AA Insights

AA meetings. 

Sometimes I hate them.  Sometimes I like them.

We go to AA once a week.  For right now, we go to the Friday night meeting at the rehab facility.  Once he commences, he can either keep going to meetings there, or go to another meeting somewhere else.  His sponsor goes to a meeting that consists of mostly young adults and would like to take my son to that meeting. He says that he would like my son to see some people near his age who are successfully living sober.  I think that is a good idea.  But, I hope we will be able to still go to the meetings with him, occasionally.

I like to go to the meetings with him.  They give me some insight into what he is thinking that he usually won’t talk about around me.

I like to hear the success stories.

I like to know how the kids that we have become familiar with are doing. 

I do not like to hear about the relapses.

Sometimes the meetings scare me to death because I hear him express feelings that I do not want him to have.  I understand the process.  I understand that sobriety is hard. 

But, I want it to be easy for him.

This night, my son’s comment was:  “I have woken up many times and have wanted to smoke really bad, but I haven’t been able to do it since I have been in this place.  I don’t know what I will do when I have the chance to do it.”

Wow. That makes me want to keep him under my wing, tied to my apron strings, and safe at home with me. 

The man who is in charge of the meetings said this at the end:  “We are all just as sober as each other.  We all woke up today sober and we are all here, still sober.  Hopefully, we will all stay that way tonight.  And when we wake up tomorrow, we will have another sober day.”

They all like to end their comments with, “And with that, I’ll take another 24.”

Take another 24, son.

One more 24.

Today.

And tomorrow.