AA and different meetings.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ย. 2024
- Have you ever been told by a members, that you need to try different meetings when you experience gas lighting and abuse? Perhaps we need to address why this is a problem
Here is a link to the Karla Brada murder case :
www.abajournal...
It’s the same AA meeting everywhere!!!!!! It doesn’t matter where you go, it’s the SAME!!!!! I’ve been to meetings in a lot of places and it’s ALL THE SAME!!!!!
I disagree some were better than others for sure The smaller circle discussions were less cultist imo
@@hugh2hoob668 Agreed. The smaller ones were always more laid back, but there was a BB Thumper or some other asshole that would show up here and again.
Going to “other meetings” is just a way to ignore the problems that are plaguing the groups.
Yes, that and, AA is like any section of society- there are good and bad people. ANYTHING to avoid accountability!
Just a way to get rid of you, to sweep you and me under the carpet.
If you relapse, you will be treated like dirt!!!!!!! No matter how wonderful the meetings were!!!
Yeah, definitely. I disliked immensely the holier-than-thoug attitude towards those who relapsed. It was as if the relapser knows or knew absolutely nothing ... about anything, just because they had a drink. What's equally annoying is the way AA promotes the simplicity of their 12-Step program then, when somebody does relapse or "goes out there!" then manage to make their way back to a meeting, podium big shots that the relapser is practically forced to listen to at their first meeting back devote their entire longwinded share on how the program is so hard, complex, intricate and impossible-for-mere-mortals-to-understand/do-without-a-kissing-the-arse-of-a Guru (narcissist) AA sponsor.
And AA claim the organisation isn't a cult. Ppfffftt!
I spent two years in New York City wandering from AA meeting to AA meeting. I was in eight different programs six of them were outpatient and two of them were impatient. I went to detox at St Luke's Roosevelt Hospital. I was the only white person in the detox unit at that time. I then went “up State” to a rehab in Lake Saranac. I was supposed to stay there for 6 months, I stayed there 23 days. After almost 2 years of 12 Step I went to Silver City, New Mexico to drink myself to death. After a year and a half I went back to AA for maybe 3 months.
I moved to Humboldt County California and I went to a few meetings 6 years later I went back to AA and I got sober not because of AA but because I had no choice I just couldn't die couldn't or wouldn't. I said I'll go back to AA for a year and then I'll kill myself.
For the first month I told the group that was sober but after the 12 Step meeting every day I would go home and drink a little bit so I could make it through I was weaning myself off but I didn't want to go in there everyday and tell them that I had drank 2 mini bottles of vodka and two 24 oz of beers. July 4th 2002 I was able to start my sober life. I went to AA for 10 years the first couple years I sat there and listened to the nonsense and thenI got involved, I got to know that AA doesn't really work. I started reading my name is Bill books like that.
Anyway on my 10th birthday when I was giving my speech I told the people thank you very much for putting up with me for the last 10 years but I'm through with this I'm through with 12-step b******* I can see that not anyone is getting better. People aren't even getting sober here; they go in and out of the doors all the time.
needless to say none of those people ever talk to me again if they saw me in the store they would ignore me they would say he's not a true Scotsman even though the whole time that I was going to AA they told me I was such an alcoholic that I had to do this and that and that because I was an alcoholic but because I stage sober without the 12-step b******* I must not have been a true Scotsman.
I started a channel just like yours mine was called Godless Rick this was in 2012 and I had a few good videos went semi viral but I got a couple of letters from lawyers that said that they were going to sue me my Channel I didn't pull punches I showed pictures of the AA Church in my videos and I named people not their last name but names.
People kept telling me that you get more flies with sugar than you do with vinegar and some stupid things like that. I started a LifeRing meeting then I started a SMART meeting. I still run the SMART Meeting. It's the only one for hundreds of miles in any direction.
I think you're helping more people with your channel than I am with the SMART Meeting that I Facilitate every Monday night. Reading in the comments you're helping more people than I am by far. If I'm lucky I might get a dozen people at my meeting but mostly I get crap from the 12 steppers in this small town.
Yes I got a sponsor I did all the steps many times I ran bookstudy meetings I got involved in Hospitals and institutions, “Chaired” many meetings. I don't know how many thousands of 12 Step meetings that I went to in my life, if I told you you wouldn't believe me anyway. 12 Step meetings are the same everywhere! 12 Step is insipid!
Anger is a pretty natural reaction to being told you just have to put up with bull shit and just conform. Boot-lickers never change anything.
Same in a decent-sized city in Scotland with multiple meetings most days. Where AA is, dogmatic, dangerous, harmful cult behaviour will be found.
Ah, yes. The AA version of, "You're Jesusing wrong, you have to do it MY way or else!"
I'm from England, the meetings were all the same, even went to other ‘fellowships’ and they were same they just didn't like AA and vice-versa.
Ha! My first "Home Group!" was held in a private mental health facility. NA also shared the venue. Every time something went wrong, no matter how trivial such as a couple of biscuits went missing, the elders of my Group were quick to blame NA. What a joke.
Out of all the fellowships, groups, and meetings I attended, only the groups that allowed and tolerated discussion of what are often considered outside issues and psychiatric or psychology treatments lead me to the secular solutions I needed. Beyond that, it was all the same conformist or idealist malarkey, with no mention of how trauma is never our fault or how the society around us never gave a shit about it. I got tired of people making the same excuses for the toxic people, traditions, culture and institutions, that contributed to the issues that lead to our addiction or reinforced our addiction, which always masks our actual problems.
I was told that if I didn't write down my Third Step in pencil (not ink, not type), I was doing it wrong.
Oh yeah, I think they just make this shit up as they go along.
Well that’s what it says in the big book 😝. Eff them and their pencils ✏️ .
Californian subscriber here AA is the same in California as it is anywhere else. Monterey is a chill area and John Steinbeck's house is now a restaurant
I read Cannery Row when I was a young man living in my first apartment. I felt like I had found a great novel of skid row characters that I could relate to and felt like a true artistic bohemian at the time. A bit cringeworthy :)
We all went to all the wrong meetings! Why!? There isn’t a right one! 😂 Been to “Monterey” many times! It’s a shit show for recovery! 😂 Like every other meeting all over the globe.😂🎉 Was born and raised in Northern California . Been to meetings all over the globe. It’s all the same “smug”, “condescending “ and abusive mind set! “By the grace of God go I! I am so briming over with gratitude “!! 🤮
Most of my AA years were done living in San Jose. I think I only went to a meeting once there but I suffered through several weekend AA retreats in Monterrey. 😂😂. At least I enjoyed the beaches and woods.
@@freaky_j2207 Did you ever attend Second Tradition on Saturday nights?
Same. Silicon Valley AA meetings were a hoot
How could you ever find "the right meetings"?
Every meeting I went to, no matter what time of day or what location all had the same members!
This is what I see at NA meetings as well. There are different people at each meeting of course, but there is always one or two "Nazi" types there to inflict their "experience".
AA world service doesn’t want to be held accountable for the behavior of its members, but they are more than happy to take the members money. I finally had it with being bullied by punks that thought a meeting was a safe place for them to attack vulnerable people. It didn’t take me long to realize I couldn’t get well taking advice from sick people.
That is the truth. The whole organization is rotten beyond belief.
@@dcjway Exactly correct!
@@dcjway
That when I pull on them
& tell them I don’t give 2 fucks
About them or there fake recovery
@@ThePurist1953 I didn’t pull anything on them but I was known to throw things in there direction from time to time in my early days.
Am being bullied, by the so called admin and chair of the meeting, I dare not mention it otherwise I will be treated like dirt, so I have stopped going to the cult so I can save my sanity am in therapy and doing so much better.
Man this video brought back so many memories especially my first 1-5 years in the early 00’s in AA. I’ll try to hit bullet points in no particular order.
1) other than slight stylistic differences AA is exactly the same in CA as anywhere else. I’ve went to meetings in other states. It’s all the same program and more or less culture.
2) Go to other meetings. Yep. Heard that. Also the flip side where if you don’t come to “their” meeting. The ones your sponsor is an old time guru at your “not being serious with your sobriety” or some shit.
3) having lived most of my life in NorCal Monterey should be on the top of your list to check out especially if you like chill, beautiful scenery, John Steinbeck, and don’t mind it being chilly. It’s not warm like LA beaches you see on TV but also not nest as crowded or big.
I had more. Maybe I’ll think of them later.
I had forgotten the one about not being serious. In fact, I do remember one meeting I was attending, and a guru that I bumped into from another one asked what my home group was. When I told him, he said, "THAT IS NOT A REAL AA MEETING ! THAT IS FOR PEOPLE THAT ARE NOT SERIOUS ABOUT SOBRIETY!"
In other words, no matter what you do, it is always the wrong thing in AA.
My first AA sponsor had me only attend Men’s Meetings. Anyone who attended “mixed meetings” was ridiculed and not considered “real AA”. @@quackaholicsanonymous7210 I f
"By the grace of God there go I." I particularly hated that fucking gem. Plus you'd get a bonus with all the old time shits repeating it under their breath as if it was some philosophical work of art. God, I'd love to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind my 23 months of that SHIT.
I bought into the false hope of AA in my early years at the cult. Having now been away for some little while I see more clearly just how it played out, and my ignorance of what I was allowing to happen. I still find myself irritated by this history. However, leaving and not ever regretting my departure continues to provide a certain type of healing in itself.
The rush that AA members experience as both members and speaking from the AA podium is a significant reason why I stayed so long. Of course I bought the cult propaganda of "you will lose anything you put before your recovery!" Which accounts for my trying so many different meetings. This entailed being (or trying to ingratiate) amongst people with whom I definitely ... "wouldn't normally mix!" I can and will confidently say that bar a few little regional/demographic differences, the meetings are the same the world over based on many things one of which is very noticeable: AA members assume they're the chosen few amongst the great unwashed. This would be laughable if not for the vile goings on at AA when it comes to abuse, cult indoctrination, promotion of slave labour, tax exempt status, soft-serve, wannabe christianity, and members simply shrugging their shoulders when such awful things are pointed out to them.
Another great video, mate. I thought of a couple of (what I think) are really pertinent things to add to this comment. Alas ... another senior moment. Keep 'em coming.
So happy you're subscriber base is growing keep it up😊
Finally somebody telling it like it is.
The way you said "Letter after letter after letter after letter..." I can't do it. I get 3 words in and I'm babbling like a Pentecostal on baptism day. lol
10:18
I only spent about four years in AA but I remember seeing so many vulnerable young women come into those rooms that would have definitely been easy picking for a scumbag old timer. I can't say I ever saw it but I'm sure it did.
There is a local creep who long ago bought an old ex-hire cabin cruiser destined for ship cemetery. He gave it a lick of paint and moored It in a rather fancy marina in a posh suburb. He started holding "invitation only" meetings about the vessel. They were incense and candlelit affairs and those invited were, unsurprisingly, hard body 20-something newcomers plus a few creepy old men like himself. I Christened the garbage scow The SS Groomatorium. It was his casting couch for a two stage plan to eventually install a good looking female young enough to be his granddaughter into an apartment he owned a few suburbs south (location: Sydney, Australia's Northern Beaches) for an underwear mosh ... I'm sure. And, of course, he was/is thought of as a "good member!" with "good sobriety!"
A den of vipers. A trap.
You did a new video, woohoo!
We had an unaliving here in Olympia. Three years ago. A 23 year old new comer who worked at the Alano Club was dating and “old timer”. She broke up with him and five days later she and her 5 year old daughter disappeared found in the woods , both of them, not longer amoung us. I have stories that can set anyone’s hair on fire. To “prove our willingness “ all the female sponsor old timers all knew her and never warned new timers. But did expect bus to park three blocks away after dark from that very meeting to make 90 in 90!
Oh my god that is horrible !
That is horrible
Omg!
I’m not lying. Sickening!
I love your honesty, Aa is a cult. Play on the vulnerable!! Am being bullied by a male alcholic in and out of the rooms, i dare not speak about it,am so intimidated in the rooms I feel small I have decided to stay away am in therapy and feeling so much better.🙏
Another great job Thanks Vic 😊
I have been involved around the country. I'm based out of Los Angeles. It is generally the same everywhere
Bravo ❤that you stand up
Yeah I been banned from local NA
For my words and Memes I made about members the had ski accident that never changed there clean date
But we’re loaded as fuck 😂 in the pic
Fuck em
AA did more for me than I did for A.A. I miss it !
Its the same even in England
Going to be dropping a video that you need to run from AA. With months worth of videos on topics that have led to my success, I’m going to start showcasing why you need all the evidence based approaches over AA
Looking forward to them.
Brooooo I too funny I was an altar girl, my mom was a CCD teacher. I was part of the first female altar girls at my church 😂 My mom still goes to church every Sunday. So many things to say about this video, I’ll have to make a response video to this. Funny thing is yesterday I uploaded a tiktok about how the 4th step finding your part is grooming you to “find your part” when a 12 step member SA’s you.
Actually that is something I had not thought about. It is a horrible idea that everything that happens to someone is something they "have a part in" and you are right, it sets you up for AA members to do anything to you and then say you have a part in it.
I remember an old timer that borrowed money from someone, when they asked for it back, the old timer told them that they should not have lent it to them if they wanted it back so easily and they needed to look at their part in it. They even said the person lent to them, get this, --because of their ego.
@@quackaholicsanonymous7210 It's actually insane when you think about it. I have heard some screwed up crap regarding " what was your part in it".
@@greatest7391 Which is a total contradiction to their doctrine that you are powerless over people, places and things.
If I am powerless over all that, how the fuck is EVERYTHING in life suddenly my fault ?
Bro you are my Hero’ on TH-cam
all meetings are the same 😂
I have one of them 😂he trolls me
Steve Debagigo trolls me on TH-cam & TikTok 😂& when I had a Fakebook
Have you been to a meeting recently? Last time I went was late Spring 1996. I can only imagine it's gotten more culty than it was back then. I would be interested in attending a meeting if I have some like minded friends with me. In my mind, AA meetings are probably not much different than a recent Trump rally. lol
May 2018 was my last meeting and it was as toxic as ever
I can't speak as to what it would have been like in the 1990s, but I can say it was toxic as all get out from 2002-2014 when I was in it.
@GODemon13
I went to a meeting two years ago, because I was curious. One thing that did change, was the introduction. AA is no longer a, "fellowship of men and women", but is now a "fellowship of people". The Alano Club I went to, is in a third rate office complex. The original complex where the club was located, had received so many complaints from other tenants that their lease was terminated. Much like an Adult Bookstore or a Methadone Clinic, no one wants to be near an Alano Club.
One other big change, was that fewer young people were in attendance. Those that were in their 20s-early 30s had court slips. I ended up leaving after 29 minutes, it was so depressing.
Hey Victor, where did you read or hear about that guy that worked in the gso that got all those letters.?
It was in the 13th The Film. I tried to scan through the documentary and find the clip. I remember him saying that people were saying all the widespread abuse had to stop, and was told by AA : We don't have an opinion on it, there is nothing to be done.
th-cam.com/video/-iUd6qZRSi8/w-d-xo.html
Social class was the real reason behind all that anonymity shit. As with the Oxford Group, Wilson was only interested in attracting upper middle-class WASP men (and with them, their donations). Obviously, the last thing men of that class wanted, was that their drinking problem become generally known. This would have harmed their reputation, both professionally and socially, as no one would have wanted it known they had any association, with a drunkard. But curiously enough, in that class and era, a husband's adultery was tolerated (even expected)--but not so, his drunkenness. Another aspect was that it would hopefully prevent anything sordid, about AA, getting out. Wilson didn't want anything interfering with his little money-making endeavour.
Good points to consider
In Bill W's last speech, he also said anonymity provided protection to those that would use AA for sick and selfish purposes. In other words, he thought protecting predators was a "spiritual principle"
@@greatest7391 High praise, from you. Thanks.
@@quackaholicsanonymous7210 Indeed. Is there a link to that speech?
@@quackaholicsanonymous7210 F..ked up or what...
California meetings being peace and love and understanding? Well ain't that where Clancy and the bazi Pacific Group?. Tho now that Clancy is dead maybe....
Clancy is worm food
@patforden-kc6xn
I've heard this from two different LA residents, and a woman who was a former-Big Wig of the Central Pacific Meeting (Clancy's offshoot meeting in Minneapolis). Ol' Clancy was shocked up with two different women, significantly younger than him.
I saw those nut's in action when I lived in LA, a creepy cult!!
Disssssgusting.
If AA was a group of drinkers talking about how theyre here to combat drinking it be a perfect environment The cult ruins a good concept
Yep, if a group of people wanted to get together, discuss what triggers them, try to help each other, share the latest articles they have found on scientific evidence etc, it would be a great thing.
@@quackaholicsanonymous7210 Intellectualism is anathema to most religious mentalities, wherein lies the problem.
Crazy how some of you guys went for years after 3 meetings I pretty much was done with it AA preaches the Big Book more than it lets drunks vent I hated it