I was recounting my first meeting with my sister today and told a funny story one of the ladies shared. My sister asked if all that talk made people want to drink more...? Just thought I would throw that out.
sometimes perhaps, but mostly no. hearing others share about the consequences of drinking helps to dislodge our denial and connect to the real cause and affect going on. IE, my problems are either caused or exacerbated by my drinking instead the notion that I drink to alleviate my problems in the short run. Later we discover our character defects and how the manipulate us into drinking.
For me, early in AA, yes, sometimes a meeting did make me want a drink. And once or twice I gave in, left a meeting and went had a few! But, I kept going back to meetings and eventually I started to 'get it'. I prayed for the cravings to be removed, for me to be removed from the bondage of myself. I did what you all told me to do.
The one I thing I knew for sure, above all else, was that I wanted to stay sober more than I wanted to drink and eventually, somehow, I did 'get it', atleast for a few 24 hours now. With God's help, I won't need / want a drink today, either.
Just keep going. And keep listening.
((((hugs))))
Jen
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Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass... It's about learning to dance in the rain.
I was really so sick and tired of being sick and tired, the talk about drinking didn't make me want to drink, especailly if they talked the drink all the way through. But at some point I could go all day without thinking about a drink, until I went to a meeting.
When I talked with my Sponsor about it, she said I needed to be, always, reminded of where a drink can take me, because if I forget how bad it was, I could pick up a drink.
When I talked with my Sponsor about it, she said I needed to be, always, reminded of where a drink can take me, because if I forget how bad it was, I could pick up a drink.
that's why we need to go to meetings daily for a year or two, to reinforce this. So that the thought of a drink is immeditately followed by a voice in our head that says No ****ing way at all, it's not an option.
What I noticed is that sometimes people with long time sobriety reminisce their drinking history. We call that a drunk log when people just share where they were without sharing what they did and how things are different now. When I hear someone laughing at the crazy stuff they used to do now, I recognize it just means they moved through the pain of it being embarrassing and humiliating. I have to remember myself that the dumb things I did when drinking are not funny, it was not glamorous, and while I did sometimes have fun, the end result did get to the point of me crashing my car drunk, almost going to jail, acting out in seedy bar with people I would not ordinarily, having a horrible break up, having dry heaves most mornings, spending 60 bucks or more for drinks when I couldn't afford it, sleeping at my job, sometimes calling out sick and making my coworkers cover me, blacking out, waking up on the floor countless times, talking crap to people and making them mad at me, injuring myself numerous times while stumbling around, breaking things around the house, and threatening to kill myself quite a few times and then not really remembering why I did that the next day. With that said, I do have some really good and funny memories from drinking days, but the disease is insideous and it became NOT FUN, especially at the end. Hence, I have the good memories and I can laugh at them, but the bad ones are pretty damn bad and I am pretty sure it would go right back to bad in no time flat if I drank again. Hearing other people talk about alcohol so much does not make me want to drink. It generally has the opposite effect as long as I remember the things I just shared.
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Keep coming back. It works if you work it. So work it. You're worth it!
What I noticed is that sometimes people with long time sobriety reminisce their drinking history. When I hear someone laughing at the crazy stuff they used to do now, I recognize it just means they moved through the pain of it being embarrassing and humiliating. I have to remember myself that the dumb things I did when drinking are not funny
pinkchip, we laugh because we have accepted our humaness and flawed behavior was a product of our disease. We have forgiven ourselves and others, and laugh at how dumb we acted and how we didn't think ourselves dumb at the time, as we kept sweeping our hidious mistakes and misjudgements under the rug (so to speak) with more drinking. There is some kind of relief when we can share these, at one time painful moments, with a room full of strangers, and can all laugh about it. To me, it's like we have returned from some trip to mars or something, and the travel over caused us to do bizare things, and now somehow we're relatively sane again and have gone through some kind of bonding together over the same kind of experiences. It's a pretty strange spectacle for newcomers to watch, especially because they may have just experienced those same kind of negative consequences and don't think it's very funny just yet. . Hopefully they glean hope out of the experience that we can all laugh at our mistakes. That's a far fetched ideal for a group a very flawed would be perfectionists.
What Dean said and when I laugh it's usually because I've done the same thing.
I thought a woman was going to slap me one time. She was new, I didn't know, but she told a drunk story that I would swear she took right out of my drinking history. I laughed partly because it surprised me and it was another moment when I realized I was not unique.
We are Recovering friends now and we laugh our butts off all the time.
. Hopefully they glean hope out of the experience that we can all laugh at our mistakes. That's a far fetched ideal for a group a very flawed would be perfectionists. 
