AA/NA Discussion Mega Thread (merged)

[UnSquare]

If I got to NA and say I'm using will they ask me to leave?

And if someone can tell I'm high will they ask me to leave?

If you say you usin' but are not high at the time, no.

If you are high at a meetin',
from what I've witnessed,
yes,
they'll tell you to come back when you're 'sober'.

PEACE MRS. MIA
UnS

 

[mrs_mia_wallace]

The answer most NA people would give is that the only requirement for membership is a desire to get clean. I think the majority of meetings you would only be asked to leave if you were a serious disruption. Meetings vary a great deal so I don't want to over generalize, my best guess is that you wouldn't ordinarily be asked to leave. But I've been to fewer than twenty NA meetings, haven't been to one in years and all the ones I went to were in a single region.

I don't think I would be a disruption, but while most people can't tell when I'm high period anything with a meth addiciton would be able to....

I don't know any other places to go right now but I really don't want to go there and get thrown out. BUt can't go clean so I don't know.

 

[Jabberwocky]

I don't know any other places to go right now but I really don't want to go there and get thrown out. BUt can't go clean so I don't know.

Most metro area NA organizations have hotline type numbers. The members who take calls would be much better able to advise you.

UnSquare's experience is that they may ask you come back when you are not under the influence. The San Francisco area helpline is (415) 621-8600. Their web site is http://www.sfna.org/ Do reach out Mia. NA isn't the answer for everybody but I feel certain there is an answer out there for you. Having sincere desire to make changes and have things improve is half the battle and the most important part.

 

[xxkcxx]

re mia:

I have been to meetings where people have said they were so lost and just shot up outside in the parking lot and came in.

Some groups are more sticklerish about rules and might ask you to leave. Other groups will let you share. Still others I've had announce before meetings that if you are less than 24 hours clean that you listen for the night instead of speak.

 

[leila762]

in my area , no-one will be asked to leave unless they are disrupting meeting.thats their interpretation of the 12x12, i guess.
where i live AA is pretty well organised , with plenty of meetings,members & many members with multiple decades in recovery.
NA isnt that strong here , i am sorry to say. ime in this area, they are a bit 'sect' like & appear more interested in going to starbucks for after-meeting gossip than helping new members.
My thoughts towards them are pretty subjective, as u can guess, probably cos i dont go to meetings anymore...................

 

[Frank Lucas]

If you're high at a meeting, the rules are stated as such:

"If you've used a mind or mood altering substance in the last 24 hours, we ask that you not share - we want to hear from you, not the drugs. Please get with someone after the meeting and get some phone numbers."

 

[eon_blue]

If you're high at a meeting, the rules are stated as such:

"If you've used a mind or mood altering substance in the last 24 hours, we ask that you not share - we want to hear from you, not the drugs. Please get with someone after the meeting and get some phone numbers."

^^yes.

If you're high at a meeting and someone asks you to leave, they're just being an asshole. Make sure you tell them what Frank just posted above, if you even have to.

If I were at a meeting and someone who was there was high but obviously wanted to get clean, and someone else told them to leave, I'd get right in their fucking self-righteous face and tell them off.

Then I'd have another resentment to get over

 

[emperorofusa]

If I got to NA and say I'm using will they ask me to leave?

And if someone can tell I'm high will they ask me to leave?

The meetings where I live for NA will tell you that if you have anything on you please take it outside, leave it, and come back in. If you are high, they ask that you please just sit back and listen and then get with some people when the meeting is over because they just don't want to hear from the drugs, they want to hear from YOU, and then they say to keep coming back. Anyone who raises their hand for being new to that meeting or to NA as a whole, or has just 24 hours or less, from what I have seen, always has a group of people right after the meeting hugging them and asking how they are and giving them their phone numbers.

I don't go to NA anymore. I went two or three times a week once I got out of the mental hospital this past summer and I attended until I got to 100-something days. I don't even really keep track anymore. There seemed to be some really great people at some of the meetings, but a lot of the people did not seem to be getting any better. The guys prayed on the new women, there was a lot of drama and it was impossible to really feel a part of the whole thing; everyone already had their own little high school type cliques that I couldn't get into or even be welcomed into.

At first, I was all gun-hoe about the entire thing because I had just hit my bottom and got out of a mental hospital, my girlfriend of 4 years had left me when she found out that I was mentally ill, my family couldn't deal with me. NA and the people I saw every day in my aftercare program were all that I had. As my situation improved I found that I didn't really like a lot of the people that I had been looking up to in NA or even in my program, especially when I began to do a lot more with myself than they seemed like they wanted to do.

I think NA is going to be a really unique experience for everyone, because every meeting is going to be somewhat different from the next in the way that it is run and because of the people who go to those meetings.

I would definitely tell someone to give it a chance, but for a lot of people it is difficult to get past the "God" part and all of the references to what seems at face value to be forced-on-you-religion. It's hard to tell the new people to ignore that, but when they see how integral it all is to everything that makes NA, well, NA, they often become disillusioned.

 

[Depone]

I go to NA still...3 meetings a week or something like that.

Its helped me get my 18months up for sure....but its no big deal, i can do this and NA/AA just helps me go in the right direction nowadays.

Just stay outta the bullshit, take what you like and leave the rest ( within reason! )

Fellowship here is pretty mellow, sure there is some crap going on most of the time but its my choice if i want to enter into that.....i stay away from the people who live in the fear all the time as well.

Its where sick people go to get better, i need to remember that.

I think if you listen for the sollution and not the problem all the time its a great tool for recovery...meetings are just a part of it for me...doing the steps has helped heaps, all the little catch phrases and one liners are like the hand rail to the steps...then there is the good mates i have made as well...it all helps.

 

[woodandink]

Narcotics Anonymous questions

I've done a search and found some threads about NA, but they were mainly asking if NA was a good idea or not. My questions are a bit different...

1. What's the difference between a closed and open meeting? I've done some research but I'm still confused, apparently closed meetings are for people with a drug problem...how is that different from an open meeting?

2. Is participation 100% voluntary? I know there's meetings where you'll go around in a circle talking about your problem or something, but I'd rather listen for the first few meetings.

3. Is there anything else needed before arriving to your first meeting, besides acknowledging you might have a problem?

 

[cosmic charlie]

1. A closed meeting means you have to be a drug addict to be there , in an open meeting you don't have to be an addict you could go there as a friend or family member without having to use drugs.

2. No you don't have to participate you can just sit and listen.

3. No you don't need to bring anything but yourself and your desire for change.

LVe & Lite

 

[woodandink]

1. A closed meeting means you have to be a drug addict to be there , in an open meeting you don't have to be an addict you could go there as a friend or family member without having to use drugs

And do you need special permission to access a closed meeting or something? I don't know, it's just that I use drugs and am more interested in being around others like me, not like parents of drug addicts or anything.

 

[cosmic charlie]

When you go into a closed meeting at the start of it everyone will announce there name and say that there a drug addict / alcoholic and that's all you have to do. Just say your name and that your an addict , if you were to just say your name and not say you were an addict too they may ask you to leave.

 

[TheLoveBandit]

Thanks for the input CC Moving this along


ANON to OD to TDS

 

[Jabberwocky]

no worries TLB, ill let this sit in here for a while before we move it along to TDS

oh wait, it already is in TDS ha, my bad

 

[woodandink]

When you go into a closed meeting at the start of it everyone will announce there name and say that there a drug addict / alcoholic and that's all you have to do. Just say your name and that your an addict , if you were to just say your name and not say you were an addict too they may ask you to leave.

Thanks for all of your help so far...I have one more question.

I found two meetings near me, but both have different formats. One is listed as being "Beginner/Newcomer, Step" and the other "Speaker, Topic, Non-Smoking, Just For Today Study." I assume the Beginner/Newcomer one would be my best bet? Any insight here is appreciated, thanks again.

 

[Lost and Confused]

Learn:

"my name is woodandink and I'm an addict. I'm just going to listen today."

Meetings are 100% voluntary. You may come and go as you please.

You don't need anything to go to a closed meeting.

 

[Jabberwocky]

A beginner meeting would be a good start so that more experienced folk can help you get to understand how things work at meetings. Expect lots of hugs and phone numbers in many of these situations. Also people will start talking to you about other central parts of 12 step tradition like sponsorship and literature.

I'm merging this with a thread where we have the most NA info.

 

[Mariposa]

I am attending the weekly beginners' (open) meeting with a non-BL and very sober, natural health oriented, friend tonight who is my informal sponsor.

We are having an alcohol free dinner before. I feel very prepared save for the hives I'm covered with (I'm allergic to everything). I have taken prescribed drugs. I will decide at the time if I am competent to speak - presently, I am, and no more meds today.

I plan to remain sober, with or without AA. If they judge me and speak about a Higher Power in the same meeting, I won't go back. I will not go off my prescribed meds. If a Higher Power exists, only that Higher Power gets the right to judge me. The group seems very progressive so far - mostly my age, mostly students. We all have better purposes than to be trapped in pedantics and dogmatic thinking. I'd rather be sober and sane than j**k off over an arbitrary frame of time that lacks an operational definition.

 

[ocean]

Sounds like a very good friend to have right now.......
Hope the hives get better and you enjoy yourself.
Good Luck tonight Mariposa..........