Posted by Reggie BoStar on January 22, 2007, at 1:35:02
In reply to Re: Sick, sick, sick...and tired/Reggie » Reggie BoStar, posted by Phillipa on January 21, 2007, at 22:06:27
Hi Phillipa,
Most of the folks at the EA meetings I went to sounded like the attendees at a "dual diagnosis" group. They talked about disorders such as severe depression, bipolar, GAD, and a few other things. The substance abuse component involved alcohol (me), cocaine, "narcotics" (probably heroin - that's big around here). One women had really bad GAD but no substance abuse problems.
There were no really unstable folks, like those with antisocial or borderline personality disorders.
The format was strictly AA, with their own Big Book (they call it the "Blue Book"), daily sayings, prayers, and God talk. I get along with such attempts to disguise religion as spirituality, as long as there are other non-sectarian people around to temper the discussion.
Unfortunately this particular meeting had been comandeered by a lonely woman in a wheelchair who would get the floor and then speak for almost an hour about every little thing that she did that day. She basically just needed somebody to talk "at", not "to".
They did nothing about setting a time limit because their policy is to never interrupt a speaker with emotional problems no matter what. The theory is that someone who rambles may be doing so as a result of their affliction. When I asked someone offline about it, that was essentially the answer they gave.
The problem is that this policy does not take into account someone who's just there for a social occasion and wants to yak.
Most AA meetings I've been to, on the other hand, limit a speaker's time or politely suggest that someone who is babbling off-topic (not related to his/her alcoholism) allow time for other speakers to talk.
I tried three of those EA meetings and gave up after listening to the poor woman give hour long speeches at each one.
I'm sure other EA meetings might be run differently. And you're right, there are other meetings in NH. A lot of them are in downtown Manchester, unfortunately, which is one of the places I don't like to be after dark. The one I went to was at a well-lit hospital with its own secure parking in Nashua.
Why not try your local EA meeting to see what it's like? They may run a more structured meeting that allows everyone a shot at talking. As long as you're comfortable with the AA format, it should be OK for you. At least you'll have free coffee and (possibly) cookies or something.
Oh yeah, here's the website:
http://www.emotionsanonymous.org/
There's a link on that page you can use to look for the meetings in NC. There's a legend of symbols and abbreviations that specify the meeting formats.
Take care,
Reggie BoStar
poster:Reggie BoStar
thread:723983
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070119/msgs/725063.html