AA Meetings Can Change Your Life

If you ask any random person about what they know about Alcoholics Anonymous, chances are they will tell you things about how, as the name implies, it is for alcoholics who are trying to sober up. People who are more familiar with what the meetings and the whole organization is about might be able to tell you all about the 12 Traditions of AA or the 12 Steps of AA that form the backbone of the organization. 

If you manage to talk to a person who has been an alcoholic and who has intimate knowledge of what it means to recover from alcoholism, chances are that they can tell you how attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings can change your life. The people that attend these meetings are the kind of people that have realized that their substance abuse has been negatively impacting their life. They are the kind of people that have realized that they need to make a change and they see that AA meetings are the means with which they can accomplish their goal. There are a couple of good reasons why this is the case.

Solidarity grants strength

In order to join Alcoholics Anonymous, you really only need to do one thing, you have to be able to admit that you are an alcoholic and have the desire to become sober. After that, you are welcome to attend AA meetings. Because of this requirement, the people that you will be able to meet in the AA meetings that you go to will also have similar experiences with you or, at least, similar difficulties with alcohol and substance abuse.

The people that you will meet have taken the same oath of sobriety as you and this feeling of solidarity is a major source of strength within the organization. You are never alone in the daily battle to beat the bottle. The benefits do not just end with moral support, however. Members can provide a great deal of information about the 12 Traditions and 12 Steps of AA as well as their own personal experiences which can serve as a guide for you on how to proceed with your own journey of sobriety. When you also have enough experiences of your own in getting sober, you can also choose to help other members in Alcoholics Anonymous. It is even stated in the 12 Traditions that everyone looks out for the common welfare of all the people in the group.

Alcoholics Anonymous also encourages to seize other aspects of your life

More than just getting sober, Alcoholics Anonymous also encourages people to make amends to the wrongdoings in their past that have been brought about by their alcoholism. This provides people with the opportunity to confront their own mistakes and their flaws so that they can find a way to become better people. 

Oftentimes, people can turn to the drink because of some kind of difficulty that they are experiencing in life or they are using alcohol as some form of coping mechanism. By being able to examine these flaws, people can have the opportunity to confront the root cause of whatever is making them turn to alcoholism and, eventually, improve as people as well. The time that people spend at alcoholics anonymous meetings are all opportunities for self-reflection and self-improvement.

You are never alone

Joining Alcoholics Anonymous is an active and conscious choice made by an individual, and it is this sense of agency that contributes greatly to their full recovery. While there are some people who can recover on their own without any assistance whatsoever, having a community of people that can offer genuine support can always increase the chances of making a successful transition to a sober life. In addition to that, you also gain the security of having your identity remain anonymous as part of the main tenets of AA meetings. 

You can rest assured that most of the people around you will always have your back and will wish for you to successfully live sober just as much as you would like that for yourself. Starting that journey can be as easy as looking through our directory for an AA meeting near you. You can find locations near you or around your city. If there are no locations that are convenient for you, you can also try attending an online AA meeting. Once you feel like you have made a lot of progress on your journey to getting sober, you can always look back on your progress by checking out our sobriety calculator if you would like.

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