h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You've piqued my curiosity, but I figured I'd take it off the PUDDING conversation site. I'm clean/sober seven years through Narcotics Anonymous and have struggled mightily with the whole Higher Power concept. I'm currently taking a class with a Wiccan priest and priestess - another step on my ever meandering spiritual path. Would you mind sharing some of how your group works?

hello fellow bradfordian, your page is great. so good a well thought out page & interesting.. x

hello fellow bradfordian, your page is great. so good a well thought out page & interesting.. x

Thank you, sys! We can continue in another thread if you like, but I really want to answer Talix18's question from post #1.

The group I go to has one formal meeting a week, on Fridays. Basically, what happens is that everyone 'checks in' at the start, which means that we just say how our week has gone - or how things have been since we last made it to a meeting, as the case may be. This continues until everyone who wants a turn to speak has had one. After 45 minutes there's a break, and then we return for a general discussion. The first part of the meeting - the 'check ins' - is chaired by a member of staff from the centre: for the second part, we're left to our own devices.

There's also an informal 'drop in' session on Wednesdays - simply a chance to come in and have a and a chat, hosted by a staff member. The centre also provides one-to-one counselling and complementary therapy, like massage and aromatherapy, although these are only available in short courses, and there's a health visitor who comes along to answer any questions you may have.

It's generally a very good service, although recently newcomers to the group have been kept waiting longer than is healthy for the one-to-one counselling due to staff shortages. The HUGE differences from Alcoholics Anonymous are:

1) There's none of the 'higher power' stuff.

2) There's no demand that you label yourself before speaking. Indeed, the use of the word 'alcoholic' (to refer to a person) is actively discouraged.

3) There's no dogmatic demand that you stick to some supposedly magical 'program'. You're not even required to give up drinking, although clearly if you aren't at least going to try to keep your boozing under control then there's not much point in your being there.

It seems to have worked for me. I tried AA and really didn't like all the religious stuff. This is far better, as far as I'm concerned.