Do you have to be sober to go to Al Anon?

If your life has been affected by someone else’s alcoholism, we invite you to visit an Al‑Anon meeting. From our perspective, it doesn’t matter if your loved one is still actively drinking or if they are sober. If their drinking – past or present – bothers you, you are welcome at any Al‑Anon meeting.

What is a qualifier in Al Anon?

What is a Qualifier? Most people attend Al-Anon because they have a “qualifier” in their lives (someone who makes them eligible to attend). A qualifier can be your spouse, your mother, your daughter, a co-worker, a friend… The meetings are open and welcoming and are usually held in the same location as AA meetings.

What is sobriety in Al-Anon?

It’s a program designed to help you be more emotionally sober, more able to accept people, relationships and situations for what they really are, not how you’d like them to be or what you hope they become. In Al-Anon, we surrender control—or try to, anyway—and take responsibility for our behavior when we don’t.

What is the higher power in Al-Anon?

Higher Power is a term used in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and other twelve-step programs. The same groups use the phrase “a power greater than ourselves” synonymously. The term sometimes refers to a supreme being or deity, or other conceptions of God.

What is bottom-line behavior?

Bottom-line behaviors are self-defined activities which we refrain from in order to experience our physical, mental, emotional, sexual and spiritual wholeness. Having sex with someone who is married. Pursuing a new relationship before ending an existing one. Having sex outside of a committed, monogamous relationship.

What does romantic intrigue mean?

1a : the practice of engaging in secret schemes. b : a secret scheme : machination. 2 : a clandestine love affair. intrigue.

How can Al-Anon help me?

The principles you learn in Al-Anon Family Groups can help deal with changes as they come in life – sometimes major changes. You may not be able to change the circumstances any, but you can change your attitude about the situation. You have choices.

Why attend Al-Anon Family Group meetings?

Attending Al-Anon Family Group meetings might provide the support and tools needed to deal with the effects of alcoholism on very important relationships. I attended my first Al‑Anon meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe, in 1979.

What does detach with love mean in Al-Anon?

In the context of the Al-Anon program, “detach with love” is the idea that the family has to let go of their loved one’s problem. It gives you permission to let them experience any consequences associated with their drinking or drug use and focus on your own health and well-being.

Who is the writer of the online Al-Anon Committee?

Buddy T is an anonymous writer and founding member of the Online Al-Anon Outreach Committee with decades of experience writing about alcoholism. Steven Gans, MD is board-certified in psychiatry and is an active supervisor, teacher, and mentor at Massachusetts General Hospital.