GET HELP
Newcomers
Is A.A. For You?
Only you can decide whether you want to give A.A. a try — whether you think it can help you.
We who are in A.A. came because we finally gave up trying to control our drinking. We still hated to admit that we could never drink safely. Then we heard from other A.A. members that we were sick. (We thought so for years!) We found out that many people suffered from the same feelings of guilt and loneliness and hopelessness that we did. We found out that we had these feelings because we had the disease of alcoholism.
12 Questions We tried to answer Honestly:
We decided to try to face up to what alcohol had done to us.
Here are some of the questions we tried to answer honestly. If we answered YES to four or more questions, we were in deep trouble with our drinking.
See how you do.
Remember, there is no disgrace in facing up to the fact that you have a problem.
- Have you ever decided to stop drinking for a week or so, but only lasted for a couple of days?
- Do you wish people would mind their own business about your drinking — stop telling you what to do?
- Have you ever switched from one kind of drink to another in the hope that this would keep you from getting drunk?
- Have you had to have an eye-opener upon awakening during the past year?
- Do you envy people who can drink without getting into trouble?
- Have you had problems connected with drinking during the past year?
- Has your drinking caused trouble at home?
- Do you ever try to get “extra” drinks at a party because you do not get enough?
- Do you tell yourself you can stop drinking any time you want to, even though you keep getting drunk when you don’t mean to?
- Have you missed days of work or school because of drinking?
- Do you have “blackouts”?
- Have you ever felt that your life would be better if you did not drink?
If you answered YES four or more times to the questions above, you are probably in trouble with alcohol.
Why do we say this?
Because thousands of people in A.A. have said so for many years. They found out the truth about themselves — the hard way. But again, only you can decide whether you think A.A. is for you. Try to keep an open mind on the subject.
If the answer is YES, we will be glad to show you how we stopped drinking ourselves.
- Call our local A.A. Hotline 24/7 to speak to someone: (541) 732-1850
- Come to a local A.A. Meeting – we have online & in person available
Where do I start?
You can print out a meeting schedule from this website for the Southern Oregon area or you can view a listing of meetings on the web.
The Central office maintains a complete “Meeting Schedule” of all these meetings for the Jackson County area. We will publish a new edition whenever there are changes at the discretion of the office manager. However, the current “Meeting Schedule” is available on this website and via an app (“Meeting Guide”). Some groups do carry these schedules as a service to the members; if one is not available at the meeting, ask the literature chairperson of the group to pick up a few.
Once you locate a meeting you would like to attend, just show up. It costs nothing to attend. Most meetings last about an hour and are held on a regular basis at the same time and place every week.
Types of A.A. Meetings
People who go to meetings are people who have a desire to stop drinking. You have nothing to fear about meetings!
Some of our suggestions: Go to the meeting early; generally members of A.A. are there making coffee, setting up the room and the display for the literature, and fellowship. Stay after the meeting to continue to talk and share (also known as the “meeting after the meeting”). If you are new, ask for telephone numbers at every meeting you attend.
There are several types of meetings:
A regular open meeting is generally around-the-table discussion on some topic relating to alcoholism. There will be a chairperson and generally a leader. Someone will read a section from the book, Alcoholics Anonymous (we refer to this text as the “Big Book”) on “How It Works.” The leader will then introduce the topic. Open meetings are available to anyone interested in Alcoholics Anonymous’ program of recovery from alcoholism. Nonalcoholics may attend open meetings as observers.
A regular closed meeting is the same as the open meeting with the exception that only people with a desire to stop drinking, or people who think they may have a problem with drinking, may attend.
A speaker’s meeting is just that: A speaker will be introduced who will tell his or her story for the entire meeting, usually following a format of: What life was like when he or she drank, What happened to make them stop drinking, What sobriety means to their life now.
A Big Book Study is specifically designed to help us to improve our understanding of the book, Alcoholics Anonymous – a good meeting for members new to the program.
A Step Study would concentrate on examining in detail the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, the core of the program. Many of the members of A.A. find these steps to be the solution to the illness of alcoholism.
The “Meeting Schedule” indicates the type of meeting.
- Click here to view our local meeting schedule
- Download the “Meeting Guide” App on your smartphone or Tablet to view our A.A. schedule on the go.
- Print the Meeting Schedule at home
- Come into your Central Office to pick up a printed schedule: 116 E. 6th Street, Medford, Oregon 97501
Understanding Anonymity
From its earliest days, A.A. has promised personal anonymity to all who attend its meetings. Because its founders and first members were recovering alcoholics themselves, they knew from their own experience how ashamed most alcoholics are about their drinking, how fearful they are of public exposure. The social stigma of alcoholism was great, and those early A.A. members recognized that a firm assurance of confidentiality was imperative if they were to succeed in attracting and helping other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.
Over the years, anonymity has proved one of the greatest gifts that A.A. offers the suffering alcoholic. Without it, many would never attend their first meeting. Although the stigma has lessened to some degree, most newcomers still find admission of their alcoholism so painful that it is possible only in a protected environment. Anonymity is essential for this atmosphere of trust and openness.
As valuable as privacy is to new members, it is noteworthy that most of them are eager to share the good news of their A.A. affiliation with their families. Such a disclosure, however, is always their own choice: A.A. as a whole seeks to ensure that individual members stay as private and protected as they wish, or as open as they wish, about belonging to the Fellowship; but always with the understanding that anonymity at the level of the press, radio, TV, films and other media technologies such as the Internet is crucial to our continuing sobriety and growth — at both the personal and group levels.
Go here to learn more about A.A. Membership & The Program of Recovery.
