pray for a serenity that fosters acceptance. But, often, we need to work for it.

Putting aside our judgements and accepting others (and ourselves) as we are takes practice as well as prayer, in my experience.

Thank God: the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking.

Db1105

"Please don't take this the wrong way. I am a professional and their are professionals at the meetings."

Don't take this the wrong way but the proper English is (there) not (their). By the way, I am not a "professional".

Joe Nerv

Not sure what you mean by "professional", but I'm going to assume that if you're not seeing them, it's because of the particular meeting or meetings you're going to. Or as already stated, they're simply not identifying themselves. I don't hear a whole bunch of peole in AA talking about what they do for a living, but when I do, I hear people from every walk of life. And I see just as much a mix of occupations as I would anywhere else. I am absolutely certain that alcoholism does NOT discriminate. And my experience is that the same holds true for those who come into recovery. I have seen doctors, lawyers, business men, actors, models, city workers, homeless people, students... pretty much anything and everything imaginable. And I can't think of any particular group that there are more or less of than any of the others.

Mentium

Is it possible that by professional you mean in reality people with a higher income? I suppose they might be more inclined to pay for rehab if they are seeking help.

Maybe..On the other hand I went to a meeting on Sunday night and of the 25 there there was me (a 'professional'), a GP, a rather well known barrister (lawyer) and the wife of a member of the landed gentry (a Lord's wife - I was told after the meeting about her..though he name wasn't offered and I didn't ask).

So - we can all be drunks irrespective of our 'professional' status..

Susan2984

Is it possible you need to maybe look for another meeting, maybe in a different area? This may not be a question so much of non-professionals vs professionals as not feeling you "fit" in the way you would like, or relate to as many people the way you would like to.

Zencat

I'm not going to take it the wrong way rowd44.

I suspect that many of the "professionals" with an addiction problem have assess to a high cost Rehab facility. Thus lessening the likelihood of meeting people in AA that have more recover options that those that cannot pay for high end Rehab.

Just throwing it out there I could be wrong.

TrixMixer

Hi Rowdy,

Frankly the only thing that should matter to you is your first statement above.

As far as "professionals" in attendance? Alcoholics are all in the same boat. Alcohol is the great equalizer--

ClearLight

Different meetings have different demographics. Depends on where you go.

There's a daily meeting not too far from me that me that meets at a yacht club.

I've wanted to drop by just to check it out but it starts at 6:30 in the morning. Even sober that's a bit of a stretch for me.