CamilleBelle

I've been debating going to another AA meeting at noon today... I've also been thinking of buying Terminally Unique's recommended book, "Rational Recovery: The New Cure for Substance Addiction"... I just don't know if AA is something I'll ever be able to dive into, so I wonder if going to a meeting today is wasting my time?? So, do I go to the meeting, or go buy the book?? lol Just thinking out loud I guess!

soberjim

Who is the author of Rational Recovery? Thanks

Jim

CamilleBelle

Jack Trimpey

PaperDolls

How about go to the meeting and then go buy the book aftewards?

Tigger41

I'm going the book route. I do better with self-help because some "groups" can get "weird" ya know? May people have success with AA I just know its not for me.

sugarbear1

if you aren't hopeleess or desperate enough, aa may not work. when you are, you know where it is.

Taking5

Do both. The meeting and the book.

Seriously if you don't know if you can handle AA or not, don't you owe it to yourself to try it?

Isn't your sobriety worth it?

Nirvana1

Why don't you try and go to a meeting everyday for 7 days and see what you think? Stay after and get to know a few people and get their opinion about the program.

Most of us, including myself, had a set opinion on what AA was like before we even went. And then after going a couple times, it is easy to start thinking about what not to like about it than what it could be. This all can be changed if you just try to put in a little bit more effort and give it just a little bit more of a chance. Don't get me wrong, it is not always fun to go to a meeting, it does take time out of the day, and involves a little sacrifice.

It might be this easiest thing in the world for an alcoholic to talk themselves out of getting any help. The question for you would be do you want to take the easy route and keep drinking or do something hard, at first, and give the "recovery lifestyle" a shot?

Zebra1275

so I wonder if going to a meeting today is wasting my time??

Really?

Like you never wasted any time getting drunk, being drunk, and then being hungover?

Why not go to the meeting and buy the book? Doing whatever it takes to stay sober is a good goal.

Anna

I'm a book lover extraordinaire, so my choice is always a book. And there are so many good books on recovery.

langkah

I suggest you buy the book and make someone very happy. Then, later on you can try a few meetings.

Lenina

camilleBelle,

That book helped me out lots. It just clicked with me. I'd say buy the book but check out a meeting too.

Love from Lenina

flutter

I'd say do both.. you never know what's going to resonate with your recovery journey.

Pigtails

I agree that you should do both! NOTHING is a waste of time if it helps your sobriety. And it's good to not knock things out before you give them a real try, until you find something that really works for you.

I am using a grab-all approach to sobriety, taking whatever works for me, and honestly I have found EVERYTHING to be very helpful! I like to read but I am a person who could read about things until the cows came home, without taking real *action*, so that's where AA was helpful to me. People there to support me and help keep me accountable and honest with myself, rather than holed up reading alone. Heck, I used to read the Big Book while drunk and/or high on coke! (I am not proud of this fact, but it just goes to show that nothing worked until I was READY for it to work, and just reading or thinking alone does not help me-- action is what works, and support and accountability from other people. I wasn't happy getting drunk/high anymore so I was "reading" about potential optoins but nothing worked until I was ready).

I am reading Seven Weeks to Sobriety which is about "overcoming" alcoholism through nutrition. It takes a negative view of support groups and of alcoholism as a psychological disorder, and instead views it only as a physical disorder and thinks the answer is in what we eat. I personally think it is silly for the author to claim that alcoholism is only a physical disease while putting down those who think it is only, or primarily a psychological disease. She says that depression and suicidal thoughts etc. are the cause of alcoholism rather than the effects. I think the distinctions are silly as for me it was a cyclical problem wherein everything was affected by everything else-- poor nutrition, depression/anxiety, and alcoholism were all inextricably linked for me.

So I am trying everything different in an attempt to recover-- while I am annoyed at the book's know-it-all tone I am taking what I can fromit about nutrition and I do relate to many parts of it and feel it has something to teach me. Likewise I am annoyed at things about AA and people in AA etc. but it has a lot to teach me and many people who help me so I keep going. I also borrow from AVT and the theory that I have an Addictive Voice that I need to recognize and overcome. All of this helps me and if I had ruled anything out, I would not be where I am today. At 38 days sober I am still exploring and doing everything and anything that has helped others with the hopes that it helps me. Good luck to you-- please do go to the meetings and read the book and keep your sobriety first and foremost in any way you can!

EmeraldRose

I was going to say the same thing Zebra...I can't see where going to an AA meeting would be a waste of time. I would see it as enhancing my time I could have spent wasted. But not wasted time.
I vote for both. And you can't say you don't have enough money for both because AA is free! *wink*

CamilleBelle

Pigtails!! I'm also reading Seven Weeks to Sobriety!! I really think it will help, but all the vitamins might get expensive... but it's the first book I've ever really sat down and read! I am going to buy the other book too... like a lot of you said, anything that helps is a good thing!

I didn't go to a meeting today. Have company coming tomorrow and had a lot to get done. Still trying to get laundry finished!

Thanks for all the help/advice everyone! Today was/is a good day, and I spent a lot of time on here!

Mark75

Do you have Alcoholics Anonymous, aka "The Big Book"... If not, get one of those. You can get them at a meeting, or you can pay more at Barnes and Noble. The program of AA is not meetings, it's in the book...

Peter G

Plainly it's not an either/or question. I'd also advise against considering anything that has the potential to stop you from drinking a "waste of time".

I am in AA and the program has provided the longest period of sobriety in my entire adult life. And I am a person who you'd never guess would be involved with AA (started at 43). I have a few lingering issues with a family member and AA which definitely turned me off the program from the start. Thing is, before coming to need AA (to save my life) I had looked to most other programs and activities, in some ways avoiding AA due to my own issues with what I thought was the program. Back then, Rational Recovery did nothing for me when I read it, nor did it help much to participate in cognitive therapy, psychiatry, e.t.c...

I've since re-read RR and find it entirely useful now. It certainly helps to see the merits of RR/AVRT based on the threads here from Terminally Unique, since his explanations and clarity have cleared up many confusing and conflicting problems I had with how AVRT works. It also could just be that I am now at a place in my own head where I am more willing to look past my own preconceptions and less willing to trust my own opinions on what works and doesn't work. At some point I came to fully understand that I am the last person to trust when it comes to knowing what will keep me from drinking. After all, I'm the one who had no idea how to stop.

Bottom line is that both systems don't work at cross purposes at all. I use both now, AA and AVRT, and they both help me equally. Also, while the popular myth is that AA is "meetings" first, and everything else second, the opposite is actually the case. It is the program and work outlined in the Big Book which is the essential mechanism of AA. Meetings are/were only ever meant to augment the process of working the steps. Meetings are there for moral support, for fellowship, and to have at our disposal a group of like-minded folks who can relate, offer advise, and just be there when needed. Sponsored step work is the crucial part of AA.

Short answer is this: if you're really a drunk, guess what? A meeting is never a waste of time. Full stop. Even if you're not a card carrying member of AA a meeting is a very helpful thing.

Dee74

did you end up buying the book instead Camille?

D

CamilleBelle

Dee, I did! But online... should be here in two-three days. It was cheaper than at the one bookstore here in town. And I got free priority shipping! Company coming tomorrow through Sunday and then we are being packed up to move on Tuesday!! It's going to be an insane week... but, moving will keep me from drinking!! I don't drive well hungover! And it's a 3 day drive across the country!