What does AA give you that you didn't find elsewhere?
Sober 6/5/2008
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Point Vermin, Peedro, CA
Posts: 150
I like AA. For about ten years I church-surfed but never found one where I felt truly at home: no honesty or humility. Who can be humble when we're going to heaven and everyone else is going to hell?
But in AA, I found a room full of broken people begging God for mercy, wisdom, and the strength to do the right thing. Plenty of honesty and humility.
Furthermore, in AA I get to hear the message that if I clean up my act and try to be helpful, my life can get better. And at almost 34 months sober, I notice the quality of my problems keeps improving, one day at a time.
I think sobriety for me is a great idea. I wish I'd wanted it thirty years ago when I first realized I partied more than was good for me. Would I stay sober without AA? Don't know. Don't care to experiment.
I think the 12 steps are also a great idea. Honesty, humility, and the life of service is humanity at its best. But I've been working a version of the steps most of my adult life. In fact, I think the steps led me to sobriety, rather than vice-versa.
And I think AA is a great idea. It calms me down and cheers me up sometime. Some sessions are definitely better than others, but I feel welcome there. And I know they are as at least as serious about sobriety as I am.
I don't identify with everyone I meet in AA. But I do feel I have something to learn from everyone. On our good days we are positive models to each other. On our bad days we are lessons on what not to do.
But in AA, I found a room full of broken people begging God for mercy, wisdom, and the strength to do the right thing. Plenty of honesty and humility.
Furthermore, in AA I get to hear the message that if I clean up my act and try to be helpful, my life can get better. And at almost 34 months sober, I notice the quality of my problems keeps improving, one day at a time.
I think sobriety for me is a great idea. I wish I'd wanted it thirty years ago when I first realized I partied more than was good for me. Would I stay sober without AA? Don't know. Don't care to experiment.
I think the 12 steps are also a great idea. Honesty, humility, and the life of service is humanity at its best. But I've been working a version of the steps most of my adult life. In fact, I think the steps led me to sobriety, rather than vice-versa.
And I think AA is a great idea. It calms me down and cheers me up sometime. Some sessions are definitely better than others, but I feel welcome there. And I know they are as at least as serious about sobriety as I am.
I don't identify with everyone I meet in AA. But I do feel I have something to learn from everyone. On our good days we are positive models to each other. On our bad days we are lessons on what not to do.
Member
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 270
Originally Posted by FrothyJay 
The point I'm trying to make is that the steps aren't "nice to have," or "get around to them when you feel up to it." That's the prevalent view in AA, and yet it's a gross distortion of the program.
It all ties back to our terrific 5% success rate in AA-- people come in, are told to not drink and go to meetings, so they leave, drink, and often die. And we all shrug our shoulders and say, "they must not have wanted it."
Arrogance.
It all ties back to our terrific 5% success rate in AA-- people come in, are told to not drink and go to meetings, so they leave, drink, and often die. And we all shrug our shoulders and say, "they must not have wanted it."
Arrogance.
What people often take is "I am powerless over alcohol," "at times we have no defense against the first drink," and "I have to hit bottom before I am ready" - and quite literally leave the rest.
This is a very good recipe for continued, chronic binge drinking.
Member
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 567
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pete55 View Post
interesting concept, Steps Pill, take 3 a day before meals.
Not sure I'm tracking with you....
__________________
Originally Posted by Pete55 View Post
interesting concept, Steps Pill, take 3 a day before meals.
Not sure I'm tracking with you....
__________________
FJ, like I posted, it was meant to be a joke,
ok, the moral of what was percieved as humor, that we live in a micro-wave-push-button-pill-popping-hypercondriactive-fast moving society,
Too fast to take the steps a day at a time, so, invent a pill to fix the problem, or maybe "12 Steps-on a plate- Micro Wave oven-60seconds"
Ya know? humor, If we don't allow humor in our lifes and look on the bright side, we go crazy...,
But that's ok, I'll try practicing being a cross between stunned mullet in a wet leather jacket fish then be serious.
There is a one-liner I heard,
"We are not bad people trying to do good, and sick people trying to get well"
Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 581
Originally Posted by Pete55
FJ, like I posted, it was meant to be a joke,
ok, the moral of what was percieved as humor, that we live in a micro-wave-push-button-pill-popping-hypercondriactive-fast moving society,
Too fast to take the steps a day at a time, so, invent a pill to fix the problem, or maybe "12 Steps-on a plate- Micro Wave oven-60seconds"
Ya know? humor, If we don't allow humor in our lifes and look on the bright side, we go crazy...,
But that's ok, I'll try practicing being a cross between stunned mullet in a wet leather jacket fish then be serious.
There is a one-liner I heard,
"We are not bad people trying to do good, and sick people trying to get well"
ok, the moral of what was percieved as humor, that we live in a micro-wave-push-button-pill-popping-hypercondriactive-fast moving society,
Too fast to take the steps a day at a time, so, invent a pill to fix the problem, or maybe "12 Steps-on a plate- Micro Wave oven-60seconds"
Ya know? humor, If we don't allow humor in our lifes and look on the bright side, we go crazy...,
But that's ok, I'll try practicing being a cross between stunned mullet in a wet leather jacket fish then be serious.
There is a one-liner I heard,
"We are not bad people trying to do good, and sick people trying to get well"
Member
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Sweden
Posts: 1,649
Oyay Pete55: I didn't get your humor but now I do. I am an expat in Europe and I wonder sometimes if I know what humor is anymore!!!
There are three spellings of the word humor where I am living and one means lobster, one means bad mood and one means funny. You cannot believe how many times I have messed that up.
I have told swedes that I am in a bad lobster today and that really never went over very well.
There are three spellings of the word humor where I am living and one means lobster, one means bad mood and one means funny. You cannot believe how many times I have messed that up.
I have told swedes that I am in a bad lobster today and that really never went over very well.
Member
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 567
I had the word "humility" mis-understood all my life till I got sober.
Always thought humility was an associate word for humor-comedy.
Then one day I shared and a old timer came up to me and commented on humility, I wandered what was so funny, as no one was laughing and could not find any humor, a joke.
Then it dawned on me, Humble-Humility, not Humor-Humility.
Then it got more confusing, humiliated.
Always thought humility was an associate word for humor-comedy.
Then one day I shared and a old timer came up to me and commented on humility, I wandered what was so funny, as no one was laughing and could not find any humor, a joke.
Then it dawned on me, Humble-Humility, not Humor-Humility.
Then it got more confusing, humiliated.
Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 581
Originally Posted by Pete55
I had the word "humility" mis-understood all my life till I got sober.
Always thought humility was an associate word for humor-comedy.
Then one day I shared and a old timer came up to me and commented on humility, I wandered what was so funny, as no one was laughing and could not find any humor, a joke.
Then it dawned on me, Humble-Humility, not Humor-Humility.
Then it got more confusing, humiliated.
Always thought humility was an associate word for humor-comedy.
Then one day I shared and a old timer came up to me and commented on humility, I wandered what was so funny, as no one was laughing and could not find any humor, a joke.
Then it dawned on me, Humble-Humility, not Humor-Humility.
Then it got more confusing, humiliated.
it's not thinking less of myself, it's think of myself, less.
Member
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 438
I agree with what everyone else has said about AA being wonderful...but I want to just say that in addition to it being a great program that has helped me get and stay sober, I have met some of the coolest people I've ever known and made many wonderful friends in AA. For the most part, meetings are quite enjoyable and uplifting. I think nearly everyone in the world who has never been to an AA meeting but is considering going to one has some type of trepidation about it...but I'd say that the vast majority of those who do actually attend a meeting for the first time find it to be a surprisingly joyful and helpful experience.
I personally believe that it's entirely possible to recover successfully from alcoholism without AA, and I know that there are some people who do try AA and decide it's not for them...and that's fine, too. But like others have said, it won't hurt anything to at least try it out. You might never know what you're missing.
Stephanie
I personally believe that it's entirely possible to recover successfully from alcoholism without AA, and I know that there are some people who do try AA and decide it's not for them...and that's fine, too. But like others have said, it won't hurt anything to at least try it out. You might never know what you're missing.
Stephanie
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