Secular alcoholic recovery support groups in St Louis?
October 30, 2011 1:36 PM Subscribe
Secular alcoholic recovery support groups in St Louis?
The St Louis Metro area has almost 3 Million people, it must have some atheist-friendly alcoholic support groups. I'm looking for 12-step-ish or other format sobriety support groups that aren't all about the God-talk. South county is best, but anywhere in the metro area is good.
The St Louis Metro area has almost 3 Million people, it must have some atheist-friendly alcoholic support groups. I'm looking for 12-step-ish or other format sobriety support groups that aren't all about the God-talk. South county is best, but anywhere in the metro area is good.
Just so you know, AA meetings vary a lot. People interpret their "Higher Power" a lot of different ways. It's OK to meeting shop, so you can try a couple of AAs, SMARTs, whatever ultimately feels like a good fit. Good luck to you.
posted by DarlingBri at 2:42 PM on October 30, 2011
posted by DarlingBri at 2:42 PM on October 30, 2011
Seconding a lot of AA groups are not religious. A member at one such group spoke about this recently. She said the "higher power" is whatever you want it to be and that for her the higher power was all the members of the group who are are all helping each other stay sober.
posted by mareli at 8:42 AM on October 31, 2011
posted by mareli at 8:42 AM on October 31, 2011
You might find atheist-friendly groups, but the real advantage of AA is the massive size of the community. I'd suggest going to a lot of different meetings and listening to a lot of people talk. A lot of them will talk about Higher Power, god, whatever ... a lot of them won't ... a lot of them will talk about their struggle to find and accept a higher power.
In other words, you might have better luck finding people you can relate to in AA than in other groups just because there are SO MANY people. Lots of them don't agree with all of the literature, I promise.
There are a lot of different ways people end up thinking about the god issue. Don't hesitate to think about it as just a Group Of Drunks, Gift Of Desperation, Good Orderly Direction ... or whatever you're comfortable with.
I love this Roger Ebert quote about higher power in recovery:
The God word. The critics never quote the words "as we understood God." Nobody in A.A. cares how you understand him, and would never tell you how you should understand him. I went to a few meetings of "4A" ("Alcoholics and Agnostics in A.A."), but they spent too much time talking about God. The important thing is not how you define a Higher Power. The important thing is that you don't consider yourself to be your own Higher Power, because your own best thinking found your bottom for you. One sweet lady said her higher power was a radiator in the Mustard Seed, "because when I see it, I know I'm sober."
From here.
posted by TurkishGolds at 7:30 PM on October 31, 2011
In other words, you might have better luck finding people you can relate to in AA than in other groups just because there are SO MANY people. Lots of them don't agree with all of the literature, I promise.
There are a lot of different ways people end up thinking about the god issue. Don't hesitate to think about it as just a Group Of Drunks, Gift Of Desperation, Good Orderly Direction ... or whatever you're comfortable with.
I love this Roger Ebert quote about higher power in recovery:
The God word. The critics never quote the words "as we understood God." Nobody in A.A. cares how you understand him, and would never tell you how you should understand him. I went to a few meetings of "4A" ("Alcoholics and Agnostics in A.A."), but they spent too much time talking about God. The important thing is not how you define a Higher Power. The important thing is that you don't consider yourself to be your own Higher Power, because your own best thinking found your bottom for you. One sweet lady said her higher power was a radiator in the Mustard Seed, "because when I see it, I know I'm sober."
From here.
posted by TurkishGolds at 7:30 PM on October 31, 2011
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They have meetings in St. Louis (scroll down).
posted by jenmakes at 2:09 PM on October 30, 2011