Why Go To a Meeting?
It Can:
- Validate your emotions and experience
- End your feelings of isolation
- Give you a genuine sense of support, perhaps for the first time in your life
- Give you a real sense of belonging. Here, you are not different
- Change your image of yourself and raise your self-esteem
- Give you a sense of normalcy
- Allow you the freedom to express your true feelings in a non-judgemental atmosphere, without fear of criticism
- Be an opportunity to meet new friends
- Give you a chance to share things which, if told to a (non-member), would not be understood
- Supply an environment where you can find out who you are and give you an opportunity to practice being that person
- Give you an outline for a workable philosophy in life in the 12 Steps
- Give you practice in making a commitment and keeping it
- Provide a source of unconditional love and acceptance
- Teach you to break behavior patterns that don’t work by replacing them with others
- Allow you to experience real honesty of feeling in yourself and in others
- Help you detach from painful situations by showing you new attitudes
- Keep you from slipping back into denial of your problems
- You can practice NOT fixing
- Give you perspective and keep you from self-pity
- Provide an opportunity to be of real service to others
- Change your life
(Adapted from SOCAL ACA Website)