do it. and if you want to get your toes wet before diving into in-person meetings, try in the rooms.
Give it a try. After going to AA a couple of times I switched to NA, in my experience a little bit less religiously inspired. But maybe I didn’t try enough AA meetings. About NA I like that no particular drug is talked about. Fits me better.
Not sure about the 12 steps yet. I’ve been working on myself for years. And will continue to do so. This is my own road I’m on. I’m happy and grateful to have found this fellowship where I find kindred spirits who all support each other through sharing experiences and by just being there for each other. It helps me a lot. I seem to have found my home group (Friday night, it nicely replaces my Friday night after work in the bar binging night) and am going to help out there a bit. Still need to find a sponsor. But I’m not to overly worried right now, I haven’t found someone I really like enough to ask. I like slow precesses.
I’d say give it a chance. you’ve got nothing to lose. And give it time to form your own opinion, I was nearly scared away by some overly religious zealous fellows who rely made this fellowship stuff their whole life and religion. If it helps them it’s fine, even thoug I still find it a little bit scary, for some it can be a bit like being in a cult. But that doesn’t mean it has to be for you or me. we’re grown ups, we’re sober, we can form our own opinions and live our life accordingly. That’s recovery too IMO. And perfectly possible while attending AA or NA or whatever A. Success.
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OK I’m probably gonna upset some one but I didn’t know until I came on here that AA is religious. Is it the intention of the church to pray on the vulnerable, is it so bad to say that I can do this on my own without the help of divine intervention. I believe we all have our own God, for want of a better word, inside us. We guide ourselves in the direction we desire. We do it all. I work in a home for severely disabled people and some of them pray. WHY. look what their GOD has done for them. He doesn’t wash them and feed them or attempt to make their lives more comfortable. Apart from that if you think it helps then do it but the religious under tones mean someone like me will never know the benifits.
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aa is a spiritual program not a religious program.
instead of assuming you know - why not ask one of the folk you work with what role prayer plays in their life? i am not religious, and thats not an attempt to “convert” you or anything, but i think an open and curious mind can teach us a lot.
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It’s not Paul. Don’t listen to what people say. As Les says it’s about spiritual growth.
God is used because we in the west live our life’s using morals and ethics set down around the Christian church.
That is the only connection to religion.
It’s cheaper than therapy.
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I once had this exact conversation with one of my elderly patients (I am a nurse of 20+ years) His life has been bound to a wheelchair and had been one I considered very hard. I’m not religious so I asked him what is it he prays for, he told me he believes that the spirit is eternal and is reborn to earth many times, each time we arrive to learn certain lessons and that this continues until the spirit has reached its full potential of understanding at which time it is set free into heaven. He told me he was thanking god for the opportunity to learn from his hardship and asking him if he had learnt all he should from his life and if he could move on yet?
He winked at me and told me perhaps he’ll give me a better go round next time if I thank him.
Although his beliefs didn’t match mine they were his and seemed a pretty good rationale for his prayers to me 
On the subject of AA I have taken the opposite from this forum, I don’t go to AA but not because of any religious aspect. This forum has given me the understanding that if I ever do decide to go it will be entirely up to me who or what I chose my HP to be
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Your beliefs are your business, and i understand the push back from religion.
I read your comment “I work in a home for severely disabled people and some of them pray. WHY. look what their GOD has done for them. He doesn’t wash them and feed them or attempt to make their lives more comfortable” and thought…
Something powerful had brought these vulnerable people into a place where they are cared for and hopefully loved. That for me is a good reason to believe in a higher power…whatever we want to call it.
Hope that didnt come off judgemental or negative… wasnt my intent.
Take Care
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Dont know what the church has to do with AA , maybe if you tryed meetings you would be aware that was a false statement ,keep us posted on your recovery .
Like others have said, every meeting has its own structure. Here in Maine, some end with the Lord’s prayer and some with the serenity prayer. I prefer the serenity prayer meetings, but also go to any meeting. If they end with the Lord’s prayer, I still stand in the circle but do my own silent breathing/meditation. I honestly don’t even know the words to the LP 
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not at all, I’m not judging either just ignorant to it all really
I went to several meetings a few years back, and on 2 separate occasions was confronted by people who rather indignantly questioned my silence during prayers. When I told them I didn’t believe in god, one said That can’t be true. And the other one said on the 2nd occasion, Well, you better learn to believe before you die.
These were both very large and varied groups, but there always seems to be someone. 
That said, if I really feel the need for a meeting in the future, the prospect of someone’s intrusive arrogance/ignorance won’t stop me.
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Good attitude. Don’t let anyone keep you away from a meeting if you think it would be helpful. I’ve never had anyone say anything to me. Even for those where they do the LP, they say “for those who wish to join…”. Some people leave, some stay silent like me. Around my way, all viewpoints are accepted. 
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I didn’t go to AA but like others on here if I ever find myself drunk again I will put my ass in a seat in AA.
Most of my favorite guys who brought me back here go to AA and are doing amazing things with their life.
I also know people who don’t go and do amazing things.
I am sober and to me that’s amazing. You won’t know until you try. I tried at one point when I attempted to quit drinking and I didn’t feel it was right for me. Tho if I’m honest it’s probably only because I wasn’t ready to quit drinking.
2 years and 4 months ago when I decided I was really ready and I said I would try on my own to start and if it didn’t work I’d do AA well here I am still living sober 
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Well said meetings make it easier well done
For me id just tell them go f yourself , my sobriety is important and its lucky i dont go to meetings over the pond id be swearing a lot lol keep on trucking
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I’m glad you didn’t have to face such “bad issues” to get here, but thinking your better than those who did is kinda egotistical, and sometimes this thought process can lead to bad places.
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If that’s how you read that, that’s your business.
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I’m not sure who that was directed at but I never insinuated I was better than anyone else. I have had my share of bad issues and came here for support from others going through the same thing.
It was @nullcorp, sorry if anyone else took it for them. And I would have never mentioned if it wasn’t written in 2 separate posts.
I might clarify, “[The word ‘God’] is used…”. In the meetings where I live, the word is used interchangeably with lots of different conceptions of ‘God,’ as diverse as the local community.
When I work to hear the similarities instead of the differences, I find a lot of wisdom in the rooms as a spiritual agnostic. That goes for both the recovery part and the spiritual/life philosophy part.
Everyone has a slightly different way of expressing it, but whether Christian, atheist, Wiccan, Buddhist, or Tom Hanksist, I really enjoy having a place I can go where we’re getting better, together, looking past the language of how we relate to it individually.
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