Alcoholism Support Group
Alcoholism is the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages, even when it is negatively affecting your health, work, relationships and life. If you think alcohol is causing you to lose control, it's time to seek help. Our group is a safe place to vent, check in, get back up if you fall, and reach sobriety.
Hi. I wonder if I can be of some help on this site. I have a lot of experience with addiction/alcoholism and recovery. My latest clean date is Oct. 28th, 2002. I was also clean from 6-88 to 12-94, and from 4-98 to 9-02. It has been a hell of a long haul and I am lucky to be alive as well as not having injured anyone else too badly. Alcoholism sucks and it is hard to beat. I read rational recovery and it reminded me of the "just say no" approach to keep kids from using drugs. It's not enough for me. I am a hard core addict who went so far as to stick needles in my arms. I am a black out drunk and my last drinking spree was so scary it only lasted 48 days. Alcohol got a hold of me and I was it's slave until I dragged myself back to AA and threw myself into their program even though it's a brainwashing technique I abhor.
You see, for whatever reason I drank, I drank and it put me to sleep. AA gives people an awakening. I needed that. The support cannot be matched. It is all over the world. But I am an atheist and not much into deluding my thinking more than I already do. AA is clearly not my cup of tea. Unfortunately man can fly to the moon, but the 12 steps are the best option if someone as bad as me wants to recover and stay alive. There are many like me and most go back to drinking or insanity or both.
The good thing about AA is after my brain was washed I got to hang dry it. In the meantime it kept me sober. AA doesn't prove there's a God but it does suggest a little bit about how the brain operates. I will keep going to meetings to help the next alcoholic, especially the next atheist alcoholic. They are experts on staying sober. In any situation there is a room full of people who have gone through every kind of shit you can imagine and stay sober.
I guess it's a question only myself can answer as to whether I believe in the medical model of addiction and I do for me. Once I drink I am off and running and I cannot quit till alcohol is done with me. Something goes on physically for me, I believe. If all we had to do was say no, then so many people would not die, kill others, or go insane from this "disease". I tend to think rational recovery takes a back seat to the direness of the situation.
Anyhow, I'm doing great. I have no urge to be an alcoholic again at this time. A person needs to have a chance. If you can awaken from the slumbering alcoholic state for long enough, you have a good chance to go on and get inspired to live awake again. So don't be afraid to go to AA where there are rooms full of every type of alcoholic you can think of, and give yourself a chance. I know I need the help. I probably always will. As an atheist, I have found a valuable roll in AA too.
Anything I can do for you, helps me too, and I truly admire people who have trouble with AA. "God" knows I do! lol.
You see, for whatever reason I drank, I drank and it put me to sleep. AA gives people an awakening. I needed that. The support cannot be matched. It is all over the world. But I am an atheist and not much into deluding my thinking more than I already do. AA is clearly not my cup of tea. Unfortunately man can fly to the moon, but the 12 steps are the best option if someone as bad as me wants to recover and stay alive. There are many like me and most go back to drinking or insanity or both.
The good thing about AA is after my brain was washed I got to hang dry it. In the meantime it kept me sober. AA doesn't prove there's a God but it does suggest a little bit about how the brain operates. I will keep going to meetings to help the next alcoholic, especially the next atheist alcoholic. They are experts on staying sober. In any situation there is a room full of people who have gone through every kind of shit you can imagine and stay sober.
I guess it's a question only myself can answer as to whether I believe in the medical model of addiction and I do for me. Once I drink I am off and running and I cannot quit till alcohol is done with me. Something goes on physically for me, I believe. If all we had to do was say no, then so many people would not die, kill others, or go insane from this "disease". I tend to think rational recovery takes a back seat to the direness of the situation.
Anyhow, I'm doing great. I have no urge to be an alcoholic again at this time. A person needs to have a chance. If you can awaken from the slumbering alcoholic state for long enough, you have a good chance to go on and get inspired to live awake again. So don't be afraid to go to AA where there are rooms full of every type of alcoholic you can think of, and give yourself a chance. I know I need the help. I probably always will. As an atheist, I have found a valuable roll in AA too.
Anything I can do for you, helps me too, and I truly admire people who have trouble with AA. "God" knows I do! lol.
I don't know how to be an atheist because even when not practising a religion I still believed in God. I have had so many discussions (yes, really - discussions not arguments - about what I believe and what my sponsor believes - neither of us is trying to change the other - we seek to understand each other more.
When we hold these discussions in love then we should never close them down but allow them to flourish so long as no one is being hurt or bullied. We must not allow dogma to cloud the true message of AA.
I'm Jewish, no one here, or in AA has "told" me how to change my beliefs to fit AA, devised and written by, Christian men.
What I regularly read here is that some alleged AA person somewhere tried to force a specific religion -- Christianity - on them. Personally though I've never heard it in the rooms of AA - not once.
When we drank, we thought everyone else should drink like us. When we stopped drinking, we thought so should everybody else. We kind of have this habit of wanting everyone else to think like us too.
Several million people in AA. Fact. Maybe not everyones cup of tea but trying to change it into a milkshake to make it taste better is definitely insanity. Doesn't stop us trying :o)
It's all good, that's the real beauty of it!
P
Is that why I am not attracted to AA? Because I am not part of the collective mentality that you speak of?
I just don't get the generalizations about alcoholics most of the time.
We have an expression in AA "Take what you want and leave the rest." We have a slogan too "Live and let live." They both point to respecting our fellows and different views. I've yet to see anyone in AA force their own spiritual values and beliefs on anyone else and I have been going to lots of meetings for many years.
Of the millions of AA members, they speak different languages, have different cultural backgrounds, different personalities, different beliefs and different values.
Those who go through the 12 Step programme have found a way to go through a personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from active alcoholism. " Huge emotional displacements and rearrangements" is the way I think Carl Jung put it - don't take my word for it though, have a look in Chapter 2 in the Big Book, if you care to.
Anyway, spiritual change was necessary for me. The old way Jen used to think and feel had to go. The old Jen drank. I was "reborn" and, by the grace of God (as I understand Him) I do not want or need to drink today.
Just because you choose not to see the hypocrisy of it does not mean that it is not there!
I've met some alcoholics who aren't like this, and others who are but won't admit they're like this. Neither of them seem to like AA too much. I know that this is me, not an evil person but stubborn, self-willed, drink was just a symptom. I have to address these things to stay sober. Whether anyone else thinks they're this type of alcoholic is up to them to decide.
P
I wouldn't want to change what works for you, surely you wouldn't want to change what works for me either? If AA does not suit you as it is, there are other routes to recovery you could explore.
I thought about it last night. You see I used to be a believer. I am dealing with grief and loss issues. I used to have fellowship where ever I went. I believe I am more honest than I was. I believe I now think with my own thoughts. I feel like my life has been a rip off. I am angry. I am getting better but I still feel the loss.
Someone on here just defended AA and admitted they are Jewish. That makes you a believer than doesn't it? It is so hard to get this point across.
Atheism is growing. 2 of my kids are atheists and the most caring and courageous people I know. So I'm glad they got to me. Living with angst is a choice. Would I rather be happy or right? I'd rather be right. What would it be like if we all chose not to think think think, just because we were more concerned with being happy?
So I'm in a grief process. I'm sorry if my words threaten or offend you. Don't expect for you to understand. But I do expect for AA to take an interest. Either that or we should consider changing the creed and quit misleading people. "Regardless of religion" and leave out "or lack of."
Anyway this is not an AA site as far as I know cause I am not going to talk anyone out of going. I am on here to talk about the disease and my experience. If I wanted to go to a meeting site there are plenty on the internet. It was my understanding that this was a possible place to bring this up. Sorry if I am wrong.