This podcast, What Is The First Step In Al-Anon, is one in a series of podcasts – First Steps to Al-Anon Recovery Podcast Series especially recorded to introduce you to Al-Anon meetings. They were created by Al-Anon Family Groups. The podcast is below the transcript of it.
Transcript
Speaker: Liz
Hi, my name is Liz. And the first step in Al-Anon is: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol and that our lives had become unmanageable. For me, I didn’t even know that I was powerless over alcohol. I didn’t even know that was the problem when I came into the program. My husband had recently gone into recovery, and, I knew our life was unmanageable, and it had been for several years.
But growing up in an alcoholic home, I just thought that that was normality. When I first started coming to the program, it was uncomfortable because I listened to people and they shared very deep, and private things, and it was hard for me to want to share those things too. But slowly you start getting very comfortable in these situations and you realize you’re definitely in the right spot.
And the more I listen, the more I could relate to every single person and the more I didn’t feel so alone and so distant from people. And so slowly as I kept coming back, I started feeling better and things started getting better in my life. I started not reacting as much to things. And, my life became better.
I just learned so many different things of what I was doing wrong or how I was participating in the insanity in our house and how to stop participating, and how to change my attitudes and how much that would just change the whole dynamics of our life. And it’s just been such a wonderful experience for me. And I just really enjoy coming to meetings and having the fellowship and being able to talk to people who understand and not have to be ashamed or afraid.
It’s much different than talking to coworkers or neighbors who don’t understand or don’t have those same issues. This is a place where you feel safe because you know everyone’s been through the same things and everyone’s felt the same way that you have once in your life. So I’m just so grateful for this program. Thank you.
Speaker: Narrator
Thanks, Liz.
Speaker: Joe
Hi. My name is Joe. And the first step in Al-Anon is: We admitted we were powerless over alcoholand and that our lives had become unmanageable. And, I came into Al-Anon as a result of learning, as being a child of an alcoholic, I had learned a lot of behaviors as a result of my family’s alcoholism, and it caused me to react in a way that that I saw that was not like other people that I knew who weren’t affected.
And what I really saw was that my wife was going in, and I was listening to a lot of what she was reading in her literature. I knew parts of Al-Anon that I had learned from other people, but for me, recovery is the number one thing in my life, that I realize the damage that alcoholism causes in lives.
And I would like to be free of a lot of the, the insecurities and the pressures of trying to control the way I saw other people and the way I allowed alcoholism to affect me. And people dealing with alcoholism, is a disease, and it affects people in a certain way that I was affected.
And I realized if my focus is on other people then I’m not really focusing on my own recovery. And it can be damaging in my life. And I and I can’t afford to walk that road anymore, because I really have gotten to a point in my life where I needed a solution. And I know that Al-Anon has helped a lot of people as well as my wife.
And following in there, it’s, it’s a family disease. And I realize that and, and recovery sometimes you have to take the initiative and discover what’s inside of me that can be changed, or what can I do and what can I fix. You know. It’s a lonely place to be when no one really understands your, your what’s going on inside you and you need somebody to relate with and really Al-Anon has just showed me a place where I can, that I feel at home, that I can relate to other people and that I’m not alone with these ideas and these things that I’ve learned, and I’ve learned certain ways of dealing with life that, you know, that other people that have dealt with the same way.
But bottom line is, is because of the twelve steps, they have recognized these defects, and they’re trying to work on them with the help of Al-Anon twelve steps and the higher power in their life. Getting to know a higher power it’s just it’s an ever growing process for me. And the twelve steps of Al-Anon just helps me understand that higher power much, much more.
And, and honestly, to do it any more alone, it’s just, it’s just too lonely out there. And I’ve gotten to a place in my life where I just didn’t know how to relate to people anymore. Al-Anon has shown me – is showing me a way – I’m new in Al-Anon, but it’s showing me a way to reconnect with myself and not to avoid that part of my life that was affected, and to recognize that it, it can – there is a solution for it you know. The twelve steps have a solution for what I deal with on a regular basis. And, you know, it just it fills my heart. It really truly does. It fills my heart to know that I’m not alone anymore. And that’s really all I have to say. Thank you.
Speaker: Narrator
Thanks, Joe.
Speaker: Anne
My name is Anne. And the first step: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol, that our lives had become unmanageable. When I came to Al-Anon my husband was in recovery. And in order to support him, I came to Al-Anon meetings while he went to his AA meetings. And I thought that it you know, what did – I didn’t need to be there. That was my first thing. I didn’t need to be there because he was in recovery and everything was going to be just fine.
Well, that was several years ago. I go to Al-Anon meetings regularly, because I’ve learned that it was okay to focus on me, that I needed to take care of myself, that I needed to let go of the alcoholic, that he had his path to go down, and I have my own because we each have our own higher power who has a plan for us. And we may not know what it is but in coming to Al-Anon, I have learned that it’s time to take care of me. I came into the rooms and found people who understood me, who understood what I had been through. It wasn’t like my best friends who said, why do you allow him to drink. It was certainly nothing I allowed. It was just something that happened, and I had no control over it.
And our lives were certainly unmanageable because, I didn’t know how to take care of myself. I thought I had to fix everything and, you know, cover up and, you know, just go on as if life was just normal.
And I had all these other issues going on. I’ve learned to take care of myself, to pay attention to what I need to do. And being in Al-Anon has been such an experience for me to be able to focus on myself and learn to take care of myself better. So I’m really happy with what Al-Anon has done for me. So thanks.
Speaker: Narrator
Thank you, everyone, for joining us in this Al-Anon Family Group meeting. Every day all over the world similar meetings take place in the anonymous and confidential safety of Al-Anon. There are no dues for membership in Al-Anon Family Groups. Al-Anon is self-supporting through the voluntary contributions of its members and the sale of Al-Anon literature. We invite you to join us soon in a face-to-face Al-Anon meeting by scrolling to the bottom of the page at www.al-anon.org and clicking on how to locate a meeting.
Or you may call toll free during business hours eastern time 1-888-425-2666 to find an Al-Anon meeting near where you live or work. Thank you for listening to part six of First Steps to Al-Anon recovery from Al-Anon Family Groups.
If you missed any of parts one through five, please go to Al-Anon Family groups.org and click on podcast. You are welcome to listen to these podcasts as many times as you like, and you are invited to join us at a meeting of Al-Anon Family Groups in your own community.