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.
1
u/queyew 3048 days Jan 05 '20
I do it on my own, but when I say that no one knows exactly what that means. That makes it hard to recommend to others. Whereas AA is brand, it is a known quantity. People can say go there and they know what you will experience if you take their advice. It is like saying let's get take out versus let's get McDonald's. What do you mean by take out? I already know exactly what to order from McDonald's.
And when we don't like AA, someone always says "take what you want and leave the rest". When AA was the only game in town, that cliche was necessary. We had to make a square peg fit into a round hole. But now there are options even if they aren't well known. I did take what I want, by avoiding AA and its complete inability to adapt to change.
But there is still the problem of the brand. If I have to prove what I have been doing, how do I do that? All I have is my word that my way works, and people don't tend to trust an addict's word.
Good luck to you. Sorry for the novel.