Top 5 Reasons to go to AA

Many people wonder what we get out of 12-step meetings and why do we go? Well, if the 12-steps got you sober than you know the answer but, just in case you need reminding, remember it's primary purpose: to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety. Here are the top reasons that detail just that.

• You would never want a newcomer to show up to an empty room, and for that you are responsible.

Remember your very first meeting, or just before that meeting – baffled, frightened, angry, desperate, lonely, hopeless, confused, and yet somehow sitting within seconds and inches from where willingness and clarity met. And you walked into that room – perhaps after a couple of drive-by or walk-by passes to check it out. There were all these people, some ignoring you, some reaching out to you, but almost all looking a little happier than you felt and a little more comfortable in their skin than you ever dreamed possible.

If people showed up at your first meeting, you get to repay that debt by continuing to show up at meetings, so another newcomer can have the chance you had.

• Alcoholism/addiction is a disease of loneliness and isolation; meetings overcome loneliness and isolation.

It is said, again and again, that the animal that is eaten is the one outside the herd or at the edge of the herd, not one in the middle of the herd. The addict’s thinking can be so self-sabotaging, telling the person with the disease that they don’t have the disease, or that they no longer need meetings because they’ve got time, got the girl or the guy, got the house, or got professional success. Stay in the herd!

• For many, God or a Higher Power is most visible and tangible at meetings.

On the one hand, in a world that seems as violent, unfair, and random as ours, where life is both brief and fragile, it can be difficult for some to maintain an awareness of and conscious contact with a Higher Power, let alone a faith in that Higher Power.

On the other hand, in a country with as much relative abundance and real opportunity as ours, the striving for and/or attainment of financial, professional, and romantic success may distract us from an awareness of and conscious contact with a Higher Power.

• Meetings provide the opportunity for connections of depth and weight.

Researchers are accumulating evidence to support a theory that substance abuse is caused by, more than anything else, either a lost sense of connection or never having been able to find a sense of connection. Meetings provide the perfect vehicle for establishing those connections and the sense of connectedness that grows from cultivating the relationships that occur as “a spiritual Fellowship springs up about us.”

They provide the chance not only to get to know others, but to truly be known by others, and both are equally important to sobriety and a sense of being connected.

• Meetings are instrumental in helping keep one sober and preventing relapse.

Again and again, people who relapse and then return to meetings, when asked what happened, say “I stopped going to meetings.” Meetings can provide that important opportunity to be of service, and that, in turn, can create both a sense of purpose and a sense of belonging.

Conclusion

Meetings are the place where joy is multiplied, and pain divided, where whatever one might be going through – good or bad – another can be found who has previously navigated and survived that experience. Meetings are where a Higher Power is most likely to be found and experienced, and where alcoholics/addicts are right-sized, neither better than nor less than anyone else. They are the venue where one’s experience is valued, one’s aging is respected, one’s relapse is most likely to be prevented, and where the miracle of service is most easily practiced and received. Please, go to meetings; sometimes you need them, and sometimes, the meeting needs you!

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About the Author

Matthew Koenig is a freelance writer and principal of Last Call Marketing which devotes their efforts to Digital Marketing, SEO and Social Engagement. Concentrated in addiction recovery, Mr. Koenig is based out of South Florida. His sober date is June 10, 2013.

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