Alanon for the very non religious?

Old 11-26-2013, 11:19 PM
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Alanon for the very non religious?

This might be in one of the stickies....so apologies if I haven't looked hard enough. Also I sincerely apologise in advance if this post offends. It is not meant to, and I'll preface this by saying that I have the upmost respect for all people to practise whatever religion or spiritualism that resonates with them.

I am very strongly not religious (long story, but a very bad experience has left me very anxious about religious organisations, so much so that I used to get close to panic if I was in a situation that required worship/ prayer to a God).

I realise that one of the steps of alanon is that I need to accept my higher power. I think I know that this doesn't need to be from a Christian position, or even necessarily the hp need to be a God - am I right?

I guess my question is.....for others who are atheist.....how do you/ did you deal with the need to accept a higher power? Could anyone share what that was...and how you did that genuinely and honestly, being true to yourself, if you didn't believe.

It's the thing that is holding me back from embracing alanon and I'd appreciate anyone sharing their own thoughts if they come from a similar position.
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Old 11-27-2013, 12:14 AM
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When i was a very active member of alanon I did identify as a christian much more than I do now. But the religious based meetings freaked me out. I KNOW they say you can find a higher power in anything. Mickey Mantel, Mickey Mouse, a tree--what ever--but I dont understand that.
My higher power was simple. I wish that I could point you into another direction. I know alanon is not supposed to be religious, but I know many meetings are. If you CAN personally identify your higher power as the universe or "the way the world works" I am SURE you could do it when you are on your own time//or maybe even in a meeting? .

I ended up finding a very non religious meeting in my area (yet in the basement of a church) and felt much much more at home there with those who did not identify one bit as christians. I am sure there must be athiests and agnositcs who can give much better advise, but here a starting point.
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Old 11-27-2013, 12:35 AM
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Jarp,
I felt completely out of place with this problem in both AA and Alanon, and I am not an atheist. I am very anti religion, not necessarily the people in religion, except when they act smug and/or superior. Lots of it is political anyway be that the school board or city council member that goes to church for show and has no faith at all, or the top sales guy at the local car dealer. Secular does not mean atheist. Read Richard Dawkins' book "The God Delusion" if you have a mind too. (pun int.) I am not digressing but had to say that to makes this point. What if I decided my HP was the Rastafarian deity Jah they worship along with Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia. And wanted all references and prayers to the other Gods removed. Boy that would make for a reversal. But you will never make headway if you are bumping heads all the time. Secular does not mean atheist, no matter how many folks ignore history and claim we were founded as a Christian country, when at best the founding fathers were Pantheists. The whole idea was separation of church and state. But the indoctrinated think they are helping us. So I just held hands and said their Lord's prayer, despite feeling like an idiot hypocrite. But enlightening them, or getting respect from them for believing differently is not happening, not my job, and none of my biz. Perhaps there are some group counseling with doctoral and MS psychologists you could go to?
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Old 11-27-2013, 01:44 AM
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Maybe it would be helpful to also ask for suggestions in these forums as well, if you haven't already:

Secular Connections - SoberRecovery : Alcoholism Drug Addiction Help and Information


Secular 12 Step Recovery - SoberRecovery : Alcoholism Drug Addiction Help and Information
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Old 11-27-2013, 03:48 AM
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Book suggestion here, if you're interested:

Waiting: A Nonbeliever's Higher Power, by Marya Hornbacher.

My local library had a copy, and I liked it enough to order my own from Amazon. Maybe you'd find it useful too.

ETA: I just read Wavy's post below and so much of that is true for me also. I do NOT necessarily believe in that "personal HP", as Wavy called it. As she said also, there is so much else that is worthwhile in Alanon that I just let things go if I don't feel they are for me and concentrate on what IS for me, which is a heck of a lot. Trouble w/religion or problems defining an HP are no reason to miss out on all the other good that Alanon can do, IMHO.
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Old 11-27-2013, 03:48 AM
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I'm an atheist and attend AlAnon every week, sometimes several times a week. I have not yet identified my higher power and have struggled with the concept, although from shares at my meeting even those with a religious higher power sometimes find it difficult to place their trust outside themselves.

Despite not having a good idea of a higher power I have found myself being able to let 'hand things over' as they say and trust that whatever happens things will be ok. For me that has come from an increased trust in my ability to cope with challenging situations. I like to consider my higher power as the laws of nature, how things will carry on in their never ending cycle regardless of what I do. I look out to the stars and realise how insignificant some of the things I worry over truly are and am filled with wonder for the world around me. But I still struggle to pair that with some of the literature that focussed on a personal higher power, as I don't feel the laws of nature are in any way personal. But that's ok, I don't have to understand everything right away and I am free to take what I like and leave the rest. AlAnon has been so beneficial for me, outside of all the higher power stuff, that having something I'm not totally on board with has not beena problem.
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Old 11-27-2013, 03:49 AM
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I have been asked this question before and what I have told others is that AA and Alanon are simply the door that people step through and allow each person to discover their own spiritual path to what they believe. It's a spiritual kindergarten and I have known atheists who became pastors and others who don't believe in God and still do not as well as a lot in between.

AA and Alanon roots are solidly basic Christianity and it's founders found that the principles worked and kept them sober and rewrote them into the steps we now all know. They are universal principles that have been shown to be very effective.

The reason is that we are hardwired to be spiritual beings and our brains actually fire when we have a belief system that there is something bigger and beyond us.

Now... have we evolved to respond to gazing at the stars and the incredible universe or did a God actually hardwire us for us to search and find Him?

Ahhhhh... the big question that each of us must discover for ourselves. But a fascinating study that I have long enjoyed in my life that started out as an atheist... a militant angry one at that! My father the psycho A raised me to hate those who were stupid enough to believe in a God... especially those who knocked on our door. He would invite them in and terrorize them and actually get a gun. We were the only house in our neighborhood that were on Jehovah Witness no contact lists!

So... no matter what we believe and there is a LOT of different belief systems (33,000 + Christian denominations alone) something is TRUE. And if you believe it is true your brain will respond to that and help you become a happier person in your belief system. Now everything thinks THEY have the corner on the truth and the front row of heaven is reserved for them and those who believe like them so sorting this out takes some work! But it is worth it because it is important!

Secondly, the program we follow is one of community and being there for one another in a supportive role even in our diversity of belief systems. The beauty of this that you can find a community of Alanon that you feel comfortable in as many are much more secular than others. When we are comfortable in our belief system you don't have to be intimidated in what others believe and can still share in community with them.

Maybe you could start a spiritual investigative journey and along the way you may embrace your own philosophy and lose the fear you have from a past traumatic experience.

In my own experience my spiritual journey is the most important one in my life and the most enriching and empowering! And if a JW shows up at my door I can be tolerant and kind instead of evil as my father taught me! And I am no longer an atheist and have a personal belief system that my dad would hate!
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Old 11-27-2013, 06:30 AM
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I'm a lifelong atheist and while I struggled with this concept awhile back, I no longer do. To me, "Higher Power" is shorthand for a handful of things that basically take me out of my body and anxiety and help me give up the illusion of control.

Things that do this are things like being outside in a natural environment ("the world is bigger than me and my problems"); learning/trying/achieving new things, especially for whatever reason physical things, like taking on biking this year despite being a single mom with two kids and two jobs ("I am capable of change and growth"); learning to meditate, and despite being very anti-woo-woo this has been a big component of my emotional growth ("I am deserving of self-care, love and peace").

There are a variety of other things, but when people say "higher power" it to me essentially means the confidence I have that I will survive, thrive, and grow. A friend of mine, also an atheist, is always on the lookout for "magic" -- things that are beautiful in their ugliness, like the filament on a broken lightbulb, an arrangement of sticks and wildflowers. She's an artist and you wouldn't believe the stuff she comes up with. That ability to see and create beauty out of trash is her higher power -- and quite a metaphor for personal growth.

I don't know if this is the case for everyone, but through my youth and through the darkest points in my adult life, my atheism was tied directly to a sense of nihilism, or a case of the **** its, or even the **** yous. Not that I would believe in god if I'd had an easier life -- I don't think that's the case. But the sense that I wore my ambivalence or hostility to religion on my sleeve was tied to my experiences of trauma and resultant emotional hardness, and as I've made progress healing from the trauma I find that I'm less bothered by representations of religion in my life and it's easier for me to roll with it than be immediately turned off by it. My ability to "take what works and leave the rest" has been monumental in this process.

As far as spirituality, again, I'm an atheist. But when I'm in the middle of nowhere on my bike, with my beautiful children with me, spotting birds, deer, bees, squirrels, a nice breeze, the sun on my skin, the wind in my hair, I feel so much abundance in my life. That feeling of being grateful to be alive -- that's my higher power. I live for that.
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Old 11-27-2013, 07:44 AM
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Hi Jarp, I am an agnostic, an atheist, have a mindfulness practice based on the Shin school of Pure Land Buddhism. I have also attended AlAnon for almost 3 years. I have also dabbled in Zen and Taoism.

My higher power is " I Don't Know". It can be lots of things, it might not exist, it can't be defined and as long it is not my ego it works quite well. In some Buddhist schools they refer to the ego as the monkey mind. It is loud, constantly chattering, ruled by its emotions and easily distracted.

Look!, something shiny. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, if you look at evolution we have able to function quite well before the part of the brain for language skills evolved and decided it was in charge. What my practice does is allow me to tap into those other ways of thinking and calm the monkey mind as well as make decisions based on my instincts and intuition.

One of the coolist quotes I heard was from a scientist who explained that the solar system and all the stars we can see are built from the remains of first generation stars. What he said was I am part of the universe and the universe is part me. Very cool.

So yeah there AlAnon groups the are more religious and groups that are less religious. Remember as well there are no requirements in AlAnon to do the steps or get a sponsor. I primarily use it as group therapy, a place to get a reality check and a sanctuary where I know that I am being heard by people who understand what I'm going through and that I'll never have my words thrown back in my face.

Sorry my share was kind of rambling but I wanted to get all these different and sometimes contradictory thoughts written down before I was distracted and forgot.



Your friend,
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Old 11-27-2013, 11:24 AM
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Good thread.
Once again I overlooked the religious overtones, and they are strong here in the Deep South. I did go to AA and Alanon and overcame the religion part. I am not angry, my point was that if they had to attend with prayer rugs and say Allah instead of God, the Christian religion types would run screaming. Hostile would not cover their reaction. I am not Islaamic either. I was enabled to get sober when I asked for outside help. I could no more understand that which is, let alone have the hubris to name that which is. Thus my private spiritual life does not desire fellowship from other people to be real for me.

But AA and later Alanon had much I needed and took. No, I did not do the steps in either, and left both once I was steady and ready to make it on my own. About three months each. But like religion, many need it as a long term lifestyle. I applaud that AA can work short term or long term for me. For another the same. Believe me if I could not make it without the steps and daily meetings I would surely be there. If it works do it. Alanon was a lifeline for me. My awareness and avoidance of co dependence began in the 80s with this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Codependent-No.../dp/B00BS027FC
What I am saying is that I was able to overcome the non secular aspects and get emergent help I needed in crisis from Alanon because I was desperate at the time. Regardless of your path, it is time to stop getting ready and start getting to it.

I am not an angry type. I live and let live. I moved away from religions as an intellectual decision from my heart leading me to peace and love without the preachers and priests. I just realized that religion is hereditary, we get it from our parents, and many never question it, let alone read all the great works to see that they all pretty much say the same thing.

Whether one believes or not in a Christian God, one must believe they are willing to do whatever it takes to get help, whether that means holding hands and saying "their" prayer, working steps and realizing that whatever else, the universe is real, and enthralls our souls with the adventures humanity faces as we discover the mechanics of reality and life both as we know it, and perhaps different too.

In Alanon we work on our mundane problems and overcome them with steps and help from our group in understanding the dynamics of our relationships by first understanding ourselves, and that we can't control another. But we have unlimited opportunity for changing our own ways and means to regain our self respect. Then we earn the respect of others.
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Old 11-27-2013, 07:36 PM
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I was raised as an Atheist. I am not a Fundamentalist Atheist...just non religious a non believer over any high power. At times in Al-Anon I would get annoyed. Some people take the religious thread of the program and run with it; but that is true everywhere in society. We are still a mostly religious world. Yet, I realize I am a grown up and I CAN choose to ignore those spiritual parts of the steps and know that is just fine. I think many people coming into AA and Al-Anon are so scared of being forever broken they think the only way to heal is to work the entire program literally. You don't have to. Taking Al-Anon literally is just another form of fundamentalism. It's true, "take what you need and leave the rest". By the way, I become very comfortable with telling people that I am an Atheist when they would get preachy to me about god. I don't impose my DIS-belief on believers and expect the same in return.
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Old 11-28-2013, 07:33 PM
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Originally Posted by jarp View Post
... This might be in one of the stickies....so apologies if I haven't looked hard enough. ...
No worries, there's a _lot_ of stickies. It can take days to go through them all.

Originally Posted by jarp View Post
....how do you/ did you deal with the need to accept a higher power? Could anyone share what that was...and how you did that genuinely and honestly, being true to yourself, if you didn't believe. ...
I was born into a very Catholic family. On the outside. On the inside there was child abuse, alcoholism, spousal abuse, incest, and on and on. I spent some time in a religious orphanage, then some religious schools. When I got to the 12 steps and their version of a "Higher Power" I had _major_ obstacles.

Nothing to do with people of faith, or with people of the steps. I just had some deep misunderstandings about all of the above.

What helped me deal with the whole "HP" stuff was a few things my sponsor pointed out.

The program of recovery is _just_ the 12 steps. Nothing else. _All_ of the literature is just commentary, examples of how a variety of people interpret the steps. The only thing I have to do in order to benefit from the steps is use them as they are relevant to my specific needs. Basically, I get to write my own commentary as I go along.

The steps were written as a record of experience. The specific wording is what those people found helpful to them. They left out what was _not_ helpful.

Why, then, did all these alanoids find a need for a HP? And a "generic HP" at that. The steps were written in a part of the country that still is deeply Christian, and at a time in history where religion was integral to their life. The most natural thing would have been for them to include a theist religion, yet they did not.

I got tangled up in all that for awhile, then my sponsor broke through my mis-conceptions. The only thing that I need to understand about the HP thing is that _I_ am _not_ the HP.

When I read the steps one at a time, and I grab a dictionary and piece together each word one at a time, I realize that they are taking about a "power" that is _not_ "ourselves".

Seeing how I spent my entire life trying to manage the world into fitting my expectations, and _never_ asking for help, the "light bulb" went off. My "alanoid-ism" is based on me trying to be some kind of super-person. To be over-dependable, over-protective, over-involved, super-efficient, fixing _everybody's_ problems, etc. etc.

If I can control _everything_ about the world around me then I will never be hurt, I will perfectly safe.

To me that sounds like I was trying to become my own "Higher Power". No wonder my life was a mess. I must have had a huge ego and never even knew it.

Today I go to the doc for medical problems, the mechanic to fix my car, the shrink to help with relationships, etc. etc. I no longer try to fix the whole world all by myself. All I can really fix is my own _actions_, nothing else.

My version of a HP has _nothing_ to do with religion, or magic, or any of that "stuff". There's plenty of religious versions of God already, no need for me to make up a new one. My version of a HP is just to _stop_ my mind from racing off into those old thoughts, stop myself from going back into that "emotional hiding" where I get so busy taking care of everybody else that I never take care of me, stop trying to be the whole worlds HP.

I see the _remainder_ of the steps as my HP. Doing what the rest of the steps suggest has made a fantastic difference in my life, something that I failed to do when I was my own HP. What works for me is to define my HP as the steps themselves, because they _are_ wisdom that is beyond my ability to create on my own.

Mike
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Old 11-28-2013, 07:46 PM
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Originally Posted by DesertEyes View Post

Seeing how I spent my entire life trying to manage the world into fitting my expectations, and _never_ asking for help, the "light bulb" went off. My "alanoid-ism" is based on me trying to be some kind of super-person. To be over-dependable, over-protective, over-involved, super-efficient, fixing _everybody's_ problems, etc. etc.

If I can control _everything_ about the world around me then I will never be hurt, I will perfectly safe.

To me that sounds like I was trying to become my own "Higher Power". No wonder my life was a mess. I must have had a huge ego and never even knew it.

Mike
Wow...this is some pretty awesome insight. I have copied this into my daily readings.
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Old 11-29-2013, 02:12 AM
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My Higher Power is currently "the goodness" in me - it's in there somewhere and does poke it's head up occasionally . It's also the hope I have for my children and for the future for me, my family and humanity. I have hope. I am currently not religious and don't believe in anything but, am open to change.

I used to believe very strongly and be a pretty obedient Catholic. However, I've lost that somewhere along the way. It was lost in my bitterness and inability to accept the ****** things that have happened to me, despite trying to be a good person. I can't see it returning any-time soon...

All that said, some deeply religious and spiritual people I have met are pretty awesome. I admire their belief and their faith. They give good hugs and have a serenity and sometimes a quiet wisdom which I envy.

You don't have a "pick a side" to get support from Al Anon, they'll take anyone
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Old 11-29-2013, 03:45 AM
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Originally Posted by DesertEyes View Post
No worries, there's a _lot_ of stickies. It can take days to go through them all.



I was born into a very Catholic family. On the outside. On the inside there was child abuse, alcoholism, spousal abuse, incest, and on and on. I spent some time in a religious orphanage, then some religious schools. When I got to the 12 steps and their version of a "Higher Power" I had _major_ obstacles.

Nothing to do with people of faith, or with people of the steps. I just had some deep misunderstandings about all of the above.

What helped me deal with the whole "HP" stuff was a few things my sponsor pointed out.

The program of recovery is _just_ the 12 steps. Nothing else. _All_ of the literature is just commentary, examples of how a variety of people interpret the steps. The only thing I have to do in order to benefit from the steps is use them as they are relevant to my specific needs. Basically, I get to write my own commentary as I go along.

The steps were written as a record of experience. The specific wording is what those people found helpful to them. They left out what was _not_ helpful.

Why, then, did all these alanoids find a need for a HP? And a "generic HP" at that. The steps were written in a part of the country that still is deeply Christian, and at a time in history where religion was integral to their life. The most natural thing would have been for them to include a theist religion, yet they did not.

I got tangled up in all that for awhile, then my sponsor broke through my mis-conceptions. The only thing that I need to understand about the HP thing is that _I_ am _not_ the HP.

When I read the steps one at a time, and I grab a dictionary and piece together each word one at a time, I realize that they are taking about a "power" that is _not_ "ourselves".

Seeing how I spent my entire life trying to manage the world into fitting my expectations, and _never_ asking for help, the "light bulb" went off. My "alanoid-ism" is based on me trying to be some kind of super-person. To be over-dependable, over-protective, over-involved, super-efficient, fixing _everybody's_ problems, etc. etc.

If I can control _everything_ about the world around me then I will never be hurt, I will perfectly safe.

To me that sounds like I was trying to become my own "Higher Power". No wonder my life was a mess. I must have had a huge ego and never even knew it.

Today I go to the doc for medical problems, the mechanic to fix my car, the shrink to help with relationships, etc. etc. I no longer try to fix the whole world all by myself. All I can really fix is my own _actions_, nothing else.

My version of a HP has _nothing_ to do with religion, or magic, or any of that "stuff". There's plenty of religious versions of God already, no need for me to make up a new one. My version of a HP is just to _stop_ my mind from racing off into those old thoughts, stop myself from going back into that "emotional hiding" where I get so busy taking care of everybody else that I never take care of me, stop trying to be the whole worlds HP.

I see the _remainder_ of the steps as my HP. Doing what the rest of the steps suggest has made a fantastic difference in my life, something that I failed to do when I was my own HP. What works for me is to define my HP as the steps themselves, because they _are_ wisdom that is beyond my ability to create on my own.

Mike
Great post that I will also save.

My FOO was very anti-religion and abusive and I was a mirror image of your description of trying to be my own HP that was hyper-controlling of others to "fix everything". I really appreciated your post as it was a laser pointer to some of my issues that I continue to work on.

I find it interesting that many of us come from very different belief systems as children in families that were highly dysfunctional yet many of us find a lot of help and support in alanon while coming to very different conclusions in our own spiritual beliefs.

The freedom to choose what to believe personally about our own HP and how to apply alanon principles to our lives is a matter for each of us to decide. What we all hear time after time is that even if the HP of choice is the meeting, the steps, Allah, Jesus or a mystical or philosophical belief system taking the time to go to meetings and work towards helping OURSELVES is the first giant step in recovery.

Recovery takes time and that is what most of us don't have a lot of. Going to meetings, reading books, scheduling counseling are all deliberate acts of recovery. Alanon was a huge part of my puzzle of recovery and this thread had all kinds of posters with different backgrounds and religious beliefs and they all got something great out of alanon....

You have to eat the hay and spit out the straw or take what you want and leave the rest... you sort out what YOU believe and apply it to your life.
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Old 11-29-2013, 04:08 AM
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Just wanted to thank all those who have contributed so far. What a really illuminating discussion we have here!

I think I may save this link and the next time this question arises, I'll refer the individual to this thread, as it's one of the best of its kind that I have seen here.
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Old 11-29-2013, 02:43 PM
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You don't have to follow any rules or even do the steps in Alanon....you also don't have to listen to the prayers. I originally started going to Alanon just to "do something different" - ANYTHING....the reason being change is difficult so even doing something that didn't really work that much for me helped. It was part of my therapy - taking small steps to elicit change..the small steps eventually led to the big steps and got me to where I am today. Change is hard so even a small thing like attending a meeting (even if you don't end up liking it) can get the ball rolling I think.

I worked step 1 of Alanon and went to various double winner and very non-religious Alanon meetings for a year or so. However my real recovery work was done in therapy not in Alanon - it is not the only answer. I'm not at all saying Alanon wasn't helpful - it WAS, step 1 was very enlightening for me and changed my life. Also just going to those meetings even if I didn't agree with them was a giant step for me. But it wasn't the end all, recovery solution for me. At first I thought it was the religion but it wasn't.

For me Alanon was too rule based - ie "you follow these rules and you will be happy" - I found a strange irony in that because for me the reason I had stayed with my XAH so much longer than I wanted to was because I was trying to "follow the rules and be happy" (life rules - ie get married and all that jazz). So speakers would say "it's not religious but eventually you will find spirituality" or "yeah it was take what you want and leave the rest until I became enlightened" and honestly I was put off. BUT...it was what I needed...because eventually I learned through therapy to listen to MY INNER VOICE and follow MY RULES....and I realized no I didn't need to be a perfect Alanon (or even an Alanon at all if I didn't want to) to recover. Once I found me I was able to follow my own intuition and start taking the steps for a happy life...my steps not the steps. However Alanon played a role, it helped me see that that stringent set of rules I had always felt I needed to live my life by just were not true - I needed to live by me and what's right for me and for me that meant for the first time in my life living as things are, as I feel, and by my gut - my true self.

So...I guess I'm saying even if the religious stuff turns you off or even if the whole "these are the rules" stuff turns you off like it did me it doesn't mean you can't find the things in it that do work for you (for me it was what didn't work that taught me what did...if that makes sense AND step 1). And the biggest lesson I learned in my year or so of Alanon was when someone criticized me or tried to indirectly "nicely" tell me I wasn't enlightened because I wasn't following the rules as they saw them I was able to start telling MY truth and stand up for ME regardless of what anyone thought...and for me that was recovery. So what if someone doesn't agree with my approach or my opinions of the program (be it my religious approach or whatever) - I feel great and was able to leave my XAH and find serenity...and that's good enough for me.
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Old 11-29-2013, 04:33 PM
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I've been going to Al Anon about 18 months now- up to 3 meetings a week. I am not religious, wasn't even spiritual when I came in- I kept going because I needed something to help me- and it did. I still can't explain it- I think it the beginning it was because I was with people who got me, got the situation, it felt safe.

Then I started feeling uncomfortable with the " religious" bit, I live in a catholic country, and as hard as some tried to say it was not religious, but spiritual, it just didn't wash with me. It took a few months of struggling with it all to realise that I did not need to have a similar HP as the others, I did not need to fit into the slots. Like Aeryn said, I found me, and found the belief that what I felt to be my truth and inner strength was part of my Higher Power. I am a very visual person, and imagining a paternal figure on a cloud didn't help. It was reading SR that helped me, I learnt what people from around the world with different cultures thought- and now my image of my Higher Power changes , at times I simply see a bottle of HP sauce sitting on a window sill. weird but it works for me.

Al Anon really started working for me, when I put the focus in me- and not on what other members thought of me. Sounded simple, but my poor sponsor has spent many hours unravelling my mind with me. All I can say is the however much I fought being on the programme, I am so grateful I stuck with it....
As they say, Take what you like, and leave the rest.
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Old 11-29-2013, 04:54 PM
  # 19 (permalink)  
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born and raised Catholic here....ditched that, then came back to it, then ditched it again. for me today what works is the power of The Universe...and how humbled I am but all that I cannot control. I can't MAKE the sun rise, or force leaves to fall off of trees, I can't fight gravity or aging, hell I can barely BAKE decently. that's enough for me. there ARE powers much greater than I....I can barely force myself out of bed at 4:45am to get the coffee going before we officially get up at 5am!

if there IS a God that is really interested in humankind, i'm sure He won't mind my beliefs. i'll just do my best to leave a good "footprint" of my life....try to be kind, try not to kill the planet if I can, use proper garbage receptacles, smile and say hello to my fellow workers on the elevator, do my job, be grateful for all that I have been blessed with, take care of what I DO have, love my husband, love my kid (she's 30 and a singularly AWESOME adult!) and just live my life as simply as possible, avoid drama, chaos, trouble.
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Old 11-29-2013, 08:10 PM
  # 20 (permalink)  
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You all want I should sticky this?

Mike
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