Drinking problem? AA can help.

[StandardIssue]

If anyone visiting this forum has a drinking problem and thinks they might be alcoholic AA is available to help. The first thing to do would be to attend an AA meeting.

 

AA meetings can be found online and you don't even have to leave your living room to attend one. Online meetings are happening around the clock 24/7 most using the Zoom app available for smart phone, Windows and Mac. go to https://aa-intergroup.org/

 

If you are already in Thailand you can also visit in person AA meetings. Two websites to visit:  https://aathailand.info and https://aathailand.org.

 

Also https://aa.org is the official website of AA. Visit it to read the AA basic texts.

 

The AA 12 step program for recovery from alcoholism is outlined and described in the Book "Alcoholics Anonymous" and it's companion text "The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions". These books were painstakingly written to be as accurate as possible in communicating the simple and practical AA 12 step program of action.

 

They were written to save the lives of alcoholics willing enough to do the 12 step program described in them. Alcoholism is a serious illness and most alcoholics left untreated die early deaths. The original authors understood this and wrote a historic text which is the first 164 pages of the AA book. They wrote it as thoroughly and as accurately as possible to describe the program they had found which gave them recovery from alcoholism. This portion of the AA book has not been changed since it's first publication in 1939. It is a piece of history and is considered as such.

 

Therefore, it is recommended in most good AA meetings that anyone looking for a solution to their alcoholism thoroughly study this literature. Anyone with alcoholism who studies the program contained in the AA book can recover from alcoholism using the simple program contained inside.

[StandardIssue]

I should also add that there are no requirements to attend an AA meeting. All that is suggested is a desire to stop drinking. Anyone who believes they might have a drinking problem and may have a desire to stop drinking are welcome in meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous. In open meetings of AA people anyone is invited to attend such as medical professionals curious to learn about the fellowship and the 12 step program. Also friends and family of people with drinking problems who want to learn more about AA are welcome in open meetings of AA.

thank you, SI

[StandardIssue]

Other helpful links which give some explanation of the AA program of recovery:

 

Simple explanation of how the 12 step program of AA works.

 

[billd766]

I am not sure if I was an alcoholic or if I simply drank too much.

 

I am now 80 and about 5 years ago I realised that I was drinking 3 or 4 bottles of Hong Thong a week along with soda and ice so I quit drinking alcohol by simply stopping on my own. I could quite easily drink a whole 75 cl of Hong Thong in a single night.

 

I had no idea that AA was available online or even if I would have gone to them or not.

 

Now I restrict myself to 1 shot of Stroh 80 proof rum with coke and ice every New Years Eve, and I generally throw half of that away.

[StandardIssue]

3 minutes ago, billd766 said:

I am not sure if I was an alcoholic or if I simply drank too much.

 

I am now 80 and about 5 years ago I realised that I was drinking 3 or 4 bottles of Hong Thong a week along with soda and ice so I quit drinking alcohol by simply stopping on my own. I could quite easily drink a whole 75 cl of Hong Thong in a single night.

 

I had no idea that AA was available online or even if I would have gone to them or not.

 

Now I restrict myself to 1 shot of Stroh 80 proof rum with coke and ice every New Years Eve, and I generally throw half of that away.

 

That's great, by AA's definition you are not an alcoholic. You stopped and moderate on your own will power and discipline. Very good you were able to take care of the matter on your own. I could not, so I sought help in AA and did the 12 step program.

[billd766]

5 minutes ago, StandardIssue said:

 

That's great, by AA's definition you are not an alcoholic. You stopped and moderate on your own will power and discipline. Very good you were able to take care of the matter on your own. I could not, so I sought help in AA and did the 12 step program.

Thank you.

 

I started off drinking beer when I was about 15 or 16 so I had about 60 years of practice before I gave up completely. I ran through beer, wine, fruit wines sherry, most of the spirits, even industrial alcohol cut 4 or 5 to 1 in Kuwait. Screech was the first cut or perhaps uncut version of Pernod. I even drank some coffee in Norway until somebody set fire to it (it was made with homemade hooch).

 

Luckily I only have 1 life so I know I won't have to do it again.

 

When I was 19 I used to do a pub crawl on all 13 pubs in the village drinking a pint in every one, and I am in 2 minds as to which was the worst beer.

 

Brickwoods (the sunshine ale), or Cisk which came from Malta in tins, that I drank in cold tins in Libya. Murree beer in Pakistan wasn't much better. (Have a Murree with your curry).

[StandardIssue]

Anyone looking for help with a drinking problem can just "check out" AA by attending an online meeting. This is completely anonymous. Most online meetings use the "Zoom" app and there are no fees, no requirements whatsoever to attend and just listen in. Showing your video is not required. One can just attend and listen in.

 

Meetings are going on around the clock. Visit https://aa-intergroup.org/meetings/

 

 

[Don Chance]

AA is a cult. It is magical thinking. It is like a drug or placebo. It will work for a while then fail.  Unless you get some psychological help or improve yourself.