who here has gone to /going to AA

by orbison11 31 Replies latest jw friends

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  willyloman

  I have used many of the principals in recovering from JW abuse. I consider myself a recovering JW.

  There's a former Catholic priest, now Rev. Leo Booth, who is a recovering alcoholic and does 12-step programs for people like us who suffered religious abuse. I quit drinking several years ago without AA, but attended several of his lectures on alcholism and found the counsel was remarkably useful. I learned my alcoholic parents left me a predisposition toward alcohol and decided to quit before I got more dependent that I already was. But the counseling, all about finding spiritual solace for the emptiness within that feeds drinking, helped me leave the JWs after nearly 30 years. I came to realize I had abused religion, and/or had been abused by it, and that there were reasons I allowed that to happen, and was able to stop doing it. It was an ephiphany for me.

  Now I always suggest former dubs seek counseling, and since finding ex-dub therapists is difficult, I suggest finding one who works with alcohol and drug addiction. The principles are the same.
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  lawrence

  Have been to meetings and recommend any drinker go once, and see. Alcohol is a wicked drug! Available, cheap, acceptable, and very portable. Alcohol is my worst demon, has had me wasted on the floor, pouring sweats, seeing everything, including my life going by and wife walking out. Then there are the dryouts and 30 day fasts - HELL! I think these days of Jack Kerouac (my childhood mentor) and Jim Morrison, where he wrote in his poetry, "Lord, forgive us, for we know what we do." Kerouac, a "good Catholic" was unable to commit suicide, and in his later years justified his drinking in that manner, however slow it may be, in a shade of Zen.

  HappyDad - intense! Thank you.
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  Billygoat

  ((((Jankyn))))) You said so much so well! Thank you.
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  BrendaCloutier

  ACOA (Adult Children of Alcoholics).

  When I was in a treatment center in 1990, one of my counsellors, when she found out what my prior religious background was, suggest I attend A.C.O.R.N. Adult Children Of Religious Nuts. It was a joke. Because I was out of sorts being sober, I had a difficult time understanding humor and I didn't get it. Many of us here are ACORN's.

  I've been clean and sober since May 17, 1990. I don't attend meetings much any more because I have a difficult time get out and around. But simply said, AA, and it's principals, are life saving. The principals helped me get over being a "recovering" JW, too.

  There are many who use AA as a religion. There are those who become AA Nazi's and Big Book Thumpers - just like any toxic religion or cult - my way or you'll drink and die. I have found them to be the really hard-core street-people types that had no basis for a "normal" life. Me? After leaving the dubs any formalized group of people scared me.

  When I went to my first AA meeting on July 5, 1987, I had to go through the doors of a Baptist church. It was a real dilema. Even though I had been out of the org since about 1979, I had been so indoctrinated by it that I just KNEW I'd be struck down by lightening. Well, I walked through the doors anyway. You know what? Nothing happened out of the ordinary, except I found people who were just like me. It took me another 3 years to finally "get it or die". I had late stage alcoholism and almost died.

  THEN they prayed! I was so embarrased that I, me a bible trained JW, did not know the Lord's Prayer. I have since learned the Lord's prayer, Serenity prayer, and have really Learned To Pray! kewl stuff, kewl results.

  If you (or someone you love) have to go, or need to go, or want to go: Don't worry about the God-shit. Don't worry about the stuff that scares you or you don't like. Try to find the similarities, not the differences. I think the similarities will suprise the hell out of you!

  Don't go just once. Go several times to different meetings. Each meeting has it's own flair. I have only been to one really bad meeting. Most of the others that I had problems with, the problem was between my ears.

  Ok. Alcoholism. It is NOT a morality issue, unlike what the WTS sez. It IS a progressive disease. The body does not process alcohol NORMALLY just as a diabetics body cannot process sugar (carbs) normally. Remember, not long ago there was a time when Epilepsy was though to be demon possession. Schitzophrenia (sp) is currently considered demonic possession by the dubs - my dad, an elder, is sure of it!

  AA deals with the behavioural issues and out-of-whack thinking processes associated with alcoholism. It doesn't deal with the health issues. You might want to work with a physician or dietician to deal with the physical stuff.

  All in all - good luck with whatever it is you need to do.

  Hugs on your journey

  Brenda

  blcloutier @ yahoo . com
• 

  lisaBObeesa

  A.C.O.R.N. Adult Children Of Religious Nuts.

  ROFL!!!

  I gotta remember that one! AA has saved the lives of several people I know very well. Alanon helped me very much. But I never could go to meetings for more than a few months because I did have some JW flash-backs in those meetings. But I think that was my post traumatic stess talking.

  -LisaBObeesa
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  scootergirl

  A.C.O.R.N...god that made me laugh!!!! I have been going to Alanon for about 10 years now. I use the 12 steps in everyday life...not only w/my A. but also w/everyone else in life. It has aided in my recovery not only w/dealing w/years of living w/alcoholics but also i dealing w/recovery w/my past being raised as a Dub. The 12 steps for me is a guideline of sorts. The comment was made here about spirituality and the Program. It wasn't until I really started working the Program that I understood and appreciate the meaning of "The God of MY understanding". It grounds me spiritually which is self defined by me. Let's just say that we joke in our house that our youngest will learn the 12 Steps before he learns the ABC's! LOL I do realize that AA, NA, SA, Alanon isn't for everyone, but it works for me and I will continue it till the day I die.
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  ballistic

  So what are these 12 steps? I still drink a lot and enjoy it and sometimes wonder if I drink too much (no - be honest I drink too much), but I'm wondering if the same 12 steps can help drinkers as well as the alcoholics.
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  scootergirl

  The 12 Suggested Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous 1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable. 2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. 4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. 5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. 6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. 7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. 8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. 9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. 10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. 11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
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  ballistic

  I see that is actually very religious!!! I'm suprised.
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  ballistic

  hmmm, I will add , I think there is no such thing as will power, all it takes is for you to WANT it and if you want anything bad enough, you will be interested in doing it, will formulate a plan and follow it through. If you want anything bad enough, you will get it.