Non-religion or spiritual meetings
 

I have been drinking a lot lately. It seems when I'm winding down from the work day I start to think about drinking. And right after work I go to the liquor store and by a bottle of liquor. It's draining me. It seems I'm always broke and I have good job; It pays well to an extent. Drinking also drains me physically, socially, and emotionally. I would like to do different things that'll take my mind of it, but somehow drinking has gotten a hold on me. In the past, I was able to stop, but now it seems much more difficult. I was going to go to a AA meeting, but I"m an agnostic and have a problem with people using a higher power to take away thier problems. I believe, the problem stems from you yourself and no one can fix it but you. I'm not saying I'm powerless, I would just like to meet new people who can support me on doing different things than drinking. Thank you.:a108:

When I first got into AA I was extremely uncomfortable with the connection to a higher power. For me I just keep an open mind as suggested and wound up staying sober.

There are other alternatives to AA. You may wish to check out the Secular section of the forum here.

I am an atheist / agnostic, depending on which day it is. I am on day 10. I was in rehab several years ago at which time they made you attend AA every day. I was totally turned off by the holier than thou types that attended, particularly when we had non-rehab people there. A lot of the 12 steps have real value but the higher power thing was just too much for me. I haven't attended AA since. I have found this site to be a real benefit. There are ALL types of people that post here, sharing their experiences. For me, it has kept the memory of the misery of my drinking days fresh. I read at least once or twice a day and lately have been posting as often. One mantra that I try to remember is "one day at a time." I can avoid alcohol for just today. I won't worry about tomorrow or the rest of my life -- just today. If I start to feel sorry for myself that I can never drink again, I try to wipe that thought away. Maybe I will be able to one of these days. But not today. I hope you stay around. I would love to hear more from you and how you are doing.

If you feel the higher power issue is an intractable one there are other recovery programmes around :)

http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...resources.html

I did not use AA or a higher power in my recovery, although I did reconnect with my spirituality in retrospect :)

I've heard of atheists being very successful in AA tho.
I'm sure you'll hear from more of them here :)
D

It seems that you recognize the problem, but have disqualified yourself from getting the support you need based on your thinking. Why not keep an open mind and get some real evidence before you drink yourself insane? Go in the doors of a few A.A. meetings, sit down, and just listen. You may find those people who are already doing something different about their alcoholism and living a new way of life. Why not also pick up some literature while you are there so you can make an informed choice about the A.A. program of recovery? Some of it is free for the taking.

You might try calling your local substance abuse treatment faciality. Oftentimes they hold group sessions that can act as a support group. Sometimes they use the 12-steps as a guideline, but oftentimes not. You can also try contacting some local substance abuse theripists and ask if they host groups or not. Both of these options come at some cost, though not usually more than 10 or 20 bucks a session.

There are also a number of online options such as SMART Recovery®|Self Help for Alcoholism Drug & Other Addiction and LifeRing Home Page. I don't think either has any face to face presence in your area, but sometimes even the online contact can be helpful.

A final option is to attend AA primarily for the support. There is not a requirement to "work the program", just a desire to stop drinking. Given time you may end up changing your mind and want to give the steps a shot. Worst case you get to spend some time with some sober folks who generally are very kind and caring. Hope this helps. Take care.

There may be a relationship between not being able to maintain sobriety and your opinions.

My first act in recovery was surrender. I gave up thinking that my opinions mattered when it came to getting sober. All of the evidence pointed to the simple fact that I had no idea how to stay sober. It didn't matter what I wanted to believe or what I thought should be right. It simple wasn't working. I had to turn to those who had been successful with sobriety.

For me, it was a choice. Hold on to my opinions and keep drinking, with a few weeks or months between drinks, or become open to new ideas, even if they were distasteful to me at the time.

I had ti reconnect with my spiritual self in order to recover.

I am not an AA person either, but I have found a lot of support and knowledge here.

I see for myself that spiritual beliefs or lack thereof has no impact on if I stay sober or not. Addiction treatment can be secular in nature and can include AA meetings for peer support...as I do. There is enough wiggle room within the Higher Power concept that something like 'cause and effect" can be seen as a personal higher power. After all its my understanding of what constitutes a HP and not anybody's else concept. Even the Big Book's authors concept of a HP doesn't have to be the same as mine.

I concern myself with addiction treatment when working a recovery program. Ideologies about the deeper meaning about life and other lofty realms of thought like theology and philosophy and whatnot distract me from simply working an addiction treatment plan.

Exactly.

Hello, jcolon.

My recovery is SR, therapy, and taking meds for depression. There are many paths to recovery.

[/Quote:]Drinking also drains me physically, socially, and emotionally. I would like to do different things that'll take my mind of it, but somehow drinking has gotten a hold on me. In the past, I was able to stop, but now it seems much more difficult. I was going to go to a AA meeting, but I"m an agnostic and have a problem with people using a higher power to take away thier problems. I believe, the problem stems from you yourself and no one can fix it but you. I'm not saying I'm powerless:[/QUOTE]

It sure looks to me like you're powerless. Alcohol has gotten a hold on you and breaking that hold seems much more diffficult now. I (and everyone else around here) wishes that we could fix our own problems. Experience however, has shown us differently. We needed help. Please don't get hung up about step 2 in AA. It merely states that we believe that there's something out there that's more powerful than we are. What that power is will be different for each of us. And we think that this power could restore us to sanity. Neither this step or step 3 eliminates our own personal responsibilities here. But as to the higher power thing, as Zencat says, there's a lot of wiggle room in AA. And if you truly believe that AA isn't for you, look up many of the alternatives out there.