I've never been to AA. But if you got sober without AA, wouldn't they say you weren't an alcoholic in the first place?

Just stay sober!

um, dsaddict...no....

If you are not drinking, you are just plain, "not drinking". You can answer anybodies questions with; I don't drink.

I am on a mission to be a leader by example, type person. Thinking has been my problem my whole life, and I am working on changing it. IT CAN BE DONE.

Eventually through the Grace of God, my old thinking procss, will be eliminated.

Drinking only interfere's (clouds) my message from my holy spirit. If I am gonna have a dry drunk attitude, I have made a decision to stay miserable.

The more power to you! AA is specifically designed for people who have difficulty stopping drinking by themselves.Alone it was too much for us, is the saying that comes to mind. You sounded a little bit dry drunkish in your sharing i think, hahaha

I really never gave that much thought about people in AA like myself think that people that don't attend are 'dry drunks'. Now far as people in AA some with many years think if you just don't drink and go to meetings everything will be all right concept seem to be very angry for the most part. I'm trying to figure out why some people bash AA just because its not for them. I always had the opinion what ever works for you. Think on it this way if someone is looking for a solution and finds recovery in AA, they won't be on the road driving drunk and won't injury or kill one of your loved ones.

Stephenlee is too funny. I don't go to aa anymore. I did the first time. I needed it the first time-BAD. AA kept me sober for five years, but in the end it ultimately got me drunk. I was caught up in the drama of it all. I don't care, if there are people there is drama. AA didn't get me drunk, don't get me wrong, I got me drunk. One of the reasons I have very little tolerance for people who stay on the gerble wheel and whine every time they get dizzy. Faith is it for me now. You are right, doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do is where it is at. Socrates taught me that. I am a relatively happy person, with a bright future, not a dry drunk. Just sober, doing the right thing.

WhooHoo, I am in your "class". I am 5 years sober as of this year. I went to treatment at a facility that touted 12 step programs (because there aren't too many who don't) and attended meetings for a couple of years before "tapering off" I haven't been to a meeting in quite some time now, well, frankly, because it was never really my cup of tea. However, I have friends that go to AA, and I still practice a lot of the principals I learned in treatment/AA. Actually I think Bill W had a Buddhist mentor himself--because there are a lot of parallels here. Am I perfect? Hell no!! A work in progress?? Hell yes! But I know I am sober, and the judgement of someone who would tell me I am on a long "dry drunk" just for lack of not attending AA meetings--well, guess they're entitled to their opinion, but I know better for myself when I look back at the person I was before.....everyone has to do what's best for them, period. AA works for a lot of people, not everyone, to each his own, peace, love, chill!!

AA meetings are there for support and we all need support not only alcoholics, everyone. and AA gives those seeking relief a place to go and be around others that can relate. i love meetings and having contact with anothe alcoholic, even here now this is like a world wide meeting in cyber space, only here i would imagine it would be easier to BS others. i agree with stephenlee8, you sound like your r a dry drunk. with the shit most of us have survived it is nice to know others have survived the same and we r not alone, i couldnt get sober by myself and needed the program and the rooms to help. i recomend going to a meeting face to face not here, if anyone has a problem. its the most amazing friendship i ever witnessed. yeah there r some assholes however there r assholes here also and i may be one of them LOL

I am NOT a dry drunk. Some of my offline AA friends would have you believe that I'm a nasty old snipe. I wish to set the record straight. The cruel fact is that Nemorino's offline AA friends are a bunch of rustic simps who move their lips when they read.

There's another nasty rumor floating around this hick town, which is that I'm a dirty old man. Nothing could possibly be further from the truth. I'm just a very sexy senior citizen.

I'm glad we've had this little talk.Thanks for letting me share.

My father got sober without AA.He stayed that way until he died,23 years after he quit drinking.But he unknowingly applied the Steps to his life.He admitted freely that he was an alcoholic,he sought God,he was able to accept things in life as God's will.He confessed his shortcomings,and he tried to make amends for his wrongs.He helped other drunks,namely me.Yes,people do get sober without AA.In my opinion,a dry drunk is someone who doesn't drink,but they haven't changed themselves on the inside.

I would venture a guess that there are some people that go to AA, don't drink and practice, as well as they can, the principles but are still acting like drunk people.

I don't think AA is the panacea that everyone else seems to think but I do enjoy AA nowadays.

The first year or two I was sober there was a guy in the village I lived in then who stopped drinking about the same time I did. We bumped into each other frequently and we always talked about our new lives in sobriety and how we coped and stayed reasonably happy while not drinking.

He always said the last thing he'd ever do was go to an AA meeting. I never had the heart to tell him he'd just been to one.

I like your story and I didn't know that we are considered dry drunks. I didn't get sober by AA but I never put it down. I have defended it many times because it has done great things. The thing to remember is every group has its assholes, so we need to take that into consderation.

krm,

In my home group I know several regulars, including a few who've been around a very long time, who have this incredible conceit that we in AA are somehow God's Chosen People, that our sobriety and membership in AA are proof that we're special, the apple of His eye, if you will..

I'm not just theorizing here, and I say that because I know people with long term sobriety who act it out. One lady in my home group with over 30 years goes through a whole routine of jabbing people with half-baked insults and then, so she tells us, calling her sponsor and taking her chewing-out like a champ. She did this to me one day at the start of a meeting (I didn't take the bait), followed by a gushy apology and then chirped to the whole group, "See, everyone? I made my amends! I'm working my program."

No doubt her case is extreme, but I think what we're talking about here is a whole pattern of never growing up and getting in and out of emotional scrapes, a roller coaster ride of tension and relief.

Do these people give AA bad name? Of course they do. Is there anything the rest of us can, or should, do about it? Not unless we want to fall into the same trap. These folks have very complicated lives and they're welcome to it.

Nemo...a sexy senior citizen is they only way to be! :0)

I don't quite understand what is meant by the term "Dry drunk". I've heard it alot but I don't understand it.