• Alcoholics Anonymous - Bangalore

Do You Think You’re Different?

Speaks to newcomers who may wonder how A.A. can work for someone “different”— we tell how the A.A. program has worked for us.
“A.A. won’t work for me. I’m too far gone.” “It’s nice for those people, but I’m president of the P.T.A.” I’m too old. Too young. Not religious enough. I’m gay. Or Jewish. A professional person. A member of the clergy. Too smart. Or too uneducated.
At this moment, people all over the world are thinking that A.A. probably won’t work in their case for one or several of these reasons. Perhaps you are one of these people. We in A.A. believe alcoholism is a disease that is no respecter of age, gender, creed, race, wealth, occupation, or education. It strikes at random. Our experience seems to show that anyone can be an alcoholic. And, beyond question, anyone who wants to stop drinking is welcome in A.A.
In some large cities, you’ll find some special A.A. meetings — for police officers, members of the clergy, young people, doctors, LGBTQ members, Different Language-speaking people, A.A. beginners, or women only. Going to some of these when we are new in A.A. may ease the recovery path at first, but the happiest, healthiest recoveries seem to come to people who go to all kinds of A.A. meetings, not only the special ones. We have found it unwise to limit our A.A. circle to folks exactly like ourselves. Segregation gives our “uniqueness” an unhealthy emphasis. We find it more enjoyable, and more healing, to get into the mainstream of A.A. life and mingle with everybody else, not just “different” people. Here we are. We are all different. We are all pretty special people. But we are also all alcoholics and all sober in A.A. together. In this, we are more like each other than different. Here in A.A., we find the shared humanity that enables us to live out our widely differing lives and pursue our separate and individual destinies.

“You are welcome to join us. You are no longer alone.”

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