I need AA to work for me
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2018
Posts: 271
I need AA to work for me
Today has been a truly terrible day recovering from a bender and having panaic attacks and was unable to go to work. I would not wish today on my worst enemy!
However I have had a lot of telephone contact with Alcoholics Anonymous today and someone is meeting me in a couple of days to take me to a meeting.
I am desperate for this to work this life o am living is no life at all.
The last remaining poison/alcohol has been thrown down the toilet.
To all those suffering I hope you are able to reach out for help.
However I have had a lot of telephone contact with Alcoholics Anonymous today and someone is meeting me in a couple of days to take me to a meeting.
I am desperate for this to work this life o am living is no life at all.
The last remaining poison/alcohol has been thrown down the toilet.
To all those suffering I hope you are able to reach out for help.
Canine Welfare Advocate
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Norfolk, VA
Posts: 10,962
Originally Posted by Highercall 
However I have had a lot of telephone contact with Alcoholics Anonymous today and someone is meeting me in a couple of days to take me to a meeting.
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2018
Posts: 271
The reason I am not going today is that my anxiety is so bad I am unable to leave my flat.
However I will attend this week. Wish me luck.
This terrible disease will not beat us as long as we help each other.
However I will attend this week. Wish me luck.
This terrible disease will not beat us as long as we help each other.
Forum Leader
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 16,945
Sorry to hear that Highercall. Your inability/inability to commit to any type of recovery program, or to even follow up on your bender recovery posts here on SR, is certainly an issue.
The thing is, recovery won't just happen or "work for you". You need to do the work yourself. And it won't be easy - probably one of the harder things you'll do in your life.
But if you honestly look at it, is what you are doing now working very well? You come here ever few days to talk about your last binge and how horrible you feel, but then you don't follow up or even reply to the advice you've been given. It's not surprising that you are getting the results that you are then, do you think?
The thing is, recovery won't just happen or "work for you". You need to do the work yourself. And it won't be easy - probably one of the harder things you'll do in your life.
But if you honestly look at it, is what you are doing now working very well? You come here ever few days to talk about your last binge and how horrible you feel, but then you don't follow up or even reply to the advice you've been given. It's not surprising that you are getting the results that you are then, do you think?
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2018
Posts: 271
Thanks. I feel scotti is a harsh critic. I have reached out to Alcoholics Anonymous and am prepared to take their guidance. Anyone who thinks I am suffering this way because that what I want then they must be mad.
Forum Leader
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 16,945
Originally Posted by Highercall
Thanks. I feel scotti is a harsh critic. I have reached out to Alcoholics Anonymous and am prepared to take their guidance. Anyone who thinks I am suffering this way because that what I want then they must be mad.
What I, and others, are trying to point out is that recovery is a process that you must take action on to make work. Going to meetings in itself is a good activity, but that in itself won't help you get sober. Working the steps on your own time and with a sponsor will if you do chose AA.
If you choose to use SR as part of your recovery, you need to post here more often as well. Just coming here to recount your binges and how bad you feel won't help - you need to actively particpate in your recovery, especially when you start feeling better. The consequences of drinking in themselves are not enough to keep you sober as they always lessen, so you have to have a plan for when they do and you decided that drinking might be a good idea agan - which will come.
Member
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 2,583
Hi Highercall,
I am not familiar with your story and if you have ever been to AA before but I commend you for getting in contact with AA and getting someone to meet you to go to a meeting.
I have been trying to get sober for the last 5 years. I went to AA a few times and last year I had 2 months of sobriety and then relapsed. I am not sure exactly why I couldn't stick to the programme but I put it down to a number of things. 1 being that I listened more to the differences instead of the similarities and 2 that my desire to drink (and keep trying to drink "normally")was stronger than my desire to get and stay sober. In April of this year I had an awful 10 day binge and I just knew in my heart of hearts I was done. I just couldn't continue to "live" that way any longer. I would rather die. And to be honest, alcohol was going to kill me one way or the other. So I reached out to 2 women who went to The AA meetings I last attended and I have now been sober 5 months!!
I think it is working this time because I really want it to work. I have completely accepted step one. I am powerless over alcohol and my life has become unmanageable.
I went to as many meetings as I could get to. I listened to other member's experience, strength and hopes, I read the Big Book and Living Sober, I got peoples numbers. I now have a sponsor and am working the steps with her. I have 2 service positions at my home meeting. I do the teas and coffee on one day and I am the Secretary (opening and closing the meeting)on another day.
The first 3 and a half months were the hardest. By the middle of month 4 I started to really reap the benefits of sobriety and continue to do so.
In the first couple of month's my desire to drink was strong. When I wanted to drink I would pray to my HP, sometimes screaming and shouting "please God, please don't let me drink!", I would get to a meeting if I could, ring someone, read some AA literature, say the serenity prayer, come to Sober Recovery (I was and am still here many times a day).
The AA programme is a programme of action. It works if you work it.
So, please, work it. You're worth it.
I am not familiar with your story and if you have ever been to AA before but I commend you for getting in contact with AA and getting someone to meet you to go to a meeting.
I have been trying to get sober for the last 5 years. I went to AA a few times and last year I had 2 months of sobriety and then relapsed. I am not sure exactly why I couldn't stick to the programme but I put it down to a number of things. 1 being that I listened more to the differences instead of the similarities and 2 that my desire to drink (and keep trying to drink "normally")was stronger than my desire to get and stay sober. In April of this year I had an awful 10 day binge and I just knew in my heart of hearts I was done. I just couldn't continue to "live" that way any longer. I would rather die. And to be honest, alcohol was going to kill me one way or the other. So I reached out to 2 women who went to The AA meetings I last attended and I have now been sober 5 months!!
I think it is working this time because I really want it to work. I have completely accepted step one. I am powerless over alcohol and my life has become unmanageable.
I went to as many meetings as I could get to. I listened to other member's experience, strength and hopes, I read the Big Book and Living Sober, I got peoples numbers. I now have a sponsor and am working the steps with her. I have 2 service positions at my home meeting. I do the teas and coffee on one day and I am the Secretary (opening and closing the meeting)on another day.
The first 3 and a half months were the hardest. By the middle of month 4 I started to really reap the benefits of sobriety and continue to do so.
In the first couple of month's my desire to drink was strong. When I wanted to drink I would pray to my HP, sometimes screaming and shouting "please God, please don't let me drink!", I would get to a meeting if I could, ring someone, read some AA literature, say the serenity prayer, come to Sober Recovery (I was and am still here many times a day).
The AA programme is a programme of action. It works if you work it.
So, please, work it. You're worth it.
Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 211,414
Hi HC
My life got better when I stopped giving myself permission to drink.
I think thats a fundamental thing everyone has to do,m regardless of what method they use.
Denying myself a drink was tough - I drank for almost every reason - but it got easier
It will get easier for you too. If you want change - make changes ...and stick with them
D
My life got better when I stopped giving myself permission to drink.
I think thats a fundamental thing everyone has to do,m regardless of what method they use.
Denying myself a drink was tough - I drank for almost every reason - but it got easier
It will get easier for you too. If you want change - make changes ...and stick with them
D
No Dogma Please
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: SoCal
Posts: 2,562
I've seen people in my 18 months of sobriety get hung up on the method that they get sober.
Glad you are focusing on AA. Try giving it your all. If it doesn't resonate, there are other ways to stay sober, but the sense of community that AA provides was so valuable to me in my first 90 days.
Keep on quitting.
Glad you are focusing on AA. Try giving it your all. If it doesn't resonate, there are other ways to stay sober, but the sense of community that AA provides was so valuable to me in my first 90 days.
Keep on quitting.
Guest
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 8,674
Reaching out is good. Going to a meeting no matter whether someone gets back to you or anything like that is more important.
If you commit to AA you will hear that it's for the people who want it. Action has to start with us, we enlist help from others and we keep repeating the cycle of action with support, every day.
If you commit to AA you will hear that it's for the people who want it. Action has to start with us, we enlist help from others and we keep repeating the cycle of action with support, every day.
AA member
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 872
Wishing you well Higher Call.
AA will work for you if you want it to,that is guaranteed.As long as you get a sponsor and work the steps,it is the programme that is the important part,
Glad someone is going with you to your first meeting,That is how we do it where I am,when someone calls the helpline.
Look forward to hearing how it goes.
AA will work for you if you want it to,that is guaranteed.As long as you get a sponsor and work the steps,it is the programme that is the important part,
Glad someone is going with you to your first meeting,That is how we do it where I am,when someone calls the helpline.
Look forward to hearing how it goes.
RIP Sweet Suki
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: In my sanctuary, my home
Posts: 39,892
The program of AA works if you work it! That means getting a sponsor and working the steps. The steps is the program of AA; not just the meetings.
Good luck! You can do this!
Good luck! You can do this!
Member
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: NC
Posts: 1,737
Higher,
My experience with AA came after I got out of a six week rehab program. I really wasn't thrilled with the idea of going to meetings, but I had no better idea and I realized that other than having a lot more information about addiction and not drinking for six weeks, I was still pretty much the same guy that went into rehab. I went to lots of meetings in my area, some close to an hour drive from my home. I found two meetings that I liked best and went to one of them every day. I was told in rehab to do "90 in 90" - which means 90 meetings in 90 days; that seemed like an awfully big commitment initially. I soon found that I liked the structure and enjoyed not only what I heard and learned in the meetings, but I liked the people as well. They ran the gamut from twenty-something to pensioners, career people (lawyers, engineers, nurses, business professionals) to unemployed. But we all shared one thing: for that hour, we were sober, and not alone in that fight.
I found a sponsor, and met with him every Thursday after the AA meeting. We read the "Big Book", the "12 & 12", and he explained the steps and led me through the work associated with each one. I started service work at the group level, chairing meetings, and serving on one of the service boards. In the course of my first year, I went to 360 meetings. Not bad for the guy who thought it was ridiculous to expect me to go to a meeting every day for 3 months.
I am now coming up on nine years without a drink. I can say from experience the only difference between the ones who stay sober and those unfortunates who do not, is that the first group was willing to go to any length to stay sober just for today. When the urge to drink came (and it will - especially at first) I had to do anything necessary to not drink. Usually the urges only lasted about 15 minutes. I would walk, listen to music, exercise, read, take a nap, call a friend, journal, log onto SR... anything other than pick up a drink. And I was grateful at the end of each day for another 24 hours of sobriety. I never want to go back to the life I used to live - and I know that on my own, I could never have stayed sober for weeks, much less years.
The first word of the first step is WE. Go to the meeting as soon as you are able and introduce yourself as a newcomer. Find a group where you feel most comfortable, and make it your home group. Get a sponsor - someone who has long term sobriety of the type you want for yourself - and ask that person if they will be your sponsor. The rest is pretty simple: work your program every day, addiction doesn't do vacations. Do what your sponsor did, and eventually you will get what he/she got. But do it every day, and don't allow yourself to isolate - that's the beginning of the end for folks like us.
Please stay in touch, let us know how you are doing. Your sobriety matters!
All the best... Ed
My experience with AA came after I got out of a six week rehab program. I really wasn't thrilled with the idea of going to meetings, but I had no better idea and I realized that other than having a lot more information about addiction and not drinking for six weeks, I was still pretty much the same guy that went into rehab. I went to lots of meetings in my area, some close to an hour drive from my home. I found two meetings that I liked best and went to one of them every day. I was told in rehab to do "90 in 90" - which means 90 meetings in 90 days; that seemed like an awfully big commitment initially. I soon found that I liked the structure and enjoyed not only what I heard and learned in the meetings, but I liked the people as well. They ran the gamut from twenty-something to pensioners, career people (lawyers, engineers, nurses, business professionals) to unemployed. But we all shared one thing: for that hour, we were sober, and not alone in that fight.
I found a sponsor, and met with him every Thursday after the AA meeting. We read the "Big Book", the "12 & 12", and he explained the steps and led me through the work associated with each one. I started service work at the group level, chairing meetings, and serving on one of the service boards. In the course of my first year, I went to 360 meetings. Not bad for the guy who thought it was ridiculous to expect me to go to a meeting every day for 3 months.
I am now coming up on nine years without a drink. I can say from experience the only difference between the ones who stay sober and those unfortunates who do not, is that the first group was willing to go to any length to stay sober just for today. When the urge to drink came (and it will - especially at first) I had to do anything necessary to not drink. Usually the urges only lasted about 15 minutes. I would walk, listen to music, exercise, read, take a nap, call a friend, journal, log onto SR... anything other than pick up a drink. And I was grateful at the end of each day for another 24 hours of sobriety. I never want to go back to the life I used to live - and I know that on my own, I could never have stayed sober for weeks, much less years.
The first word of the first step is WE. Go to the meeting as soon as you are able and introduce yourself as a newcomer. Find a group where you feel most comfortable, and make it your home group. Get a sponsor - someone who has long term sobriety of the type you want for yourself - and ask that person if they will be your sponsor. The rest is pretty simple: work your program every day, addiction doesn't do vacations. Do what your sponsor did, and eventually you will get what he/she got. But do it every day, and don't allow yourself to isolate - that's the beginning of the end for folks like us.
Please stay in touch, let us know how you are doing. Your sobriety matters!
All the best... Ed
Member
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: North East, USA
Posts: 704
Getting sober, no matter the method, is work. It is the hardest thing I have ever done and the best thing I have ever done.
I didnt get sober via osmosis sitting in an AA meeting.
I was done drinking. Done being so physically sick with a myriad of horrific conditions and I worked on my sobriety as my life depended on it...because it did!
Like Dee said; you have to stop giving yourself permission to drink.
Be done and get ready to work and you will reap the rewards...but its work and it works *if you work it.
Good luck..you *can do this.
Jules
I didnt get sober via osmosis sitting in an AA meeting.
I was done drinking. Done being so physically sick with a myriad of horrific conditions and I worked on my sobriety as my life depended on it...because it did!
Like Dee said; you have to stop giving yourself permission to drink.
Be done and get ready to work and you will reap the rewards...but its work and it works *if you work it.
Good luck..you *can do this.
Jules
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