From my exp. to each there own. I can only share what helped me and the AA program.

Thanks for sharing this, G. It's kinda like how I feel when someone criticizes another person they know little about. Especially if it's a family member! Ha ha! I hold AA so close to my heart that way.

I forget that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. What works for most will not work for all. I'm just glad it works for me. :-)

Enjoy your day!

~Chris

Actually for Me I still get a little Hmmm ...The alternative lots of bad places or A action plan AA . AA choose Me and I just accepted , Lots of plans lol but I thought I'd see if it would Help....It changed my whole world.. That is the hard part just sharing My ES and Hope and not worrying ,I gave up playing God in others lives. Now I just have to stick to it... like Chris though I am very partial to the fellowship and my A Buds sometimes that it ,again Turn it over :)
Billy

In my very short time with AA, I have had nothing but good experiences. I didnt feel last nights meeting was going to be great, but, suprise! The last person speaking totally through me off guard and turned out to be such a caring and sightful, softspoken man it brought tears to my eyes. I'm glad for this post however...it will remind me to look past the critisism including my own

it's a bit like any gathering, whether it be work organisations, sports, leisure, your always going to get some people who don't agree with where they're at. I didn't think AA was for me the first time I went. The dynamics of the group, me feeling as though I was being scrutinised, not understanding the goobledegook on the banners....

As with most things in life, you've got to give it a chance. I'm glad I went to my second, it was completely the opposite of what I felt at the first. I knew I was where I needed to be to heal. As for what others think, I sometimes smile, and sometimes sigh. I hope there is a next time for them too. Grateful there was, and is, for me. Yep, each to their own.

Coog, very important... you went to a SECOND one. :-) I hear ya about the dynamics of groups. There are 2 meetings I go to where you can actually FEEL the serenity in the room. Others... well... different. Let's just put it that way!! Ha ha!

Something I'm still learning at 11 years sober and with heaps of therapy under my belt and other spiritual searching is that I cannot change the mind of a single person - and this relates to AA and wider life. It's such a waste of time and resources banging away at others when thery have made their position clear - and likewise the other way around.

The only exception I have to this philosophy is when people, especially children, are being hurt. But in the vast amount of cases, locally or globally I can still do diddly squat about that too so I'm only torturing myself - again, a pointless deployment of my recources.

Criticism

"Now and then all of us fall under heavy criticism.
When we are angered and hurt,it's difficult not to retaliate in kind.
Yet we can restrain ourselves and then probe ourselves,
asking whether our critics were really right.
If so, we can admit our defects to them.
This usually clears the air for mutual understanding. . .
Maybe a sense of humor can be our saving grace --
thus we can both forgive and forget."

Bill W., Letter, 1966
c. 1967AAWS, As Bill Sees It, p. 184

As for critism of AA, I can simply say that "AA works best for most" but not slely for all
And when I fall under personal critism, I simply realize that those people have a right to be wrong.

My Mother is horribly critical of AA. Strange indeed. I try to explain to her that AA is pretty much a spiritual journey but that message gets lost.
5 kids and five addicts. You'd think she'd be happy if any "cult" helped her children.
Oh well.....