You’ve taken the first step—you’ve come to an Al-Anon meeting. Congratulations!
Keep coming back to meetings. It is there that we get the support and comfort that help us deal with our personal situation. You probably have many questions, including “What does working the Steps mean?” or “What Al-Anon literature should I read first?” The links that follow will bring you to the Al-Anon Family Groups on-line store and the section on the site that is designed for newcomers. Here you will find bookmarks, pamphlets, and daily readers/books.
We are glad you are here. Our group has put together a few links and resources to help you get started on building a good foundation in the Program. You can scroll or use the outline in the sidebar on the right-hand side. If you don’t see it, you can click on this icon:
You might have a few questions about how the Al-Anon program works.
The Al-Anon Welcome
We welcome you to our Al-Anon Family Group meeting, 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.
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.
The family situation is bound to improve as we apply the Al-Anon ideas. 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.
The Al-Anon program is based on the suggested Twelve Steps of 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.
Al-Anon is an anonymous fellowship. 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 on our minds and in our hearts, for this is how we help one another in Al-Anon.
Fellowship
Every Meeting is Different
Every meeting is different. Each meeting has the autonomy to be run as its members choose, within guidelines designed to promote Al‑Anon unity. Al‑Anon recommends that you try at least six different meetings before you decide if Al‑Anon will be helpful to you.
A Serenity Place Meeting Format
Our group does a different meeting every day of the week; each day is chaired by one of our Daily Chair volunteers. Each day’s meeting starts with the Daily Chair sending out the Opening readings for their day of the week. While the Al-Anon Suggested Welcome and Serenity Prayer are included every day, we rotate through The Preamble, Twelve Steps, Twelve Traditions, Obstacles to Success, Obstacles to Success, Who you see here…, each day of the week, ending with the Al-Anon Closing on Saturday.
We encourage our members share their personal experience, strength and hope on the Al-Anon topic of the day. We avoid gossip, crosstalk, and giving advice in our fellowship as a way to create a safe space for everyone.
Al-Anon Literature (CAL) – Books & Pamphlets
Books
There are a number of books in Al-Anon that members find useful. They describe how the Program works through sharing member stories, the history of Al-Anon, and providing space to do deep dives into Steps, Traditions, and Concepts Work. Some of the favorites include “How Al-Anon Works” and “Paths to Recovery” as well as several daily readers starting with Al-Anon’s original “One Day at a Time”, followed by “Courage to Change” and others. You can find a complete list on the Al-Anon website. Electronic and audio versions are also available for some titles.
Pamphlets
Al-Anon publishes a number of pamphlets; each addressing a particular issue or perspective. Below are several examples that ASP considers especially helpful for newcomers.
The Forum – Al-Anon’s Magazine
The Forum is a monthly magazine published by WSO that contains some of the fellowship in print. You can subscribe or read some of it online.
Al-Anon’s Newcomer’s Welcome from our World Service Office https://al-anon.org/series/welcome-newcomers
Most of Al-Anon’s pamphlets are only available in print. There are several important pamphlets that our World Service Office (WSO) have made available online. S
Slogans
Al-Anon slogans are statements that you may start to hear repeated at meetings. They are phrases that help us to quickly reframe a difficult moment and guide us into recovery. Here is a little information on the meaning and source of those slogans.
Sponsorship
Our meeting sees the value and mutual benefit of sponsorship in recovery. We suggest that you look around in Al-Anon for a member that seems to have the recovery that you are looking for in Al-Anon. We suggest you initiate a private conversation with them outside of the recovery meeting. It is easy to contact a member of ASP – simply “Reply” to one of their posts to our recovery meeting and your email app will start a new email addressed to that member and only that member. If you still feel good about that person after having private conversation(s) with them, then ask them to be your sponsor. Sometimes, members of Al-Anon say ‘No’ to sponsoring another member; please don’t assume it’s about you. Don’t give up.
The Serenity Prayer
At A Serenity Place, and at many other Al-Anon meetings, we open and close with the Serenity Prayer:
God, grant me the serenity,
To accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.