Peace, welcome and congrats on 6 months.

I do not believe God is needed for AA sobriety, but I don't live in the Bible Belt.

I'm a firm believer that my higher power is me - a discovered combination of (accountability, conscience, and a clear head.)

Page 55 discusses that within all of us is a higher power. I got this guidance from a friend in the program who has 52 years.

This place is also a good resource and as you know what they say in AA, it takes only two members to have a meeting!

Welcome! Congrats on 6 months. I read a lot of books, do a lot of yoga, volunteer, and participate in dharma studies classes. I haven't found the right recipe though yet because I have slipped here and there. Longest I've been sober is 1.5 years, but I was pregnant for part of that time and I didn't have any issues staying sober! So, get pregnant! Just kidding. I'm trying to find the right sobriety recipe for myself and take it one day at a time. I will never give up! Love and light, Nikki

I am a Buddhist, we do not have a god. I tried AA. It was tough. I was an outsider. AA is based on the Christian revival paradigm. Finally, I lucked out. I found a secular group at my medical center. It was led by two psychologists. I went there, until I learned the Buddhist teachings at the temple. The monk, who taught had a PhD in Psychology Now I am sober for several years. I do not go to any group. I do it on my own.

A Buddhist in Hawaii took the state to court. He was forced to go to AA by the state court. He said that it was contrary to his beliefs. The United States Appeals Court ruled that AA is a religious institution He could not be forced to go, if it is contrary to his beliefs.

You are six months sober. What you need to do now is work on the problems that make you want to escape with alcohol. A good psychologist or self help books will be of great value.

Hello, I'm new here as well. I decided yesterday that I absolutely had to stop drinking. I was able to stop on my own in the past, but it only lasted for several months at a time. So, I've set some goals for diet and exercise and will try it again with the knowledge that if I have just one drink it takes me down the rabbit hole. I don't want to go to AA and think a forum such as this will be good for me. Thanks for reading.

There are many of us here who are doing it alone. I like this better than a live group. I ignore the AA posts.

Hello peacelovesober,

First of all, well done on being 6 months sober. Whatever you have been doing up until now, keep doing it and build on it.

There is often a lot of misunderstanding about the god issue in AA but it is quite simple really. It has nothing whatsoever to do with religion or going to church, although people are free to engage in those things if they wish. It is more about making a connection with that spirit that is within yourself. Life issues and out of balance emotions tend to block us off from that inner spirit and that leads to a feeling of emptiness.

There are many paths to the inner spirit and the AA programme of recovery is one of them. Dont be put off something that may help you by the prejudice of other people. Just because someone else has a fixation on running down AA, it does not mean that it would not work for you.

If you do decide to go back to AA, and that is entirely your own choice, I would suggest going to several different meetings and LISTENING for a sponsor. When you hear a lady who has the sort of sobriety that you would like to have, ask her if she would become your sponsor. Many of the founding members of AA were atheists and agnostics and it worked for them so it will work for you too, if that is the road that you decide to take.

I go to AA and I just take what works for me and look over the rest. I still have a hard time with the God thing so I just believe that my sponsor believes. I leave it at that.

I just found that I could quit for times , a week, a month, a year but the fact was I used alcohol as my coping mechanism. It worked for 20 + years but the side effects were killing me. When I did quit I was over sensitive and many times angry. After all I lost my coping mechanism!

I found that having sober friends and just accountability help me stay sober. I have been struggling some lately but the thought that I can pick up my four year chip on the 10 of June has helped.

This alcoholism is tricky. The booze was not the problem it was the solution. I had to relearn how to respect myself again and have self esteem. These with a sense of being happy with what I have are ways to keep going down the sober path

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Hi and welcome! I['m another cat lady. We have been taking in rescue cats for the last20 yrs. We have 3 cats currently. How about you?

Individuals who attend meetings sometimes get the wrong message from someone who has not experienced the 12 Steps. If someone told me I needed to go to church, I would have run out the door, lol. I got hope the first time I walked into the room. I LOVED the speaker meetings but it was only through the steps that I began to learn about who I'd been, who I wanted to be and how to get there.

In early sobriety I noticed the similarities, not the difficulties in AA. That saved me. I knew it was where I belonged. Maybe you could try a different meeting?

Buckle your seatbelt. The emotions may be skewed for a while. You can do this!

Hugs,

Dianna

It sounds like you have made great progress! But why keep trying to make AA work if it isn't a good fit for you? You don't need AA to stay sober. Like many other people, AA was not for me, and I have been happily sober for years without it.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't look for additional support. Based on your post, you might benefit from seeing a therapist to help you work through how you are feeling.

I do believe in God and i do regularly go to church to worship with my brothers and sisters in Christ. But I don't go to AA and never really connected with that group. Not to diparage it....it helps many people. It's just not for me.

In the end, you have to uncover "the real you"; the person underneath all that alcohol abuse. Once you allow the "real you" to flourish, you will be happy in your sobriety. I hope you are able to continue participating here. We need all the cat people we can get!

Thank you so much for all of your responses!!!! Reading them has made me feel a lot better. I am going through a lot of major changes in my life right now and i just havent fully learned how to handle the stress, but i will be fine once everything settles. i think this group will be really great for me. i used this site when i was a caretaker for my grandparents and it helped tremendously. i might give AA another try. i have read some really great self help books on alcoholism. my favorite so far is This naked mind by Annie Grace.

God... is not a Religion...

I too have problems other than alcohol. But alcohol wasn't the problem... It was my solution... If you feel you need help outside the realms of AA by all means get the help.

I remember when I first went to meetings, I also had trouble believing in any kind of Higher Power, but as I kept going to meetings, all the collateral damage of my drinking days, began to surface and my anxiety hit a new high, almost to the point where I wanted to drink it all away.

I would go early to meetings and tell others about my problems, choosing only those who had alot of wisdom from many years of sobriety and this is what I was told to do. "You need do nothing except stay sober" "Everything else will take care of itself!" This didn't really make sense to be because my life was literally falling apart before my eyes and I had little faith in what I was told and gradually, things began turning around for the better, almost like somebody upstairs was manipulating the pieces of the puzzle of my life to make it whole again! This, I could never have predicted but many years later, it dawned on me that it was number 12 of the AA Promises, at work in my Life and that was a Revelation that sent chills up my spine!

It was a case of part of me believed and part of me didn't but it just took that tiny little bit of willingness on my part, to bring everything else into play! There were also some things said to me that occured at the exact time I needed to hear them that made me realize that my Higher Power was also working through others to help me through some difficult situations, and this happened way to many times to be called coincidence. From that point on, I always seemed to have what I needed, when I need them.

This was my experience when I had about 6 months of sobriety! It was a turning point in my life. I look upon the past as a miracle where I went from having nothing to gaining everything!

God Bless!

Hey Peacelovesober,
Congrats on 6 months!!!
I also find that reading the posts here helps me. I am at 23 days now, and I check in here every day. It 'recharges' my sobriety battery. I also run the tapes of the past through my mind every day, to remind me of what I was and no longer want to be. I don't want to start getting complacent. That is when the demon starts trying to convince me that I am ok and can drink again. Not this time, evil one! Another motivation I have is to put a big number on the calendar every morning showing my progress day-by-day. This got dicey for a while this year as I got 48 days into the year and then fell off the wagon and put a red 'X' on that day. And started the count all over again. There were many red 'X's' in May, until the 19th, when I really overdid it. The world class hangover on the 20th led me to a lot of thinking and to this site. With the support I've had here, things just feel different now. I have a strength I didn't have before. I am very nervous about going to AA. I am not comfortable in groups. But that is an option held in reserve just in case.
Best wishes to you.