In search on Non-Christian, Non-Humanist, Non-...AA meetings

How about a place where people with drinking problems, period.

A major part of the problem acceptance of others and one's self.

I could babble on, which I have a habit of doing, but I think I've made my point.

How about an AA meeting for... alcoholics???

But, wait... "Alcoholic"

This is a label, is it not? Ughh, now my head really hurts.

Okay, so I don't have much of a point, do I. Just what am I looking for? (besides another brain and liver deteriorating drink)

Pointless. Just pointless.

Just figured it out-

I don't want to belong to anything!!!!!

Graymatter…
Lookin’ for a place where people with drinkin’ problems accept each other without any of that boring solution talk?
It’s called a bar.
Good luck pal.

Richard

Ha! Ha!

Thanks, Richard.

-Ray

lol

If you look deeper in this forum part, you'll see I've posted links to non-12 step related recovery programs if you're interested. I, personally, am 12 Step... But I know some aren't comfortable with 12 step, so the options are out there.

Fried - you are really lucky to live in NYC where I'm sure there are alternatives to AA. In my area, AA is the only place to go - other than online programs.

em

....um....Folks, I don't wanna hold hands, K? (Didn't you just sneeze into that hand like 5 times??)

Thank you, BamaSurvivor.

Still not sure just what I'm looking for. A.A. for anarchists? Who knows. My mind has been so fuzzy.

Maybe just pointless babbling on my part. Maybe I'm just not willing to commit to anything.

-friedgreymatter

Hello, emily4040.

I will look into what's available around here.

I gotta get out of here. At least I'm sober tonight. My head is clear, for a change, but I don't like what I see. Now I want a drink to obscure the way things are! Same old patterns.

Goodnight, folks.

-friedgreymatter

friedgrey, at least you know there's a problem. That's the first step of any sort of recovery. I hope you find what you need. (((huggz)))

You know Graymater, it wasn’t the being loaded that was the problem for me, it was the waking up unloaded that I couldn’t stand.

I would come to in the morning, run straight to the bar and ask the bartender “Christ man, I woke up sober, you got anything that will change that?”

Any man can quit drinking, but if he isn’t happy and sober at the same time it can’t last. That’s called going on the wagon, and it ain’t no fun, and we don’t do it for very long.

The question is how do I quit drinking, you know, get sober, and be happy about it?

That’s the trick.

On the road to the good stuff
Richard S.

I think they call it a 'dry drunk', right? Not sober, not drinking... Just dry.

Good point shadowalker. Was always told it is the keep on keepin on.

hey Fried,

Here's link to a web group that fits: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/12-step-free/
a few more to get perspective and try to skip all the crap out there:

(NOT 12-step)
http://www.sossobriety.org/fastindex.htm
http://alcoholism.about.com/od/non/
http://www.womenforsobriety.org/ (ya I know you don't need this one) lol
http://www.secularsobriety.org/
http://www.cfiwest.org/sos/links.htm
http://www.aadeprogramming.com/recla...ctiveness.html

Take care and good luck my friend.

~Down

Bama…
Dry drunk is one word for that miserable place.
It’s not that drinking (one may substitute any mind altering substance for liquor) did something TO me, it was that drinking did something FOR me.

If drinking was my problem, that would be great!
All I had to do was quit, and all those unpleasant things will stop happening. If drinking was the problem, rehab centers and detoxes would graduate success stories all the time. No more alcohol in the system, no more problems.

It’s when I know what will happen if I drink, my wife will leave me, my kids will hate me, I will lose my job, my self respect, my home, maybe my life, and I start drinking again anyway. THAT is the difference between someone who just drinks too much, and an alcoholic.

Men would tell me “don’t drink and things would get better” I knew better than that. When I didn’t drink things went from bad to real bad, and they went that way fast. I had nothing between me and this hostile world.

Liquor quieted the committee in my head, it changed this hostile world into a kinder, gentler place. But the problem was I couldn’t stay drunk, I always came to. And that intolerable pain started all over again. So there I was, I knew I couldn’t drink, and I couldn’t stop.
That is the hard place we all find ourselves in when we, having crossed that invisible line into alcoholism, try to change.
If we can’t find relief from the torment of sobriety, we have no other real choice but to start drinking again.

It doesn’t matter what path one chooses to get sober, if that path doesn’t produce happiness and comfort, we won’t walk that path long.

As a man once told me, “Yea that I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, screw walking, run as fast as you can. Get on the other side of death valley, and do so quickly.”

That Bama is the trick to long term, happy sobriety.

On the road to the good stuff,
Richard S.

Hey Fried and others,

A major site; aadeprogramming.com has mysteriously gone missing, much but not all of it's important information and decent can be seen at http://www.orange-papers.org/index.html

Science not superstition and hearsay is the way to arrive at truth and beat this stuff in my opinion.

best wishes~Down

Here is a bit of AA heresy.
I read this an issue of the Grapevine, some time ago “the official AA meeting in print” that approximately 60% of people who want to quit drinking and meet with success, do so without the help of AA. 60%, that’s a pretty impressive number.
If drinking is interfering in your life, and you decide that quitting is what you want to do, and you are successful in doing so, I personally am very happy for you. You have joined that 60% who get and stay sober on self knowledge.
I think it’s important to understand the physiology of alcohol addiction. I think it’s also important to understand the triggers that start us drinking. And I think it’s also most useful to understand that for some of us, once we start drinking we have little if any inclination to stop.
If one can stop, and this is the more important part, stay stopped based on what we can know about ourselves, good and good. Thank the powers that be for that gift.
But there seems to be another class of alcoholic that knowing all that there is to know about how and why we drink, and knowing that everything we love will be taken away if we drink, we still drink. And we watch all that we love wash away and we can’t stop it and we can’t stop ourselves.
It seems this class of drunk is suffering from a disease that only a spiritual experience will conquer.
I didn’t believe that when I first heard it.
So if you don’t believe it either, you are not alone. But if you sadly find yourself in that latter group, total despair may change your mind.

On the road to the good stuff
Richard S.