"Keep coming back, it works if you work it, so work it you’re worth it!" |
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We come to Al-Anon from all walks all life. Although we come for many different reasons, we stay because we want our lives to get better. In Al-Anon we find others like us who welcome us. |
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"We welcome you to the Al-Anon Family Groups and hope you will find in this fellowship the help and friendship we have been privileged to enjoy. We who live, or have lived, with the problem of Alcoholism understand as perhaps few others can. We, too, were lonely and frustrated, but in Al-Anon we discover that no situation is really hopeless and that it is possible for us to find contentment, and even happiness, whether the alcoholic is still drinking or not."
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Al-Anon members share their experience strength and hope with one another. They tell their experiences on how they have been affected by the disease of alcoholism; they share their strength and hope with us in how the Al-Anon program has helped them find solutions to their problems, and how their lives have changed. |
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"We urge you to try our program. It has helped many of us find solutions that lead to serenity. So much depends on our own attitudes, and as we learn to place our problem in its true perspective, we find it loses its power to dominate our thoughts and our lives."
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There are no “musts” in Al-Anon. Nobody tell others what to do about a situation. Newcomers are suggested not to make any major decisions during the first few months after coming to Al-Anon, simply because as we keep coming back and begin to get better, our perspective and attitudes change. |
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Members are reminded in the closing to “take what you like and leave the rest”. As we hear many things from members sharing, we become aware of more choices that are available to us. Some we can identify with and with some we will not. Some we will find helpful and some may not be. |
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"The family situation is bound to improve as we apply the Al-Anon ideas."
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By focusing on ourselves and our recovery, our lives and the lives of those around us get better.
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One of the first things we hear in Al-Anon is that we are powerless over another’s alcoholism. The 3 C’s tell us: We didn’t Cause someone else’s alcoholism, we cannot Control someone else’s alcoholism, and we cannot Cure Alcoholism. |
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As we begin to apply the Al-Anon ideas, by focusing on ourselves and our recovery, we find that the only thing we CAN change is ourselves and our own lives. Al-Anon provides us with a simple step-by-step approach to rebuilding our lives and our self-confidence in an atmosphere of unconditional love. |
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"Without such spiritual help, living with an alcoholic is too much for most of us. Our thinking becomes distorted by trying to force solutions, and we become irritable and unreasonable without knowing it.".
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In Al-Anon we become aware of the affects the disease of alcoholism has on us. We begin to recognize the part we play in the alcoholic relationship and how we react. The more we learn about alcoholism and see that we have options, we slowly we begin to change and recover. |
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"The Al-Anon program is based on the Twelve Steps (adapted from Alcoholics Anonymous), which we try, little by little, one day at a time, to apply to our lives, along with our slogans and the Serenity Prayer. The loving interchange of help among members and daily reading of Al-Anon literature thus make us ready to receive the priceless gift of serenity."
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The Al-Anon program gives us tools to aid in our recovery. |
Here are some of the program tools. To see more tools please go here. |
The Twelve Steps are the “how-to” guide to the process that helps us find the answers for ourselves. They are the essence of our program, the underlying principles upon which the Al-Anon program is based.
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The Slogans are a short expression of wisdom, simple reminders that can aid us in difficult situations. |
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The Serenity Prayer encourages us to turn to our higher power in sorting out what we can and cannot do. By turning to a higher power of our understanding, we gain courage and wisdom. We learn how to achieve serenity. |
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The Fellowship of Al-Anon is the love, support, encouragement, comfort and help members give to each other. Members Keep in touch with each other between meetings by telephone (while respecting the anonymity of all members), reach out and help each other through crisis, share or reason our thoughts with someone else. The fellowship of Al-Anon ever reminds us we are not alone. Many members will get together after or between meetings. |
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Sponsorship is when one member mentors and helps another. It is a mutually beneficial relationship between two Al-Anon members. A sponsor is someone with whom we can share our situations and ourselves in more detail. By sharing their own experience strength and hope with us, by listening and offering support and encouragement, a sponsor can help us learn how to apply the Al-Anon ideas and tools. |
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Al-Anon Literature is available to us. It is like carrying Al-Anon with us at all times. Not only the literature (in the form of Pamphlets, books and daily readers) are a great source of information, they also remind us that many others have been through the same struggles and have found their way through them. |
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The Twelve Traditions are the Al-Anon spiritual guidelines for working, living and growing together. They hold the Al-Anon program together, advise us how to avoid involving ourselves in anything that might interfere with our common interests and help us remain focused on our purpose. |
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"Anonymity is an important principle of the Al-Anon program. Everything that is said (here), in the group meeting and member-to-member, must be held in confidence. Only in this way can we feel free to say what is in our minds and hearts, for this is how we help one another in Al-Anon."
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Whom you see here What you hear here When you leave here Let it stay here |
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Al-Anon is an anonymous fellowship. According to Al-Anon Eleventh and Twelfth Traditions, anonymity is an important principle of the Al-Anon program. The identities and sharing of members are to be kept in strict confidence, as well as the identity of all Alateen and AA members. We can carry the message but not the messenger |
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Many of us keep coming back to Al-Anon even years after the main reason that first brought us to Al-Anon no longer exist. The Al-Anon program keeps working in our lives helping us through all of our ups and downs. For many it is a spiritual home, friendships are built, and as long as we keep coming back, we keep learning, changing and growing. We keep working the Al-Anon program so that we can maintain our serenity and sanity, our positive attitudes and spiritual health while we apply the Al-Anon principles in all of our affairs. The changes in our lives will not happen over night, but each in our own pace, as we come to learn and live the Al-Anon program “one day at a time”, will find that living the Al-Anon program enriches and improves our lives. |
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