Excerpt
Meetings
"My Name Is Molly and I 'm an Alcoholic "
Imagine yourself coming to your first A.A. meeting and saying that sentence with
your own name in it. Really, try to imagine it. For all the information
disseminated in recent decades about alcoholism as a disease, coming to a
meeting is not like a visit to the doctor or going to a health spa. There is
still a stigma attached to the condition, and no one is more aware of it than
the alcoholic herself. So, stinging shame for some, as it was for me. For
others, as for some of the young Turks in the program, the humiliating admission
that they can't drink the way their buddies can. Nor does one come for social
reasons, to meet friends or make new ones, like joining a club or attending a
singles event.
Many people come expecting to see the legendary Bowery bums there. Or worse,
like me, they fear they will meet someone they know. It was an irrational fear,
I know. The people at meetings would be there for the same reason I was. But
just such a fear prompts some newcomers to find meetings out of town, in places
where they won't be recognized. Might you do that?
No one comes to A.A. for spiritual enlightenment either. I di ... read full excerpt from Seeds of Grace ebook
