You walk into your first AA meeting and almost immediately discover that everybody seems to know things you don’t.
What’s a home group? Do I need a sponsor? What’s a group conscience? Why is someone passing a basket? Am I supposed to believe in God? And who decided I need to attend 90 meetings in 90 days?
Nobody hands you an owner’s manual at the door.
Fortunately, you don’t need to understand all of AA to come to a meeting. You don’t have to sign anything, believe anything, speak, put money in the basket, or even decide whether you’re an alcoholic.
You can simply sit down and listen.
Over the next several weeks, AA Things Nobody Explained to Me will look at some of the customs, language and practices you may encounter in Alcoholics Anonymous. We’ll also occasionally make an important distinction:
Some things come directly from AA’s Steps, Traditions or literature. Others are customs that have developed over the years.
Both can be useful. But they’re not necessarily the same thing.
AA has been around since 1935. We’ve accumulated some wisdom along the way.
We’ve also accumulated quite a bit of folklore.
We’ll try to help sort it out.
If you’re new, try a few different meetings. Your room is out there.
Our first posts will be about getting your bearings in AA; then we will explore how this peculiar little democracy works (spoiler alert – it shouldn’t).