I don't currently attend AA, but I have in the past. I found it to be very helpful. I don't believe these meetings can really offer any solutions, but they are great at offering support. And trust me, it's not just sob stories you will hear. Many stories are of how improved their lives have become now that they have shunned alcohol. Yes, there are cautionary tales, but it only helps reaffirm your commitment to stay sober. They are not looking for pity, they are trying to help others learn from their mistakes and learn from their successes. I highly recommend it.

It's great that you have set your quit day. Be sure to adhere to it and things will inevitably get better. That much I can assure you. I feel so much better now that I have quit, and I know there are still more improvements coming down the road. *Hugs* and good luck!

Maybe you could focus on the steps in a BBSS meeting here is a website that may help! I got sober in traditional AA many years ago and got involved at a group level! First as a coffee maker, and set uo chairs and helped tear down the room afterwards! Then I helped in other positions as I moved along in sobriety ! I got involved in Young peoples conferences, GsR, treasurer at Home group level a Dcm at the District level and did my step work with a bbss group in Florida!!!

There are many ways to be a part of AA but I like anyone had to go to first meeting and begin to understand why and if I wanted to be in AA at a Solutions level and begin to understand how this could apply to me!!

I found spirituality and therapy very helpful to as part of my recovery program! But it really is each to its own in how they stay solution oriented as a person who doesn't drink and wants a way out from many of they things they have been living and maybe even before they pic ked up a drink!

I hope you can take the steps forward and find out what applies to you as I did and not have to worry about the drink question as you move along!!
Billy

http://bigbooksponsorship.org/directory-big-book-sponsorship-12-step-meetings/list-big-book-step-study-bbss-groups-united-states-hyannis-format-meeting-schedule/

I tried hundreds of times to quit on my own and I failed miserably, each and every time. I knew I needed help.

I use to drive to an AA meeting, sit in the parking lot, trying to work up the courage to go inside, then I would drive home without even getting out of my car. One day, I forced myself out of the car, nervous as hell because I didn't know what to expect, walked up to the door with a sign hanging on it which read "AA Meeting Inside" walked through that door where I was greeted with a handshake, and that was the best decision I ever made!

That was 8 years ago! Today, I live my life by the 12 steps, and I have never been happier!

I can guarantee you that every single person at that meeting you are going to, knows exactly how you feel! You do not have to say anything, just sit and listen. Make a note of how you feel before you go inside and then compare it to how you feel when you leave! Then come back here and tell us. The path you take on your road to recovery may help someone else.

Go to the meeting because you will realize, you worried over nothing. You know 95 percent of the things we worry about never happen. Keep that in mind.

God Bless!

Here is a list state to state of the BBSS groups I did my step work in. But I'm not sure how current each of these groups are but there are contact numbers!
Billy

http://www.bbstepstudy.org/?Meeting_Schedule

Hello candilion,

You are very welcome to the forum and I wish you well on your journey.

I would have had the same concerns about going to an AA meeting but when everything else failed, I just went. At the beginning I travelled 30 miles each way, six nights per week to meetings because I didnt want to meet anyone who knew me. I later realized that the meeting that is two miles down the road is just as safe. Now, I like to meet people I know, secure in the knowledge that they are there for the same reason as me and that nothing that is said will be repeated outside.

As far as the meetings are concerned, I have found that when I go there with the intention of giving something, no matter how small or insignificant, I come away with a view that it was a good meeting. Conversely, if I go there expecting to take what I can get, I will be likely to leave disappointed.

Unfortunately, many people go to hear the sob stories and naturally enough they find it difficult to recover. You are already ahead in thinking about a solution. The main purpose of the meetings in the early days of Alcoholics Anonymous was to introduce people to the programme of recovery but the message got changed a bit along the way. I would suggest going to different meetings but the most useful ones for me were Step Meetings and Big Book Meetings as these are meetings that concentrate more on the solution.

Meetings alone are unlikely to be enough to transform your way of thinking so that you are happy with sobriety. It would be a good idea to eventually get a sponsor who will help you through the 12 Steps but that is for another day. Remember too that AA is not the only way and if one approach does not work for you, there will be another that does.

Like you, I wanted to quit more than anything else but couldnt do it on my own. On the night that I walked into that first AA meeting, I had lost all hope for the future. I left 90 minutes later with a glimmer of light at the end of the dark tunnel and now I have freedom to do what I want in life. After reading your post, I get the impression that you are the type who will succeed.

The only thing to fear is fear itself. Ditch the pride and go to a meeting - you wont regret it.

I used to drink daily, I used to be consumed by fear, aa saved me from both of these. Aa saved my life
Go the life of freedom from booze is waiting. Go
1-2

There is nothing to fear but fear itself.

But, then again, your fears are understandable. Let me try to put you at ease.

First of all, the people you encounter at an AA meeting, especially if you attend a "closed meeting" (for those who identify as alcoholics as opposed to "open meetings" for anyone who expresses an interest in recovery from alcoholism), are just like you. There for the same purpose - to find a permanent solution to their drinking problem. So if you do indeed see someone from work, they are their also alcoholic. And if any views of you are changed, my guess is that they are changed for the better. "Yeah, I always thought you had a problem with the booze, good for you for seeking the solution."

Also, the "Anonymous" part of AA means, as members, we adhere to a policy of anonymity. We may break our own anonymity in the process of trying to help another, but we must NEVER break the anonymity of another. The meeting I attend regularly ends with this message: Who you see here, what you hear here, when you leave here, let it stay here.

Secondly, each AA group and/or meeting has it's own personality. Yes, you may find meetings which feature "drunkologues" - the endless stories of doom, gloom and misery. But you can also find countless meetings full of the experience, strength and hope. Shop around and find the right meeting for you. The results are life-changing.

Good luck in your endeavors.

BTW, you are not alone.

"Each day, somewhere in the world, recovery begins when one alcoholic talks with another alcoholic, sharing experience, strength, and hope." - Foreword to Third Edition, AA Big Book pg xxii

my first AA meeting was a ultimatum from my sister....I was given two choices...my parents were in Europe I had moved out of girlfriends house after cheating on her at a camp that I worked at....anyway sister's husband found and flushed 1/4lb of gold bud down toilet and then they said I could go to AA and come back and sleep at their house or I could go to Salvation Army and have good life and never see them again....

I called Salvation Army to see about how easy it was to get a bed there in their homeless shelter....
I did not want to go to AA....I was not alcoholic.....haha....no joke...

I called AA and they sent me to a new comers meeting in far off part of town from where I lived and grew up....I called that club house that it was and talked to someone who convinced me to come to the next meeting that night...

I don't remember a darn thing about the meeting other than I climbed steps to get into it and left going down steps....I saw a bunch of people and I am sure there was something going on that hour I sat there in the trainwreck of my life and then they were to go out to either eat or dance or both and I felt I would drink if I did that and I did not want to drink...so I went back to sisters and slept....I did not go to another AA meeting for 9yrs....having said that someone drug me there who belonged there....he wanted me to get sober....I decided to white knuckle it....got sober over year without AA all by will and not drinking....

I drank again and started ten more months of drinking until I needed AA and the help I knew by now was in AA....so I sought out help in AA and got it...I am 20+yrs sober today....it works and if a meeting is not focused on the solution it is a sick meeting go elsewhere do not go to sick meetings....

How was the AA meeting?

Thanks for sharing your story. Here is one thing to keep in mind about AA. Many people forget that AA is support, not treatment. There's a big difference. In the past I have seen positive, sober results when AA is combined with treatment. However, if you are a solutions driven individual, you may want to look into SMART Recovery. Best of luck to you. I'm here should you need someone to talk too.

With due respect ezra238, I must disagree with your assessment of AA. While you are technically correct in stating that AA is not a treatment, it would be wrong to give the impression that it is only a support. AA offers a treatment in the form of the Twelve Step programme of recovery that is very effective to those who want it.

Hehehe!! Sorry, I missed that the meeting is on Thursday. Can't wait to hear your report.

Two things, Everyone needs help and a plan, but AA is not for everybody. Second, remember if you try AA there are as many different styles of groups as there are groups. Don't feel stuck with one group. I didn't like anyone telling me what to do or being negative. This didn't happen often, but did happen more in some groups. I liked hearing people's stories of success and failure and taking from the stories what worked for me.

I guess a third warning. There are as many good and bad people in AA as there is in the general population. Be careful.

When I first quit drinking, I was going to up to 3 meetings per week. I thought they helped me alot. 8 years later, I have cut back to about one per month roughly but I continue to live my life by the 12 steps and I have never been happier.

God Bless!

I do attend AA. For one thing, if someone from work is there, they feel exactly the same way you do. What happens at AA stays at AA. No one will judge, shame or preach to you. They will be very happy to see you. Usually a meeting starts with a reading from the big book or the grapevine (aa magazine) and people share their thoughts on the reading or whatever is on your mind. You dont have to share if you dont want to. But just checking it out will be one of the best things youve ever done.