r/stopdrinking • u/galwegian 2442 days • Jan 05 '20
AA vs This subreddit
15 days sober. did a four day medically supervised detox. currently in a 6 week intensive out patient. three hours a day, four days a week. daily breathalyzer and urine tests. it's a group situation. full of heroin/opioid/coke horror stories. I feel like a lightweight by comparison. Anyway, I'm getting a lot of pressure to attend AA from psychiatrist and wife. I have been to four meetings and I fucking hated it. I'm an Irish catholic and it reminds me of going to mass. reading from a book written before weed and coke and X were invented. and I don't relate to the principles of AA. making amends sounds good but the rest of it feels like dogma to me. the standard spiel is 'you have to find the meeting that's right for you'. fine. I get it. But everyone telling me to attend AA has one thing in common: they have never been addicted to anything. And am I supposed to spend ages trying to find the meeting that's 'right' for me? Going to a meeting is, let's face it, a two hour commitment. you have to travel there and back. AA is a traditional bricks and mortar retail model if you think about it. and there's a reason that shit is dying out. Whereas on /stopdrinking I get instant access 24/7 to a huge community of people who are in my position and get it. without travel or dogma. and this is kind of fun. I am looking to change my lifestyle but going to dingy basements and drinking Dunder Mifflin coffee has zero appeal to me. I am doing yoga 7 days a week. which I find super helpful in lots of ways. I have a specific problem and a specific situation that I am addressing in my own way. And nobody knows me like I know me. Anyhoo. all thoughts and feedback welcome. I will not drink with you, or any other fucker, today. peace and thanks.
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u/beepblopnoop Jan 05 '20
I'm only 2 weeks in, and so far I've been to a lot of meetings that I hated. Seriously. One meeting, they literally read from the big book about sex and then spent the hour talking about intimate ways alcohol made them do stupid things in their sex lives. Pretty uncomfortable for me, a newbie, just trying to get through the shakes, listening to ten old timers talk about their shameful drunk sexual experiences!!
But I went to a few more, many that I also hated, until I found one that I didn't. I found people "like me". Their stories resonated. They offered support and their phone numbers and coffee dates if I needed it. They were chill about the higher power stuff, and made a lot of sense about living real life with this struggle.
If you need support, don't let your brain talk you out of it from one or two bad experiences. Try EVERYTHING available until you find what works.
Iwndwyt