All Else Failed
Well-Known Member
The need people to help run the meetings....
Alcoholics Anonymous
- Thread starter Peter Parka
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The need people to help run the meetings....
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Peter Parka
Well-Known Member
All they have to organise is a place to meet and someone to make the tea, it dosen't require volunteers.
MjaneGibson
Active Member
Maybe they run them differently in England, but in the States, they require having someone to initiate conversation and keep the topics focused.
Ya, AA/NA/Al-Anon meetings here usually have a group facilitator, so to speak. It doesn't require a lot of help, and usually the regulars facilitate their home meetings but people in the field often help out. If not just to set out the coffee cans at the front door 
Just because my ethics and values dont match yours, that doesnt make me close minded. I fully respect that you love homos and like to sit in circles and talk about your feelings. I dont ever say YOU are GAY, or YOU are a PUSSY, i just say I dont agree with the activity, then describe the activity as GAY or PUSSY. I will call up my homeboys and girls back home and say "I am going on a 12 day FTX(Field Training Exercise) without my phone" and they will reply "Wow thats gay". You understand? Because i sure dont understand. Im too "Close-Minded" LOL, and thanks for your apologies too. Just dont let it happen again.(LOL)
Peter Parka
Well-Known Member
Yeah, the AA members do that themself here. Why arn't they capable of that in the US?
All Else Failed
Well-Known Member
Yes. Yes it does.
otherwise the counseling place they meet at every week wouldn't ask for volunteers....
??????
MjaneGibson
Active Member
My problem was never with the fact that you don't necessarily feel that AA is an appropriate way to help these people. My issue is the fact that you use inappropriate words to describe how you feel. Using simple phrases like, "sitting in circles is gay," not only is rude and ignorant, but makes you appear that way. I find it hard to believe that someone with your experience in life has so few words to describe what you mean.
I am well aware that just by calling something "gay," doesn't necessarily mean you think something is homosexual. I am also willing to look past this if I know that the person isn't a homophobe. You have stated in other posts that you have an issue with people who are gay...so by using this word, you are not only offending gay people, but you are also showing that you put people who go to AA meetings on the same level that you put gay people. Neither of these is okay, and if you feel a certain way...use your big boy words to express yourself. We are adults, we don't need to resort to infantile statements that really offer no basis to why you actually feel that way.
And, for the record, people who have an issue with gay people tend to be close minded. If you aren't, prove it by not sounding like you have the vocabulary of a middle schooler. just saying.
Again, I am sorry I resorted to "name calling," as you would say. I never should have allowed someone like you to annoy me so much.
Peter Parka
Well-Known Member
Must be an American thing, they don't need volunteers over here.
1) They were apologizing to everyone else, not you.
2) You're calling people that choose to talk about their problems and issues pussies... well, that is if they're guys.
But, there's no reasoning with someone that appears to be nothing more than a mindless ideologue.
I'm thinking that a 22 year old PFC that hasn't had a job or life outside of the Army doesn't really have much in the way of life experiences. Well, not in the way I think you're meaning.
MjaneGibson
Active Member
You're probably right. I guess I just like to think that most people have more of a grasp on life than he does. I assume that someone who has seen tragedy like what he has seen, or may see, have a better understanding of what's important. Unfortunately, that's not always the case.
I am disappointed this isn't really an alcoholics support thread yet.
Well, this is strictly about the teachings of AA. You can definitely start a thread in another area of the site about that though...that's if there isn't one that has already been created (I'd find it hard to believe if there wasn't!)
Sorry for the wait guys, i am going out for the expert field medical badge. Been very busy prepping.
Its alright, just dont let it happen again. Apology accepted.
I know. Hence the LOL at the end. Regardless, someone said sorry to me for something. Remember, i didnt say talking about your feelings make you a pussy, its the talking about your issues while sitting in a circle
Yeah, i mean getting shot at and killing the enemy, and dragging people from the hole of death isnt life experience. Sitting in circles talking about feelings is.
Guess its not.
Its alright, just dont let it happen again. Apology accepted.
I know. Hence the LOL at the end. Regardless, someone said sorry to me for something. Remember, i didnt say talking about your feelings make you a pussy, its the talking about your issues while sitting in a circle
Yeah, i mean getting shot at and killing the enemy, and dragging people from the hole of death isnt life experience. Sitting in circles talking about feelings is.
Guess its not.
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MjaneGibson
Active Member
So, you don't feel that talking about your feelings is pussy, but sitting in a circle and doing it is? Can you explain what the difference is? I'm seriously NOT trying to be an asshole, I am genuinely curious. Also, going on about what you wrote about "killing the enemy" and what not...what if one of your army buddies, as a result of all of the death and sadness he has seen, resorted to drinking (I have several friends who are in the armed forces who have resorted to this at some point). What if they realized they had a problem, and decided to go to AA. What if AA helped them? Would you consider them pussy for going about helping himself in that way?
Additionally, while my "name calling" may have offended you, which I highly doubt, I can sit here and say "don't let it happen again" to almost everything that you have said, so do not talk to me as if you did nothing wrong, and that I am the only one to blame.
Yes, alot of us in the Army are alcoholics. Shit i get belligerently drunk every weekend, and when i got another medic to watch the guys when we go out i even drink til i puke. We work hard, and party even harder. I know tons of people who drink to manage their PTSD. I dont think its a good coping mechanism, but i damn well dont have the nerve to tell any of my soldiers not to drink. If he is beating his spouse or drinking and driving, thats another issue all together.
So you dont understand why i think talking about your feelings is gay, but one on one isnt. No matter how macho you are, when things bother you, you will confide in your friends, pastor, priest, sibling, parent etc... When you are sitting in a circle having a pitty party for yourself about how 'hopeless' you are, you have now officially entered the realm of being an attention whore. Some of my guys are in ASAP (Army Substance Abuse Program) and they do the same sit in a circle and throw yourself a pitty party bullshit. Some of my guys are forced to be in ASAP, just as people are court-ordered to AA/NA. They are forced to be there. I am not calling those people gay. Its the ones who want to be there and throw themselvs a pitty party in front of a bunch of people.
I really dont mind your name calling, its just a signal to me your getting desperate in your argument so your resorting to name calling. You said sorry, i said dont let it happen again. I was saying it in a sarcastic way. I was hoping you would realize that i didnt care. I wasnt offended that you resorted to name calling, i just pointed it out.
MjaneGibson
Active Member
I'm really happy you wrote this, because it is the first time you explained yourself in a way that I can actually follow. I can now say that I can at least understand the point you are coming from. I get now that you feel that expressing yourself to your family/friends/coworkers, whatever, is in your opinion, a better way of coping with a drug problem. What I don't necessarily agree with you on is where you say the whole, "pitty party" piece. While I am sure that there are some people who voluntarily go to AA and do it for pity, there are certainly so me who go because they have simply tried everything else. Again, while I may not agree with you, at least you actually have some sort of solid, written out reasoning, so thank you.
As for the name calling, you're right. It had started out simply by me trying to make a point that by me saying, "I don't like you, so you're gay," was obviously ridiculous, and therefore, you're choice of words was too ridiculous. It simply went farther than that because you failed to acknowledge my point.
Anyhoo, thanks for clarifying.
Combat experience isn't life experience. That's not to detract from what you've been through in the army, but at the same time it isn't the same thing as actually dealing with life.
Out of curiosity... is your issue the circle? Would it be acceptable if it was a square or a heptagram? Or is it the feelings? Would it be okay if they just all talked about what's going on in their respective lives without speaking of their feelings?
Joe the meek
Active Member
No offense, but your talking out of your ass.
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