After 17 years of field research in and out of Alcoholics Anonymous, I am taking what I want and leaving the rest.
An Alanon sponsor once reminded me, “You’re allowed to change your mind.” Oh? Oh!
Someone asked me the other day ,”Do you think you’re an alcoholic?” My answer was ,”I really want to be.”
As I re enter AA , I think about drinking more than I ever did. Its easy to step right back in and parrot the slogans and reunite with people I truly do love =instant community! A lot of The people in AA are what I choose to keep . Not the perversion and the archaic-ness of the program.
AA was great when I was broke, getting thrown out of gay coke parties and my Father had just died. I was 31 and looked into AA 3 years later. The women in AA were the best friends I ever had. I still dearly want to be with some of them but not with the AA hijacking of human survival skills and belief in Normies.
I don’t know if retaining friendships is possible if you prefer to be sober but not with AA as the centerpiece. I feel a sad, nostalgic waft of 2003 AA air ,very similar to the Nostalgia I have for drinking without 3 day hangovers. Luckily I know how to process feelings. For this blog post I’ll keep it short-er and cite this wonderful article . More later on my own experience as I continue to mix a cocktail of curated AA meetings, audible books on sobriety and life AFTER , Harm reduction, Belle Robertson on Recovery Elevator podcast , and Stanton Peele.
Define Sober 