Duke10

OK, so I have attended 3 AA meetings and I really thought the first one was good, the second one was ok but I am not sure it is for me. I do have the big book and am reading it and it makes some sense but for me it is hard to turn my fate over to God or a higher power. After meetings people always come up to me and talk about how God did this and God did that and he can do the same for me. I am just not sure I want to keep going.

Elisabeth888

Keep checking new ones out.

It is unfortunate that they are bombarding you with God when you are so new.

Maybe go to a different location?

They just want you to be willing to be believe that a power greater than yourself exists.

Charmie

hey there duke...glad to meet you.please stick in a little longer...for me i didnt care about the God thing...when i was "done" i was willing to believe in little green men from mars to get and stay sober...but that didnt come from all the bad experiences i had just had...it came as a culmintaion of that and learning about the illness....out of the big book with someone to guide me...what we call a sponsor.when i found out i was an alcoholic of the type described in that book...i found out i was going to drink wether i wanted to or not...against my will...wether things were good...or bad....or indifferent.my expereince was that after i had sat down and had the illness explained i was rocketed into doing what is suggested in that book.i have never ever looked back.try some different meetings...try ones that are literature based to help you get a better understanding of what alcoholics anonymous is about...permanent,happy,useful sobriety.

Anna

Please remember that there are many methods of recovery:

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

IndaMiricale

If you choose to keep going which I hope you do, remember leave what you dont want.If you not ready for the god thing tell um.

And if they dont want to listen hit um with facts. Tell them to read XX foreward on in the second edition. I do things like this all the time. I do love my AA and will fight for it.

"AA is not a religous organiztion .Neither does AA take any picticular medical point of view"
I read a lot of people running in to people telling them they should take med. its none of there business. And true AA people know it support you .

Good love, Inda

msbelle57

Great message Dylan...i love how positive you are and helpful!! Hugs

Duke10

I will keep going. Maybe I am just fighting it because I can't admit I am an alcoholic. Not sure. Maybe I don't believe it is a higher power that makes me drink it is just me. Thank you all for your advice.

Mark75

My higher power didn't make me drink...

Charmie

maybe you find it difficult to admit your an alcoholic because you maybe dont know all the facts as presented in the book...if indeed AA is the way you decide to go...read my post again very carefully duke...i walked in AA and declared myself an alcoholic....why? because i drank too much and got in trouble...thats what i THOUGHT it meant to be an alcoholic.in fact amounts,frequency and trouble has very little to do with it..like i said...until i sat down with someone and had them read the book with me and i absolutely knew i was....you may find out you dont need AA my friend by a little bit of investigation.i wish you all the best on your journey...if you have any questions you would like please dont hesitate to send me a private message duke

doggonecarl

You always see on this forum, in one form or another, the statement "No one here can tell you if you are an alcoholic, only you can decide if you are an alcoholic." Do you know why we say that? Not because we can't tell who among our drinking peers were the alcoholics...we often can. We say that because telling an alcoholic he or she is one is futile. The only person you are going to listen to is yourself.

I don't know if you are an alcoholic or not. I don't care. I care that you've stated you need to quit drinking. Yet, despite your desire to quit drinking, and the knowledge that you needed to, you have been unable to quit. I don't know if that qualifies for being alcoholic, but it does mean you are struggling to keep the promises you are making to stop. So reach out to something...AA or one of the secular recovery methods...but find a program and work it.

Good luck.

least

^^^^

what he said

augustwest

i didn't much like alcohol the first 3 times i tried it, but i was determined to keep at it until i found out what it was all about.

langkah

It's ok to say you're interested only in seeing if you can find a way to not drink for a little while, and to keep their good ideas about god to themselves until you ask them for further information about that, and that you probably won't be asking soon.

There's never a need to be overly nice to pushy people.

On the other hand, take whatever practical help is offered by reasonable members(phone numbers, invites to coffee, hanging out and doing stuff with sober people).

augustwest

The first time i ever went to an AA meeting i was court ordered. I went, listened, determined i wasn't an alcoholic, and said to hell with these people.

Some four years later the only thing in my life that i knew was that i was indeed an alcoholic and in a world of hurt. I was beaten, and that desperation is probably the greatest gift i've ever received.

We don't have to go all the way to end of the road to accept that we are alcoholics. I know plenty of people who got sober well before they reached the level of degradation that i did through drugs and alcohol. But if we are indeed alcoholic, we must accept it before AA or any program will be effective.

In terms of AA, all the god business came later. I had to internalize step 1 as if it were all that existed before any of that other stuff mattered.