Add what you can to this

[Leadfoot]

Seems that AA has become a place to hang out with your friends. The general consensus is that we are more than welcome to do as we please in meetings and steps are optional.
Then it's not AA. If you feel that you are welcome to do "your" program instead of "The" program, please do so somewhere else where you don't have to concern yourself with AAs message.
AA is a program of recovery involving 12 steps and God. Your bullshit session and your social gathering with your middle of the road friends is not AA.
For the record. The steps are optional. You never had to do them and you will never be forced to do so. Just don't call yourself an "AA Member" while doing "Your" program.

OK here’s the deal. AA believes that we need a “Spiritual Awakening” to get sober. That’s just the philosophy that AA was founded on.
Simply a relationship with God and puting faith in God to strengthen our sobriety.

So. Let’s start
Pg 43
” If that be the case, you may be suffering from an illness which only a spiritual experience will conquer”.

So far, so good but lets move on to

“The Spiritual Experience” in the apendix.

“The terms “spiritual experience” and “spiritual awakening” are used many times in this book which, upon careful reading, shows that the personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism….”

So where do we get this “Spiritual Awakening”

Most groups read it every week
Pg 60
Step 12 “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps….”

So we come to AA for a “Spiritual Awakening” via 12 steps. And they’re “Suggestions”?? They're not!!

Remember this page? Page 59 because it in no way, shape or form says that the steps are “Suggestions!

It says this!
“Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery”

That tells me that AA is a “Suggestion” but never suggests that the steps are optional.
This take what you want and leave the rest is pure horesshit.
Part of what we want is a social gathering and part of what we don’t want is to do the work.

Read this on Pg 85
“If we have carefully followed directions, we have begun to sense the flow of His Spirit into us. To some extent we have become God-conscious”.

See, now they’re directions.

AA is the “Suggestion” indicating that it was always believed that there are other ways for some to recover.
However, if anyone insists that they’re a “Member” and don’t take the steps, they’re full of shit.

Tradition #3 “Our “Membership” ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism, hence we may refuse none who wish to recover”

“Recover” is defined by AA as “The freedom from alcohol through the practice and teaching of the 12 steps”
aa.org/pdf/products/p-35_ProOtherThanAlcohol1.pdf

So therefore you must be in AA to recover via 12 steps in order to consider yourself a “Member”
Otherwise you’re just taking up space.

This is AA in a nutshell
What is going on in the rooms isn’t. It’s a social gathering and you ought to be ashamed of what AA has become.

[mcgowdog]

Yeah, I've been thinking about this lately.

I've been going through Danny Boy's book study and he added this when discussing "frothy emotional appeal:"

"You can do it"

"90 meetings in 90 days"

"get a home-group"

"get a sponsor"

"work on yourself"

"its a selfish program"

"We'll love you till you love yourself"

and other ideals that are very appealing to the selfish, self centered ego that usually comes as part of the alcoholic "persona-pac"

I love what the Original Manuscript says after the ABC's;

"If you are not convinced on these vital issues, you ought to re-read the book to this point or else throw it away!"

That's it! Throw it away, go get some booze, and get on it and see ya effin- later!

Well, my Monday Night Group is what it is. We do what we do and we ain't popular. Why the fuck not? We do steps. And we expect you to qualify yourself... aka identify, then if we think you might just possibly be a real alky, we might start to pay attention to you. We do steps and will eventually expect you to synch up with us. If you don't, then you will not stay. You'll go. We won't even have to kick you out. If you don't do what we do, you'll just go, and we won't miss you. There are some of you that we wish would get it. But... that don't mean shit.

Now there's those other meetings. We can't do shit about that either. They're gonna do what they do. Good luck trying to change or fix them. I'm sure some/all of us have done our share of reforming other groups or A.A. in our respective towns. This action seems to me exactly like rattling a bee hive.

I heard a doc talk recently about how alcoholism seems to be like a continuum.. maybe it was Dr. Vaillent. But anywho, maybe there's a full range of problem drinkers, hard drinkers, etc. all the way up to the real alky in the rooms and some need to do spiritual work and have lost the power of choice in drink, and some have not.

What can you do besides say, "This is who I am and this is the kind of alcoholic I am, and this is what I must do. If you're like me, here we go."?

[Leadfoot]

Last night we brought up "The small part of a great whole" Mainly because someone read The daily reflections.
So what we have is AAWS ,District, Group, Me.
WS says "The" message. The Group has "It's" message and I have "My" message.
I have to apologize to all these groups because I tried to carry "My" message while sitting in their room. Hopefully "My" message coincides with the book when theirs doesn't.
Every now and then I'll step into a meeting that carries some message other than what the book says. If I see someone struggling with relapse and getting bombarded with slogans I'll plant a seed telling them that there's a lot more to AA than what they see here.
Then I'll tell them where to find me.
Then I'll get on my white horse and ride off into the sunset.

[Leadfoot]

This is sad! I've carried this same argument to loose meetings and I'm not welcome back
Maybe I should have taken the sign with me when I left.
So getting kicked out of SR for spreading the word is just like getting kicked out of a meeting for spreading the word.

Most don't know the difference between an Alcoholic,an addict, a hard drinker or a Wednesday Night Bowler that got a DUI on the way home.
How can we expect them to know the difference between AA and an Ice Cream Social?


Here's a string of comments from one who is supposedly AA
I guess the sign on the door that says it's AA so it must be AA!
Just like the sign on the Police Car says "To Protect and Serve"

One thing I see and read here is you have to do the 12 steps to go to AA. You don’t. I’m happy and sober, but I chose meetings to share my hope and experience with others who had a problem with drinking. That’s all. I find the book basher’s tedious and they do put off newcomers but you can’t change them and I no longer try. I look at most of the long term sobriety in the rooms and virtually without exception, none has a life I could want to aspire to. But they are happy doing what they do so leave them to it. As for hearing “it clearly states etc” what a load of shit !
The 12 steps of recovery are for people who have nothing else in their lives but all the people in AA are not like that.

My Reply
If the Book says, “to show precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book”
Why would anyone be in AA if they’re interested in doing something other than what the book says??
As said before, “There’s two AAs. One is a spiritual program of action involving a relationship with God as well as taking all 12 steps as they are written. The other AA is simply a place to go and bullshit with your middle of the road friends.
If you’re not taking all 12 steps as they are written you’re not doing AA. You just happen to be in a meeting
Johnathan, please don’t spread the message that you don’t have to take the steps in order to get sober. If that’s the message you wish to spread give up your seat and join a SMART Group or Life Ring.

HIM
I respect your view but that is only your opinion. AA should surely rise above prescribing what people must do in membership. What do you say to those who carry on drinking because they cannot reconcile themselves with the programme ? That they are unwelcome ? As for your comments about “bullshit” this is the attitude that sends drinkers away to solitary confinement, because they can’t share their feelings. It’s not up to you to tell me “you’re not doing AA.” We just do our programmes in a different fashion.
As for spreading the message, I only share MY experience. I don’t tell others to do as I do, it’s up to them. We’re all different people. This is the whole issue I was trying to highlight. Luckily, where I live there are a breadth of meetings varying in their approach. I think 215 in the Bristol area of the UK. Are you suggesting 75% of these should be closed as being “non AA ?”

Me
It’s far from my opinion. It’s fact.
AA is a program of recovery. A program laid out by Bill, Bob and the first 100.
What you’re doing is not AA.
It’s “Your” Program. You just happen to be in an AA meeting doing it.
You along with 80% of the rest of the “Meeting Attenders”
It’s very discouraging coming to sites like this and see AA taking a beating when AA is not the problem.

Him
MA you are so spot on exactly in what you say. Since coming to this site I feel very liberated and far more “normal” again. This is a big problem with AA. It makes us believe we are eternally bad and warped soles and this is very unhealthy. The message I give in the rooms is simple. You have options and you’re not a doomed failure if you don’t work the 12 steps as per the big book. You have a choice. Hopefully we’ll see some smiles returning rather than what’s been going on over the past few weeks. I’m sorry (and actually feel sorry for) to those who can’t accept the medical facts as stated by M A, but these are the facts and not old opinions

Me
My question once again is why are you in AA spreading message that is contrary to what the book says.
AA is the book. The fellowship was named after the book. Meetings are a a place to discuss the book and the steps.
This is precisely why meetings are going underground and you’ll see real AA once again. Like it’s roots AA will become “Invite only” once again leaving the people that think they can do whatever they wish in the dark.
You guys can also keep any perceived failure rate that goes along with the loose ship you like to run.
Just because there’s a sign on the wall that says it’s AA doesn't mean there’s any AA going on inside.

Him
You just need to read and understand the preamble to know why you’re there, it’s that simple.

Me

The preamble that says something about our “common problem”?

Open the book and you’ll see that the “Common solution” is talked about more. Because that’s what AA is. “A Common Solution”.