soberlicious

Nah...Boleo just has a bit of a schoolyard crush and he's kicking sand

I am honored to be the object of his attention. He has much to offer those struggling who want a spiritual solution.

dox

I think that advice is more likely to work if it is based on personal experience.

A lovely old-timer around here has shared, on more than one occasion, that when someone offers him advice he asks them:
"Thank you for the advice. Have you any personal experience with this problem?"
He says that he was given some well-meaning advice that didn't work out very well; disastrous, actually.
Turns out the advice he was given was based on opinion that was not forged in experience.

IMHO experience is important in formulating opinion that is helpful to others.
Ah, but my opinion is not based on my personal experience, but on the experience of another alcoholic.
That is the beauty of this programme of recovery: we can learn from the experiences of others.
We don't all have to relapse to know that it is a bad thing. Do we?
And because others share their experience, we can avoid some of the pitfalls that might lead us to relapse.

And who am I? Just another Alcoholic in this virtual recovery forum.

My opinion means nothing.

Nevertheless, here's my two pence worth:

I am wary of any advice that starts with "What I would do is . . ."

Sound advice usually follows this: "That happened to me and I . . . "

More food for thought?

Or is this just common sense?

Experience, Strength and Hope . . . Beautiful !

whalebelow

I received so much advice in my early AA sobriety from well meaning people ... most based on opinion, some on experience .... as usual I found out the hard way about relying on other alcoholics to help solve problems in my life ..... that is not their job and I was foolish to think it was.

Keep it Simple .... have a spiritual awakening by taking the 12 steps.

(Unfortunately, Keep it Simple, seems to have been high-jacked by the "Just go to meetings, Just don't drink" or "1st step & 3rd tradition" peeps)

ru12

Well... After reading all this what I come away with is there are certain posters here that I never want what they have. Me I keep it simple. I don't drink. Ever. And that is enough for me.

whalebelow

I took step 1, skipped the rest & then practised step 12.

As so many in AA do.

A fresh coat of paint on the outside of a house helps, but you can't honestly call it "fully renovated". Its just one step towards full renovation.

I didn't drink half assed, so I figured a half assed renovation probably wasn't in my best interests.

Your mileage may & probably will vary.

desypete

you seem to spend to much time looking at how you think others are living rather than yourself
sadly i have known many people in aa who have fell into that trap and they end up back out there again as they havent changed at all, they have just swapped many of there bad habits and found a new bad habit they can believe there right on

nothing worse than a drunk who believes there right as there never wrong.

whalebelow

I'm just one of Gods kids desypete, happy in the knowledge that I carry a message with depth and weight.

You'll be glad to hear, I'm bowing out of this thread now.

RobbyRobot

Thanks for an interesting enough thread everybody. We went a little sideways a few times but whatever.

I think more than a few posts clearly mark the distinctions between sharing of first hand experience and sharing of opinion. I'm thinking we can conclude we all to a person have our experiences and our opinions in abundance, lol.

soberlicious

Well, this is certainly not an earth-shattering conclusion.

Every human on this earth has experiences and opinions.

What strikes me about this thread is the tendency to want frame others' experiences for them.

RobbyRobot

Yes, my comment along with my lol was to mean an ironic and humorous unremarkable conclusion. Unfortunately or not, the thread kinda lost its way towards the end, yeah? My opinion is also the thread didn't really come across to me as supporting how others tend to want to frame others experience for them. Not to say there wasn't evidence of such support from certain posters. Still though, I do think on the whole the thread supports a general result of its best all around to responsibly own our own experiences, as well as our opinions of others experiences. This too may not be news, lol.