Nalanda

Good day,

I'm considering the aa or/and na. Where I'm living I don't think there's any other options for outside support. Well I think it may be wise to consider a counselor or something too. As I'm living in a foreign country, I suppose my gf would be the only "face to face" support and I don't want to give her that task (burden...)

Anyway, this is stemming from a bit of a vivid dream about childhood. Dysfunctional family etc and I realize something......I could never go to my parents if I had and issue or a problem so I learned to keep things to myself and deal with them myself (with the limited tools I had at the time...............so this is probably a childhood script that I'm still operating from.....ie "not needing support".....

......probably needs to be broken as I tend to repeat the same pattern over and over. And it will probably repeat if I don't break it..

So, my option is only the weekend. I could go to one on of each on Friday and Saturday (that's just the way it's working out with schedules and everything)

Does anyone use the two of them simultaneously? Does it make a difference? Is it a good idea, the two of them? are they basically the same? I briefly remember someone saying the literature in aa is a a little outdated and the one in na is more modern?

True? Thoughts?

Dee74

There are other meeting based groups too like SMART and Lifering - sometimes I'm surprised at where they have meetings so it's probably good to check out both just in case there's something local as well.

Self Help Addiction Recovery | SMART Recovery®
LifeRing Secular Recovery

I was never very good at reaching out, or asking, for help either.
But I learned.

I think everyone can

sugarbear1

NA and AA are similar. It's about working through those steps where we can change our perspectives.

entropy1964

NA is based off the AA text and basic structure. Yes the literature of NA is more 'modern' but the message is the same. I've grown to like AA's kind of 'old fashioned' prose and verbiage. For whatever reason, I relate more to the big book, but have read the NA text. NA has a work book for working the steps that I really like however.

I do occasionally attend NA, but I focus on AA. I think it is completely fine to attend both regularly. My objective is to find friends and a sponsor. I think that is best accomplished by finding a few meetings to attend regularly and make one my home group.

Good luck.

Pierce1230

Try everything you're considering. Walking in the doors of a meeting is like dipping your foot in the pool before jumping in, not like jumping in the pool and having to climb back out.

Even inside AA or NA communities, there can be a dramatic difference in "fit" based on what meetings you go to. Time of day and location make a huge difference in the feel of the meeting. My favorite meeting ended up being on Friday nights, farther away from my house, at a meeting originally intended for the gay community (I'm not gay).

If you would have ever told me that I'd look forward to going to a gay AA meeting on Friday night and having ice cream afterwards, I'd have called you seven kinds of insane, but there it is, and it's pretty awesome.

The people make the meetings, and the mix of people at different meetings is probably what will make you like or dislike any particular program

Good luck!

mfanch

Baskin Robbins makes many different flavors of ice cream, but the original and best selling is vanilla. Just like all 12-step programs are based off of AA's Big Book. I am sober off the needle and bottle and used AA as my main fellowship. I have a desire to be chemical-free and the AA fellowship is very large and developed in my town (compared to other 12-step groups like NA). My sponsor is a straight alkie, but my grand-sponsor is a recovered crack-hoe with 32 years sober in AA!

Maybe hit up some different meetings and see what resonates with you. The main thing is to WORK THE STEPS, regardless of which program you go with.

Berrybean

I know lots of poeple who go to both. Lots of double-winners out there.

I also used CoDa and that really helped a lot with old childhood issues. Not so much the meetings (because theyre tricky for me to get to) as their literature and online information, alongside the AA stuff I was doing with my sponsor in my 12-step work.

http://www.coda-uk.org/

Nalanda

Cheers. I googled those two and they don't appear to be where I am.

Yeah, hopefully I can. have to look at it as moving from independence to interdependence. Putting resources together an becoming bigger and better.

MIRecovery

IMO the more recovery support the better. My IOP and AA overlapped for a while and it sure didn't hurt me