How does AA actually help you stop drinking
Don't get undies in a bunch
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: South Shore MA
Posts: 7,120
I tried it my way and my way didn't work.
AA had answers that worked.
How they worked or why they work I didn't care about at the time...just knowing they worked and I wanted out was enough for me.
AA had answers that worked.
How they worked or why they work I didn't care about at the time...just knowing they worked and I wanted out was enough for me.
Member
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: road to recovery
Posts: 1,689
two big things about aa that have helped me stay sober over 8 months so far: one, accountability to others (kinda like weight watchers without a weigh-in, i feel like i need to show up, i want to see others, i want them to see me, i look forward to being part of discussions); and two, discipline (aa is simple but suggests that i find new habits and patterns of behavior. it even gives me a basic outline of simple things to do that will achieve the results. kind of like nike's "just do it"--it's simple. but it's not easy. but it is possible.)
aa also has given me a forum where i feel safe discussing my alcoholism. where i am not judged. where i find other people who i can tell all about my shame and guilt and cravings and craziness.
aa literature has really helped me learn about this disease.
best of luck to you in your search and congrats on not drinking!
aa also has given me a forum where i feel safe discussing my alcoholism. where i am not judged. where i find other people who i can tell all about my shame and guilt and cravings and craziness.
aa literature has really helped me learn about this disease.
best of luck to you in your search and congrats on not drinking!
Member
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: anomaly
Posts: 2,180
The people in AA love me long enough until i can learn how
to love myself. Unconditional love, not the kind of love I
had to earned, act, beliving, or think to obtain.
AA accepted me for who i am.
I didn't belive in AA....AA belive in me.
AA didn't fix me...I was sick and tired of being fixed.
Understanding, I didn't think anybody could ever understood me.
As sick and insane as i was. The poeple in AA share their experience
with me. They describe me and my experiences to the key.
AA had tools that I can apply to my life.
AA was different from any establishment I've been it.
AA has NO rules....it boggle my mind. I hung around to see
how the hell that was going work.
At the sametime.....damn it, no freanken rules for me to break.
I'm one those people....I'll break rules on purpose.
So...I did things half arss backwards just to test the waters or AA.
I was in a living hell, in the pit of despair, in that deep dark
hole i dug of myself...AA and the people in AA showed me
a way out.
to love myself. Unconditional love, not the kind of love I
had to earned, act, beliving, or think to obtain.
AA accepted me for who i am.
I didn't belive in AA....AA belive in me.
AA didn't fix me...I was sick and tired of being fixed.
Understanding, I didn't think anybody could ever understood me.
As sick and insane as i was. The poeple in AA share their experience
with me. They describe me and my experiences to the key.
AA had tools that I can apply to my life.
AA was different from any establishment I've been it.
AA has NO rules....it boggle my mind. I hung around to see
how the hell that was going work.
At the sametime.....damn it, no freanken rules for me to break.
I'm one those people....I'll break rules on purpose.
So...I did things half arss backwards just to test the waters or AA.
I was in a living hell, in the pit of despair, in that deep dark
hole i dug of myself...AA and the people in AA showed me
a way out.
Member
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Upper Kolobia
Posts: 153
The Classic Reply to "How Does It Work?"
Just fine, thank you . . .
Okay, here's a bit of illumination from someone who's reached at least junior grade guru status (more than 25 years of continuous sobriety). Only thing, assuming you've got a drinking problem that's eating your lunch, I want you to do what AA suggests, i.e. Don't Drink, Go To Meetings, Get a Sponsor, Read the Big Book, Ninety Meetings in Ninety Days . . . Recovery comes from action, not analyzing . . .
Being one of the slow learner crowd, though, I'll offer the following . . . If you've got a head like mine--a veritable landfill of essentially useless information--maybe you'll be able to get it to shut up for awhile . . .
The skeptical scientist types hate it because it's folk medicine. They see the power of the groups, the mutual support, the mirroring of one's own character flaws in others, and the hope, usually grounded in faith in a Power Greater than One's self . . . They want to replicate it in a laboratory, particularly if they can bottle and sell it . . .
This extends to many in the professional community, and I've been around long enough to get really nervous when the re-inventing-the-wheel crowd talks about "underlying conditions" or has controlled drinking as a treatment option . . .
At the same time, therapy with a counselor or other professional familiar with addictions can greatly augment recovery . . .
I've heard AA characterized in many ways, as offering a superb support system, excellent behavioral modification tactics, you-name-it, up to and including perjorative stuff like "cult" and "magic thinking."
For this alcoholic, though, it works just fine . . .
Okay, here's a bit of illumination from someone who's reached at least junior grade guru status (more than 25 years of continuous sobriety). Only thing, assuming you've got a drinking problem that's eating your lunch, I want you to do what AA suggests, i.e. Don't Drink, Go To Meetings, Get a Sponsor, Read the Big Book, Ninety Meetings in Ninety Days . . . Recovery comes from action, not analyzing . . .
Being one of the slow learner crowd, though, I'll offer the following . . . If you've got a head like mine--a veritable landfill of essentially useless information--maybe you'll be able to get it to shut up for awhile . . .
The skeptical scientist types hate it because it's folk medicine. They see the power of the groups, the mutual support, the mirroring of one's own character flaws in others, and the hope, usually grounded in faith in a Power Greater than One's self . . . They want to replicate it in a laboratory, particularly if they can bottle and sell it . . .
This extends to many in the professional community, and I've been around long enough to get really nervous when the re-inventing-the-wheel crowd talks about "underlying conditions" or has controlled drinking as a treatment option . . .
At the same time, therapy with a counselor or other professional familiar with addictions can greatly augment recovery . . .
I've heard AA characterized in many ways, as offering a superb support system, excellent behavioral modification tactics, you-name-it, up to and including perjorative stuff like "cult" and "magic thinking."
For this alcoholic, though, it works just fine . . .
Member
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 12,136
For me, early on in AA, the sheer number of people who were going to meetings and staying sober were enough for me to make a beginning. Being a part of a collective helped me to stay committed to my recovery. Someone else mentioned discipline, and I echo that. AA gave me tools to remain disciplined; going to x number of meetings a week, working the steps, working with others, getting right with God, getting honest.
I couldn't do it alone. There was no one to be accountable to. And I need to be a part of something that I can see and experience in order to believe in it.
I have been transformed. AA helped me to achieve this.
Rowan
I couldn't do it alone. There was no one to be accountable to. And I need to be a part of something that I can see and experience in order to believe in it.
I have been transformed. AA helped me to achieve this.
Rowan
Member
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Boston MA
Posts: 666
For me, when I first came around, AA simply gave me something to do with my time. Even if I was going to certain meetings because I knew there would be women there that I thought attractive or there was a softball team out of that meeting i wanted to play on or the food was great, I was going. Eventually all the superfluous stuff became ... superfluous. I started to hear the message and began to clear up. Made a lot of good friends, too.
Mike
Mike
Grateful recovering alcoholic
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Blissfield, MI
Posts: 814
AA is a new way to life. That's my home group's name!!!
I have been blessed with being sober for 16 years, thanks entirely to AA. AA uses group support (meetings) to help each other. There is too much too it that works to question it...how does AA help you stop drinking?!?! It provides people who give a darned about you (even though they don't know you) to help you get sober. Doesn't cost a cent. A meeting is usually 1 hour long. Group therapy for free?!??! Yep.
I think it works because it's a group of people who have the same problems and are looking for the same solution...a better way of life. Just as there are a lot of personalities we run into in "the real world" there are all types in meetings too.
Try a few meetings, you have nothing to lose...then the misery you are probably experiencing...I know I was pretty darned miserable.
Blessings,
Jen
I have been blessed with being sober for 16 years, thanks entirely to AA. AA uses group support (meetings) to help each other. There is too much too it that works to question it...how does AA help you stop drinking?!?! It provides people who give a darned about you (even though they don't know you) to help you get sober. Doesn't cost a cent. A meeting is usually 1 hour long. Group therapy for free?!??! Yep.
I think it works because it's a group of people who have the same problems and are looking for the same solution...a better way of life. Just as there are a lot of personalities we run into in "the real world" there are all types in meetings too.
Try a few meetings, you have nothing to lose...then the misery you are probably experiencing...I know I was pretty darned miserable.
Blessings,
Jen
Lurker
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Western NC
Posts: 783
AA is a blessing in my life. It is everything said above, and more. The peeps there have been through everything I am going through, and are sitting there to proove (sp) that it works. I plan on going the rest of my life.
Member
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: my room in ct.
Posts: 58,110
yep, a buch of sick people... that are trying to get better... and stay better...
loads of oportunities in the rooms of AA...
sobriety, recovery, companionship, understanding, compassion, growth, its a family affair of house move'n, employment, food, cloathing, shelter, back watching, lol... and loads of unconditional love... at times it may not seem that way... the reality... it really is...
xxoo, a real friend of Bill's
loads of oportunities in the rooms of AA...
sobriety, recovery, companionship, understanding, compassion, growth, its a family affair of house move'n, employment, food, cloathing, shelter, back watching, lol... and loads of unconditional love... at times it may not seem that way... the reality... it really is...
xxoo, a real friend of Bill's
Guest
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Canada
Posts: 4,580
It's a community of people eerily similar to me. I relate. I belong. I feel heard. Hearing the struggles and triumphs of others lets me know I'm not alone in this. We are all trying to grow up and get on with life sober..which ain't easy when you have no idea how to actually be an adult facing life's challenges head on...without a drink.
Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: UK
Posts: 1,415
Just fine, thank you . . .
Okay, here's a bit of illumination from someone who's reached at least junior grade guru status (more than 25 years of continuous sobriety). Only thing, assuming you've got a drinking problem that's eating your lunch, I want you to do what AA suggests, i.e. Don't Drink, Go To Meetings, Get a Sponsor, Read the Big Book, Ninety Meetings in Ninety Days . . . Recovery comes from action, not analyzing . . .
Being one of the slow learner crowd, though, I'll offer the following . . . If you've got a head like mine--a veritable landfill of essentially useless information--maybe you'll be able to get it to shut up for awhile . . .
The skeptical scientist types hate it because it's folk medicine. They see the power of the groups, the mutual support, the mirroring of one's own character flaws in others, and the hope, usually grounded in faith in a Power Greater than One's self . . . They want to replicate it in a laboratory, particularly if they can bottle and sell it . . .
This extends to many in the professional community, and I've been around long enough to get really nervous when the re-inventing-the-wheel crowd talks about "underlying conditions" or has controlled drinking as a treatment option . . .
At the same time, therapy with a counselor or other professional familiar with addictions can greatly augment recovery . . .
I've heard AA characterized in many ways, as offering a superb support system, excellent behavioral modification tactics, you-name-it, up to and including perjorative stuff like "cult" and "magic thinking."
For this alcoholic, though, it works just fine . . .
Okay, here's a bit of illumination from someone who's reached at least junior grade guru status (more than 25 years of continuous sobriety). Only thing, assuming you've got a drinking problem that's eating your lunch, I want you to do what AA suggests, i.e. Don't Drink, Go To Meetings, Get a Sponsor, Read the Big Book, Ninety Meetings in Ninety Days . . . Recovery comes from action, not analyzing . . .
Being one of the slow learner crowd, though, I'll offer the following . . . If you've got a head like mine--a veritable landfill of essentially useless information--maybe you'll be able to get it to shut up for awhile . . .
The skeptical scientist types hate it because it's folk medicine. They see the power of the groups, the mutual support, the mirroring of one's own character flaws in others, and the hope, usually grounded in faith in a Power Greater than One's self . . . They want to replicate it in a laboratory, particularly if they can bottle and sell it . . .
This extends to many in the professional community, and I've been around long enough to get really nervous when the re-inventing-the-wheel crowd talks about "underlying conditions" or has controlled drinking as a treatment option . . .
At the same time, therapy with a counselor or other professional familiar with addictions can greatly augment recovery . . .
I've heard AA characterized in many ways, as offering a superb support system, excellent behavioral modification tactics, you-name-it, up to and including perjorative stuff like "cult" and "magic thinking."
For this alcoholic, though, it works just fine . . .
I would only add - how does it work? One day at a time.
Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Middle Ga
Posts: 1,515
This is a great thread! My therapist told me to go to AA and I thought... I don't think so- but I wasn't going to argue with her. I sat in my car for 10 min before going into that first meeting. There were ...alcoholics... in there. I certainly didn't fit into that catagory... Well, I made it into that room and I thank my god that I did! I am not unique or special- I am just like everyone in there in one important way- We all have a desire to quit drinking.
Every day when I read AA literature I see something that feels so familiar to me- It is unbelievably comforting and amazing to know other's have the same thoughts and feelings. Within the walls of AA you will find an enormous amount of experience, strength and hope.
I leave my meetings with a feeling of calm- I leave there feeling like I belong. I leave there knowing I can always go back and they will be there for me... for a hug or a good a$$ kickin if necessary.
Give it a try and keep going back- it works if you work it.
Best of luck to you- T
Every day when I read AA literature I see something that feels so familiar to me- It is unbelievably comforting and amazing to know other's have the same thoughts and feelings. Within the walls of AA you will find an enormous amount of experience, strength and hope.
I leave my meetings with a feeling of calm- I leave there feeling like I belong. I leave there knowing I can always go back and they will be there for me... for a hug or a good a$$ kickin if necessary.
Give it a try and keep going back- it works if you work it.
Best of luck to you- T
Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Highlands, TX
Posts: 1,192
When I walked in I knew only one thing. That I could not stop drinking on my own. I knew people got sober through AA and had heard of the steps but I went because I had nowhere else to go. All my efforts had failed and I was near dead.
When I walked in I heard people telling their stories (which were bits and pieces of MY story). They had been through some of the same things I had, thought some of the same screwed up things that I did and had been slaves to alcohol as I was. Difference was, they had found a way out.
So, that was the first way AA got me sober. It gave me hope that I COULD get sober. Then the group and the meetings provided a sufficient substitute for alcohol within the fellowship of AA. That was the second way it got me sober. It got me to be a part of something other than my own head.
Then I started working the steps. I started looking at my life patterns, thought processes, attitudes, actions, and results. I found I had not only a drinking problem but a thinking and living problem. The steps helped me to find a different and better way to deal with life. This is the third way AA got me sober.
Finally and most importantly, I developed a totally different relationship with my Higher Power through others sharing their concepts with me. This relationship with my Higher Power gets me through things and situations that used to baffle the hell out of me. I no longer have to control (and therefore screw up) people, places or things. I can let go and let God. This is another way that AA worked for me.
Anyway, that is this drunk's experience. Hope it helps!
Hugs,
Kellye
When I walked in I heard people telling their stories (which were bits and pieces of MY story). They had been through some of the same things I had, thought some of the same screwed up things that I did and had been slaves to alcohol as I was. Difference was, they had found a way out.
So, that was the first way AA got me sober. It gave me hope that I COULD get sober. Then the group and the meetings provided a sufficient substitute for alcohol within the fellowship of AA. That was the second way it got me sober. It got me to be a part of something other than my own head.
Then I started working the steps. I started looking at my life patterns, thought processes, attitudes, actions, and results. I found I had not only a drinking problem but a thinking and living problem. The steps helped me to find a different and better way to deal with life. This is the third way AA got me sober.
Finally and most importantly, I developed a totally different relationship with my Higher Power through others sharing their concepts with me. This relationship with my Higher Power gets me through things and situations that used to baffle the hell out of me. I no longer have to control (and therefore screw up) people, places or things. I can let go and let God. This is another way that AA worked for me.
Anyway, that is this drunk's experience. Hope it helps!
Hugs,
Kellye
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