StandardIssue

It'd been great if all I had to do to recover from alcoholism is go to meetings, roundups and conventions but those are just AA social events. Hell of a lot easier than doing all the steps. In actuality I found in order to recover from alcoholism the most important thing to do was initially steps 1-9 with a sponsor who had studied the AA Big Book and Twelve and Twelve and then do steps 10 and 11 as is directed in the literature daily. I must also sponsor other alcoholics looking for recovery as often has time allows (step 12). Meetings and fellowship never gave me the recovery I have had the last 31 years. I think it's important for anyone new to AA to understand meetings and fellowship do not give recovery from alcoholism. Doing the 12 steps does.

Are you a THC user? someone who uses drugs probably ought not dole out advice on how to quit a drug. Wat Tham Krabok is pretty extreme .. it does not have a great track record though.. It's more like a detox than anything else.. for long term recovery AA seems to be the best game in town .. I'm 31 years clean and sober using the 12 step program and attend meetings a few times a week. It saved my life ... literally.

Respectfully, I'm not sure why you are posting, seems you have made up your mind what you need to do to help yourself. I will offer this. If you are a real alcoholic you've most likely lost the ability to control your drinking yourself. That is how AA describes alcoholism. The inability to leave booze alone for very long no matter how great the reason or urge. An alcoholic is someone who wants to give it up, knows they have to give it up, has every reason to give it up, can give it up for a little while, maybe a week, two weeks, a few months but then goes back to it with the same or worse consequences. If you are a drinker of that class then you are probably alcoholic and trying to stay away from drink will just eventually lead to a drink again. Go to any good AA meeting and most all real alcoholics will attest to this fact. Real alcoholics can't stay away from it very long on their own will power or self discipline. if you manage to stop and stay stop by taking the benzos for a month to "dry out" and then can get off the benzos and stay stopped using your own self discipline then great! .. but if you find you relapse again into drinking you may be a "true" alcoholic or a "real" alcoholic as AA describes the illness. If that be the case then you may very well have the same illness I do. Alcoholism. I found recovery from alcoholism by going to AA meetings, and doing the 12 steps of AA using a sponsor who used the AA text book which gives instructions on how stay sober the AA way. That book is called Alcoholics Anonymous and can be found in PDF or audio version on the official AA website. https://aa.org. If you find you cannot stop drinking once you start or cannot give it up entirely even though you honestly want to you are probably alcoholic and AA has a way to recover. if you find you cannot stop on your own methods then AA is available to help. If you want the help don't hesitate to reach out. AA meetings for expats are available here in Thailand.. some are better than others. I prefer the daily online AA noon meetings found at https://aathailand.info

Why take a chance. If you have a re-entry permit and long term visa better to just see a human Immigration official

Its all electric and all computerized that is the problem? LOL!!! todays conventional combustion engine gas/diesel cars also use computers and have massive electrical systems. Another arm chair expert LOL! .. Electric cars are the way to go period. Combustion engine cars have greatly contributed to climate change by spewing tons of carbon dioxide and pollution into the worlds air daily for decades. The era of the combution engine car is coming to an end. Electric cars are so much simpler from an engineering stand point that it reveals the ignorance of anyone complaining that the EV problem is they are all electrical and computerized. Stay in your lane arm chair experts LOL!! Electric cars are much simpler to engineer and manufacture. If you want to make any argument about the down side it is mainly the manufacture of lithium ion batteries that is the issue BUT battery technology is being improved almost daily.

Never had a problem with online reporting in the past, although I have been out of country in 2022 and most of 2023. I am now on a Non-O 1 year permission to stay issued in Dec 2023. My first 90 day report is due 26th this month (as stated on the 90 day check in card stapled into my passport) I have been doing 90 day check in's for years (I have been doing long stays in country since 2011) Please be careful making assumptions that people are "unfamiliar" with 90 day reporting. I use no agents ever and do all my immigration business myself.

What difference would that make? Why would mail in be approved and online not approved?

Simply put you been doing a long stay in Thailand by doing border. Thai immigration is discouraging long stays in Thailand via border runs and multiple tourist visas. You are using tourist visas and visa exemptions meant for tourist to long stay in Thailand. It is nothing new that they discourage this with the exception that they are clamping down on immigration policy and starting to enforce the ever changing, evolving and stricter immigration rules.

There is no field in the TM47 to put the "updated permission to stay". Take a look at the attached blank TM47. The only date it asks for is "entered Thailand on" .. that would be the arrival date. So how can it be done "when submitting the 90 day report"?? ( I also have had my online 90 day check in rejected) I have a feeling the first check in needs to be done in person after the first 1 year permission to stay on a Non-O imm visa. I've tried twice online and been rejected after tweaking the address etc.. I may just need to go to CW yet another time... Form-TM-47 (1).pdf

I found another AA group that is based out of Thailand. They are solution based and use the literature at most of the meetings. Good AA group. https://aathailand.info

Turn of the computer and stop watching all the propaganda. Especially from the USA. Fox news, CNN and the rest of these politcally biased so called news media outlets are designed to propagate fear. Turn of t the computer, go outside and ask yourself. How is it out here? More than likely no tanks are rolling down your Soi.

Not going to an in person meeting is "isolating"?? Who's says I'm "isolating"?? I've got lot's of people I associate with every day. Friends, people I work with. Again, what are you going on about? Nobody is arguing that 12th step work is not important. As you so correctly pointed out in the above excerpt. Also I do not see that what is happening is a "new way". It's the same program as it's always been .. the 12 steps. By what means they are communicated has changed.. thats all. used to be face to face, phone and regular mail. now in addition it's Zoom, Skype etc etc. I'll tell you this. Doing the program as it's described in the Big Book appears to not get talked about enough in a lot of AA meetings. I've been to some really bad Zoom meetings. Nobody is talking about how to recover from alcoholism by doing the 12 step program .. a lot of other stuff get's talked about, much of which doesn't make sense to me. There is also this guy that posts what he calls "agnostic" AA material.. really confusing. I have been really fortunate to have a very smart and well read AA sponsor. He's the guy that makes sense in meetings where a lot of other people just go on about a lot of stuff that in many cases is not helpful IMHO.

What's the difference? My sponsor showed me in the AA Book that know where does it say you have to go to meetings at all! If somebody wants AA recovery they do have to do all the 12 steps and sponsor people eventually, so at some point they need to go out and find a drunk to help in order to do the 12th step. I will go online to a Zoom meeting and offer my help. My sponsor said in the early days of AA when there were only 3 groups on the entire face of the earth many early AA used to sponsor other alcoholics through the mail. You can't tell me that an alcoholic cannot stay sober and get recovered if they don't go to in person meetings. One is no better than the other. That is only your opinion and opinions do not give recovery ... God does.

The BS about "woke" attitudes etc .. everything that is changing in the world will continue to change. Accept it or be miserable. It's up to you. I payed for a Thaifriendly subscription. It has become pretty much useless.. Hookers, scammers, large women who don't show body pics .. then if I do find someone who looks OK, they wind up being next to unable to speak English and even though I speak some Thai there's very little chance of really any meaninfgul communication... IMHO I will not be having a Thai partner unless they are exceptional at English and are more than a coffee shop girl. Probably going to check out Cambodia or other countries where at least the women speak more English ..

Thinking from below the belt again huh? Do yourself a favor and actually go out and do some humanitarian work - help some less fortunate people. It has been and is one of the most fulfilling things I've done with my life. To bring a smile to an orphaned child's face, to bring hope to a hopeless person. To give of oneself to the underprivileged. These things have brought me peace and happiness - things that no amount of money can buy. If you wish to help, and I sincerely wish you do. Get away from the computer and unhinge from the so called conservative media banter. it's all BS created for the rich to get richer. You want to know true happiness. it can be found in selflessness. Peace out...

Insightful and relevant post. Thank you. A refreshing rational contribution. I have been focusing on prevention. I agree that, of course the crimes need to be rooted out when and wherever possible, perpetrators identified, prosecuted and seperated from society or reformed if at all possible. And as you suggest prevention needs to be implemented in just the way you describe. This takes quite a lot of work and effort but I'd like to think one day humanity may be able to greatly reduce crime. It seems to me Japan has been doing a fairly good job at controlling crime in their society. I do believe most forward thinking societies are moving in this direction. I was quite appalled at some of the backward thinking suggestions on this terrible issue of human trafficking minors for sex.

Today my account has been banned from the app for 'hate speech' - I presume because of the 'No Trans' statement, they don't say. ? Your entire post is based on this assumption? (you presume?} Me thinks you may have wrote something else in a reply or message that got you banned

Of course pedophiles are born that way? You really believe this? Your hyperbole and warped logic are readily apparent. You equate homosexuality and heterosexuality with pedophilia? What kind of monkey logic is that? You and others that believe people are born evil are a troubled lot. I pity you and your dim view of humanity. Show me any extensive scientific studies that support your sophomoric conclusions. Your crude ideas of criminal reform and social policy have been proven over and over to be ineffective and you want to double down on these mid-evil practices. Reminds me of Americans "War on Drugs" ... a completely failed attempt at solving a huge social problem. Nobody every tried to look at it the other way solving the root cause - why there is a market in the first place. You know why? Too many folks like you (so called conservatives with "traditional" values) like "war". They love conflict and fighting. Killing, fighting and beating is the solution. You'd probably be in the front row at the gladiator games of ancient Rome cheering the death sports. Let's "fight" the bad guys. We need to "execute" the wrong doers. Such a sad state of mind.

Listen, it's obvious you are not a doctor of sociology, humanities or a Doctor of anything for that matter and what you say is hyperbolic (look up the word if you don't know what it means). No, people like Epstein or Prince Andrew or anybody who is a pedophile is a very sick person. We can all see that yea? They were NOT BORN THAT WAY! Something probably many things happened along the way to make them sick. Abuse likely being the primary cause. You need to do more research my friend. And you will need a good comprehension of the English language to do it. There are may studies done which identify that a HIGH PERCENTAGE of pedophiles were preyed upon and abused themselves! Get it? Are you following along here?? So if society was more diligent about making sure children are spared from abuse, have good education, have parents who are well educated and take care of them properly etc etc.. the likely hood of them growing up to be well adjusted members of society is a lot higher. There is a reason why so many African American men wind up in US prisons. Broken homes, abuse, drug addicted parents, poverty stricken neighborhoods rife with gangs and crime. This kind of environment DOES NOT PRODUCE WELL ADJUST MEMBERS OF SOCIETY. GET IT?? Is that too difficult to understand? So a way to make society better is to get out there and HELP MAKE IT BETTER YOURSELF. Volunteer at an orphanage. Give you time to be a mentor to a fatherless child etc. etc. Feed the homeless, donate to well established charities doing this kind of work etc.

Where do you get this stuff? What are you suggesting? All hail the all knowing King Bday Prang!! We are all waiting with anticipation for your book on how to improve the world

You seem to be helping the movement backwards quite a bit with these neanderthal notions of justice and criminal reform. What real contributions have you made to society? Seems to me all you do is pour out this verbal sophomoric nonsense at your desk. Do yourself a favor. Get up out of your chair, turn off the computer, go out and volunteer to help some less fortunate people in the world. There are loads of them here in Thailand. Actually make a contribution to society. I'd be very surprised if you have ever done any humanitarian work. You want to help solve some problems? Make an effort. These kids may have not have ever been abducted in the first place if more people actually gave their idle time and helped these underprivileged people who were preyed upon in the first place. The people who preyed upon them may have never done so had they had help in the form of better education, a good home, proper nutrition and the like. You are clueless.

I am assuming you did not really pay attention in your studies of sociology, humanities or psychology. if you even went to university. What you suggest is such a step backwards in social policy and society building you might as well be living in the dark ages. You do realize what you are suggesting is more or less considered vigilantism. If there was a way for me to not see any of your posts I'd be a lot happier. In fact I will not be reading anything you write again. Just complete nonsense.

Oh man, you really put me in my place 🤣🤣🤣🤣. You blew my mind man. Wow, you made me have such a revelation. I'm going to the Wat today, shave my head and rethink my entire existence.

Don't get your panties in a wad .. I'm just joking around. Having a sense of humor makes life a lot easier and brighter, especially those of us who are towards the end of it.

This weekly (or probably daily) event should just be a running headline. Foreigners in Pattaya have been and will be screwing on the beach tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. In other news long term stay foreigners, surprisingly enough never take the time to learn Thai, familiarize themselves with local culture, try Thai food more than a few times and retire in Thailand expecting to find the love of their life but wind up losing their shirts!!