Alcoholics Anonymous Open Meetings?
Question by charli_red1218: Alcoholics Anonymous open meetings?
I am not an alcoholic before someone puts that in their answers, I have to find and attend and open meeting so I can report on it in one of my classes. Im just wondering if anyone knows what goes on at an open meeting do I have to speak and tell them about myself? Or is it okay to not speak?
Best answer:
Answer by Clamshell 19
They have anonymity. It’s one of their rules.
Maybe if you explain what you want …
But you are violating their privacy. I don’t
think I would say anything…just go. They
have to respect your privacy. Good Luck
I’d try to find a large meeting, your less
likely to be asked anything.
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The good news is that Alcoholics Anonymous is just that, anonymous, despite what you may have heard about Lindsay Lohan.
Most “Beginners” meetings are open meetings and some discussion meetings are open as well.
Everyone is welcome, there is nothing to sign, you don’t need to speak to anyone. You might find yourself interested in asking questions, though, and if you do, approach anyone and ask away.
Alcoholics Anonymous meetings are generally pretty positive environments, and you might even enjoy yourself.
Feel free to send me an e-mail if I can be of any further help.
If anyone calls on you, just say it’s your first time and you’d like to listen. If you let them know you’re there to observe, they will put on a show.
On the surface, AA seems like a benign organization, but appearances are deceiving, much of what goes on takes place before or after the meetings. There is a large anti-medication, anti-therapy faction that claims members are not sober if they use psychiatric medication, that all their problems stem from alcohol abuse and as long as they don’t drink, work a good program, and get right with God, they’re fine. Since approximately half of all alcoholics have underlying mental health issues, this is a grave injustice to half of its members.
You are sure to hear that the program is “spiritual, not religious”, this is bunk. The Second and Seventh District courts, the New York Court of Appeals, and the Tennessee Supreme Court have all decided that AA is at least “religious in nature”. You might hear that a “Higher Power” can be whatever a person chooses, but the literature explains that this is just a starter god, a device to get people in the habit of praying. They are expected to “come to believe” in the same micro-managing God as everyone else. There are token atheists in the program, but most of these people kept quiet about it until they had a few years of sobriety and had been accepted by the group before they let on.
AA is a fear-based program, listen to what is being said. If you hear beyond the words, you’ll get the real message: that AA is the only way and people who stop going drink and/or die. Anyone who questions this dogma or the program in any way is verbally abused or shunned. You’ll hear much about “powerlessness”, alcoholism as a disease, and that it’s genetic. All these ideas remove responsibility from the person and fosters dependence on the program.
AA has a 5% success rate, no better than attempting to quit on ones own and 4-5 times as many people who have been exposed to AA end up binge drinking as compared to those who attempt it on their own (Brandsma study). AA also has a MORTALITY rate that is higher than any other method and 5 times as high as no treatment (Vaillant study). George Vaillant is a Harvard professor, researcher and member of AA’s Board of Trustees who was attempting to prove that AA works; he said of his findings, “Not only had we failed to alter the natural history of alcoholism, but our death rate of three percent a year was appalling.” That didn’t stop him from continuing to push AA though.
Check out “The Effectiveness of 12 Step Treatment”:
http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-effectiveness.html