My problem is back
Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Posts: 645
Phmdyw,
Some people do not believe in God and His principles. Some people do not believe there is a God. Some people are turned off by a spiritual path. AA is not for everyone and AA does not have a monopoly on recovery. If the original poster is not interested in AA for whatever reason, she can find a number of secular recovery methods -- SMART, SOS, Rational Recovery, LifeRing, to name a few. There are plenty of folks who have found recovery and have never stepped foot into an AA meeting. If she later changes her mind and wants to try an AA meeting, AA will be there. If she doesn't change her mind, AA will be there.
Susan Lauren
Some people do not believe in God and His principles. Some people do not believe there is a God. Some people are turned off by a spiritual path. AA is not for everyone and AA does not have a monopoly on recovery. If the original poster is not interested in AA for whatever reason, she can find a number of secular recovery methods -- SMART, SOS, Rational Recovery, LifeRing, to name a few. There are plenty of folks who have found recovery and have never stepped foot into an AA meeting. If she later changes her mind and wants to try an AA meeting, AA will be there. If she doesn't change her mind, AA will be there.
Susan Lauren
Member
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Sweden
Posts: 1,649
Thank you susanlauren: I would like to add that I have gone to at least 300+ AA meetings at this point and have never heard in AA rooms the kind of AA proselytizing that I hear on internet forums like this one.
I don't know what causes the phenomena: maybe when people are alone and anonymous sitting behind a screen they say things they wouldn't say in an AA group. I can't think of anything in AA literature that describes the people that make it into the AA rooms as "blessed" and all the others face a bitter end.
It's a shame really, because I hear the principles of AA constantly twisted and convoluted into something I don't recognize sometimes. I just shake my head and wonder what AA they are going to.
I don't know what causes the phenomena: maybe when people are alone and anonymous sitting behind a screen they say things they wouldn't say in an AA group. I can't think of anything in AA literature that describes the people that make it into the AA rooms as "blessed" and all the others face a bitter end.
It's a shame really, because I hear the principles of AA constantly twisted and convoluted into something I don't recognize sometimes. I just shake my head and wonder what AA they are going to.
Member
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: « USA » Recovered with AVRT (Rational Recovery) ___________
Posts: 3,680
Originally Posted by littlefish 
I just shake my head and wonder what AA they are going to.
Re-Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Posts: 7,583
I don't do church or hallelujahs either and did do AA and my group didn't sound like that or I would have never returned. I use just SR now but for my getting sober and first three months AA was terrific. I use an eclectic mix of a little of this and some of that.
Daphne, I hope that you do make it this time. I vaguely remember you but not being difficult. However if part of that was the old "I won't do that" and "won't try that" and "can't do this because" type of person, well i have been there, done that.
I was absolutely clinging to my won't and can't list and that list was always one item longer than the list of how I could quit.
I know how it feels. Like a security blanket thing. All those things we won't do to quit because of fear, embarrassment, all kinds of reasons we could not do things that we hadn't tried to do before when we failed. Hey what is the worst thing that could happen if you attended an AA meeting? Got into rehab? Got into counseling? Found a local SMART group and attended their meetings too?
You see I had a lot of conditions that I said were my preferences but were actually my fears and my excuses. For some AA is a lifelong thing. I used AA for the local face to face support twice a week with the one group I was comfortable with. I didn't do the steps or get a sponsor. I didn't really need to because I was very high functioning. Even my SH said all I needed to do was moderate and tried to talk me out of hospital detox at first. And she saw me putting scotch in my coffee first thing every morning.
I stopped all my other support groups and AA and counseling etc. right at the three month point, and now am just here.
See I did all available and stopped what I outgrew. I took what I could use, and left the rest.
So Daphne what are you going to do differently this time?
Once again, welcome back.
Daphne, I hope that you do make it this time. I vaguely remember you but not being difficult. However if part of that was the old "I won't do that" and "won't try that" and "can't do this because" type of person, well i have been there, done that.
I was absolutely clinging to my won't and can't list and that list was always one item longer than the list of how I could quit.
I know how it feels. Like a security blanket thing. All those things we won't do to quit because of fear, embarrassment, all kinds of reasons we could not do things that we hadn't tried to do before when we failed. Hey what is the worst thing that could happen if you attended an AA meeting? Got into rehab? Got into counseling? Found a local SMART group and attended their meetings too?
You see I had a lot of conditions that I said were my preferences but were actually my fears and my excuses. For some AA is a lifelong thing. I used AA for the local face to face support twice a week with the one group I was comfortable with. I didn't do the steps or get a sponsor. I didn't really need to because I was very high functioning. Even my SH said all I needed to do was moderate and tried to talk me out of hospital detox at first. And she saw me putting scotch in my coffee first thing every morning.
I stopped all my other support groups and AA and counseling etc. right at the three month point, and now am just here.
See I did all available and stopped what I outgrew. I took what I could use, and left the rest.
So Daphne what are you going to do differently this time?
Once again, welcome back.
Member
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Singapore
Posts: 737
Originally Posted by Itchy
...I had a lot of conditions that I said were my preferences but were actually my fears and my excuses...
Well said.
Member
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 1,146
Why not decide not to drink ever again and try harder than ever before? Or see your Doctor for what he/she may perscribe? Or make a few appointments with a hypnotist? A quick internet search will give you an almost endless list of other-than-AA options.
It appears you've got a world of choices to check out long before even beginning to worry about how bad a fit AA would be for you, if you should ever at some future point get sober there. The people you'd have met by going now will still be there for you should that time come somewhere down the road, and they'll be even more capable to help you then than they would be now, having what is likely to be many years more experience enabling them to transmit an even stronger solution, should you ever need that.
You just can't lose.
It appears you've got a world of choices to check out long before even beginning to worry about how bad a fit AA would be for you, if you should ever at some future point get sober there. The people you'd have met by going now will still be there for you should that time come somewhere down the road, and they'll be even more capable to help you then than they would be now, having what is likely to be many years more experience enabling them to transmit an even stronger solution, should you ever need that.
You just can't lose.
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