PatBatemanBlog Posted August 16, 2016 Report Share Posted August 16, 2016 (edited) Has anyone visited addiction support groups like SLAA or SAA? I've visited both but I don't feel like they help. There's a very heavy religious angle to the meetings, we're made to feel very guilty about our compulsions and cross talk (i.e. giving people advice) is actually discouraged. It feels very much, from the meetings I've been to, that people there don't want to change or overcome their problems. I was wondering if people had experienced similar situations. Edited August 16, 2016 by PatBatemanBlog Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJ Posted October 28, 2016 Report Share Posted October 28, 2016 Hi Pat - I go to an SAA meeting on a regular basis. All 12 step meetings have a 'divine' basis. Mine starts and begins with the serenity prayer. And like the ones you have been to, we aren't allowed to offer advice during the session although it is fine outside the session. The guys who are particularly hot about this feel it is less safe when this value isn't respected and over time I have come to appreciate their strictness on this. I would encourage you to keep going for some weeks, perhaps even months and see how it feels when you have got used to it. It took me some while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatBatemanBlog Posted October 30, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2016 Hi PJ, thanks for responding. I kept going for a couple of months but I felt patronised by the insistance of having a religious angle and how addictions were described as a 'disease'. I stopped because I was looking for genuine help and noone seemed particularly bothered about giving that. I'd love to set up my own group but I've no idea how I'd go about that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
workinprogress Posted January 18, 2017 Report Share Posted January 18, 2017 I guess they work for some and not for others. Like Marmite!Sex-Aholics Anonymous didn't work for me, but appears to work for others (like PJ). Couldn't get my head around being absolved of accountability for my own actions... and my own recovery. Everything bad or good that happened was the work of my Higher Power. That said, after 4 years of "sobriety", I've suffered a slip, so I won't sit in my glass house and start throwing any stones . I might have a crack at one of the others that I'd understood were a little less religious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJ Posted February 18, 2017 Report Share Posted February 18, 2017 Hi workinprogress - in my group we don't absolve ourselves by blaming a Higher Power. Groups vary enormously, it could have been a quirk of your particular group? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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