What? Are you crazy? Is not AA for a bunch of losers? Nope!
REFERENCE
I recommend this app if you are interested in learning more about the 12 steps, the history of AA and the 12 traditions.
I find AA meetings, incredibly helpful and fascinating because it seems that the “Big Book” and the 12 steps relate to my experiences in every single meeting. This is because they are supposed to be incredibly relevant and beneficial to all participants in ALL meetings one chooses to attend. The “Big Book” was written brilliantly and the principles are as perfect as they could get. In fact, the big book has hardly been rewritten since it was originally published in 1938 by Bill W, the founder of AA. I do not even know Bill‘s last name but that’s the point of AA, it is anonymous.
Now, when we reviewing different passages in each meeting and discuss how we relate to the words, it has run through for me in every meeting. Some of this is confirmation bias because again, the “Big Book” and the 12 steps & Traditions have been written with purpose and have no “filler content,“ whatsoever. It is always engaging and enthralling and when I leave an AA meeting, I feel relieved because I have openly discussed with other addicts and alcoholics the feelings that I have as they relate to the program and , the selected passages in that respective meeting. I was so hesitant to go to my first AA meeting which was a feeling that I had for many years before the ultimatum that hit my life.
“Who wants to go with those losers?”
“I do not have the kind of problems that people in AA have.” Nope! You certainly have the same problems that manifest in different ways for each individual.
“I can do this on my own and I do not desire to share with others what I am feeling. That’s for
wimps!” Nope!
I have been able to relate to every single person in every single AA meeting that I have attended wherever I am.
Socioeconomic status, career, age, blue collar or white collar does not matter because our brains all function in the same way.
In my first couple of meetings, I looked judgmentally upon the others in the group that perhaps had no teeth or were homeless, or had been in jail or had multiple DWI’s, which I was very fortunate to have.
One is inclined to think, “This person must have it worse than me.” Nope! Our brains function in the same way.
Drop the judgment, get to the meetings and put your efforts in. The time flies by and the content is invaluable to one’s recovery.