The Brave Babes Battle Bus - Sweeping Into Autumn With A One Way Ticket To Sobriety.

[Mouseface]

Phew, just in time!

I'm mouse and I love a few to drink. I love all things cheese and I love MrMouse

Welcome to the Bus. We are a collection of drinkers, non-drinkers, and those who are somewhere in between but we all have the same thing in common, we can't just have 1 drink and then stop.

Come say hi, we don't bite .

Here are the other threads to date, if you have a spare hour or seven to kill.

OUR HISTORY

obrig
A step meeting is a meeting that focuses on the 12 step programme of AA, any other meeting tends to be slightly more general. For a first meeting - I would tend to recommend a more general meeting, but everyone is different.
I would say to try a few meetings, and make no snap judgements about AA based on one meeting, some meetings I love and others I am not so keen on, but they are all AA, I have two meetings that I attend every week, and feel very comfortable at, there are others in my town which other people like just as much, but just aren't my cup of tea .

If you call the helpline - they will get someone local to you to call you, and then even meet you at the meeting if you would like.

wellies agree with everything that venus said, I kept repeating the experiment, and not getting different results. So decided to just stop experimenting! best decision I have ever made!!

scooter well done on day 2, and pass the brownies!!

It's me!

Saw the Step meeting query. FWIW I used to go to a Step meeting in a small town (Herne Bay if anyone cares) and, if there was a newcomer in the room, regardless of what Step we were meant to be on, we went back to Step One ("we admitted that we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.") Which I personally thought was the right thing to do - though it did mean we very rarely got round to the later Steps!

obrig the other thing is, if you attend a step meeting, just let them know that you are new, and they will normally try to tailor it to you. You will be made very welcome wherever you go. And to reiterate Venus - don't let the S put you off. My FIL is in AA, and one of his regular meetings is a step meeting, and he really likes it, even although he is not "doing" the steps. He just likes and can relate to the people that attend that particular meeting.

More generally, most Step meetings involve reading the Step (full text) from the book 12 Steps and 12 Traditions, then a "chair" (i.e. one person tells his/her story) relating to that step, then discussion around that Step. But, as always, if someone wants to share about something else that's important to them RIGHT NOW, no one minds at all.

venus you are right I need to learn from that experiment , my friend came with wine I intended for us to share the half bottle from my fridge.

Not taken your comments as tough at all I just need to be stronger I guess

Last thing (gone for ages, now I can't shut up) a Step meeting will, by its nature, attract people who have been sober for longer. As a newcomer, that can be a good thing (plenty of experience to learn from, potential sponsors if that's your thing, visible proof that "it works") or it can be quite unnerving (people may discuss drinking less because it's further in the past; oh-my-god-he's-35-years-sober-I-can't-even-manage-a-day-I-might-as-well-give-up-NOW-where's-the-nearest-pub?) Obviously, this depends on you rather than the meeting - basically, ANY AA meeting will be full of people willing to help you get better.

MIFLAW you old bugger - where have you been? Lovely to see your posts. Is everything OK with you and family?

Where have you been? I (and others) have been worried sick about you young man. Staying off the Bus for weeks on end, you didn't call, you didn't write........

But I DID! Two people asked how I was and I said I was fine ...

Thread seemed to be getting on fine without me, not a lot to add, so I just lurked, I guess.

Hope everyone else has been well in my absence.

S

In a PM, JWN and I both PMd you.

'Fine' covers a multitude of things, I wanted to know you were fine and dandy at the very least.

Glad you are. Don't be leaving us for that long again though please. We need you. Well, I think we do. The Bus needs you.

Afternoon IsinDe - how's you?

Thanks for replying Venus, Bafana and Miflaw, genuinely appreciated.

Back again, I am based in Southern Ireland and just had look at AA website and it states that meetings marked with S - steps, T - traditions and BB - Big Book are all closed meetings?

obrigada that means that they are closed to people who do not have an alcohol problem e.g. health workers etc, and generally you can't ake a non-alcoholic friend along for company (although I think most will make an exception if it is your first time)

They are open to everyone who has an alcohol problem.

mouse I think maybe the way to tempt MIFLAW out is to name-change and post on here asking very difficult and complicated AA questions . In the same way that cheese works for you

Hey obrig
A closed meeting is for people attending who have a desire to stop drinking. Open meetings are open to others, so sometimes a friend or spouse supporting a newcomer.
All the meetings I attend are open, but very rarely do non members attend, and these are always announced at the beginning, allowing people the choice as to whether they wish to attend a meeting with people who don't identify themselves as someone with a problem with alcohol.

Does that help? Not sure that I have explained myself terribly well?

I didn't name change Venus

Thanks again Venus and Bafana

No problem Obrigada!

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