# Couple of questions about AA ...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couple-of-questions-about-aa/419417>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [September 16, 2007, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couple-of-questions-about-aa/419417 "2007-09-16T20:48:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2007, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couple-of-questions-about-aa/419417/21 "2007-09-19T16:33:09Z")

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[QUOTE=plnnr]  
Not to hijack the thread, but I often get the feeling the long term members have given up one addictive behavior only to take up another. One member of my Al-Anon group, for instance, has not been married to her alcoholic spouse for more than 20 years - in fact, he’s dead. She continues to attend meetings regularly.

In the scheme of things, being addicted to a regular meeting for whatever reason is no big deal in my book, but I wonder if, at some point, the long termers will ever say, “OK - I’ve done my work, I’ve followed my program, I’m moving on.”  
[/QUOTE]

Many stay in the program for long periods of time because if you think about it they not only get sober, [or in the case of ALANON get a better understanding] but they also make some very good wholsome friends. I have made some friends that I count as very close to me. I invite them for dinner, we go out, we socialize we have fun together. So many like the fellowship very much! And it is very much a fellowship.  
The religiosity of the whole thing doesn’t bother those of us who take the meetings as a time for a daily reprieve with other drunks who understand what we are going through. “Normal” Drinkers sometimes don’t understand that.

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