All around the globe, AA meetings are the most commonly sought solution for addiction. With a social system that keeps you on your toes all the time, AA meetings help you be truly yourself and attend to your issues. Different groups of people – young and old, men and women, or people with psychiatric disorders – have found solace after incorporating the 12 steps of AA in their life. The entire system works on facilitating the tools that help you say no to alcohol and find associations that aid you in this process.
The duration of your alcoholism, your social background, and the ‘seriousness’ of your problem are crucial factors to determine which type of AA meeting will fit perfectly for you. In a city as grand and busy as New York, you will find these facilities at every corner of the street. It is all about choosing the right one.
- Open AA meetings can be attended by anyone who is suffering from alcoholism. They do not have any criterion for the maximum number of attendees, so you can feel free to go over there, lend an ear, and talk about your relationship with alcohol.
- Closed AA meetings, on the other hand, encompass a limited group of people who can attend these. They are not open to the general public, which means that a registration procedure is often adopted for closed New York AA meetings. You can go through the AA meeting directory and choose whether you would like to attend an open or a closed one.
- Twelve-Step Meetings are reputed for being the most successful guiding principles to counter addiction. They encourage you to acknowledge your problems and the fact that you have wronged other people. Hence, you depend on other people – usually a Higher Power – to restore your past self. This method is widely accepted as an essential process to ensure long-term recovery. You will usually find the 12 traditions of AA being incorporated into open or closed meetings.
- Demographic-specific meetings, as clear by its name, are open to certain groups of people who go through similar struggles and systematic marginalization. It is general knowledge that your addiction is influenced by your social, political, and financial conditions. Focusing unilaterally on alcohol without addressing what is within does not end up being as beneficial. Hence, if you are in a marginalized community, you may appreciate the idea of a judgment-free AA meeting that pertains to certain groups of people. There are several LGBTQ-friendly meetings, women’s meetings, or men’s meetings in New York. You are free to choose one after searching them out in the AA Meeting Locator.
Despite such a wide variety of AA meetings around you, one factor remains common: the purpose of all these meetings remains focused on your sobriety. Moreover, they are all also accessible, take free attendance, and adhere to their no judgment policy.
To find your AA meeting in New York, you can choose which type suits you best and just contact them.
Haley Hayward is an experienced writer at gblogo.com, where she’s credited with more than 200 articles covering everything from entrepreneurial stories to mental health at work.
She also oversees the Comment&Questions, which poses important admission questions to experts in the field, and regularly hosts webinars on various aspects of the business school experience.
Prior to joining gblogo.com, Haley honed her skills as a freelance writer, tackling a wide array of topics from petcare to car maintenance.
Haley holds a Master’s degree in English Literature from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
