How can I join AA?
Membership is open to anyone who wants to do something about their drinking problem. There are no dues or fees for A.A. membership, and we don’t keep any records of who comes or who leaves. You are welcome to come along to a meeting and see what is being said, and we won’t bother you if you decide that you don’t want what we have to offer; so you have nothing to lose and possibly everything to gain
Where are the meetings and how do I get there?
In Berlin there are almost 30 english speaking AA meetings a week. Please check the english-speaking AA Berlin homepage for dates and directions. If you’d like an AA LGBTQI member to go with you to your first AA meeting, we will be happy to do so. Just give us a call or write us a message.
What if I don’t know if I’m an alcoholic?
We who are in A.A. came because we finally gave up trying to control our drinking. We still hated to admit that we could never drink safely. Then we heard from other A.A. members that we were sick. (We thought so for years!) We found out that many people suffered from the same feelings of guilt and loneliness and hopelessness that we did. We found out that we had these feelings because we had the disease of alcoholism.
We decided to try and face up to what alcohol had done to us. Only you can decide whether you think A.A. is for you. Try to keep an open mind on the subject. If the answer is YES, we will be glad to show you how we stopped drinking ourselves. A.A. does not promise to solve your life’s problems. But we can show you how we are learning to live without drinking “one day at a time.” We stay away from that “first drink.” If there is no first one, there cannot be a tenth one. And when we got rid of alcohol, we found that life became much more manageable.
To help you decide whether you might have a problem with your own drinking, we’ve prepared these 12 questions.
| ● | Do you drink because you have problems? To face up to stressful situations? |
| ● | Do you drink when you get mad at other people, your friends or parents? |
| ● | Do you often prefer to drink alone, rather than with others? |
| ● | Are you starting to get low marks? Are you skiving off work? |
| ● | Do you ever try to stop or drink less – and fail? |
| ● | Have you begun to drink in the morning, before school or work? |
| ● | Do you gulp your drinks as if to satisfy a great thirst? |
| ● | Do you ever have a loss of memory due to your drinking? |
| ● | Do you avoid being honest with others about your drinking? |
| ● | Do you ever get into trouble when you are drinking? |
| ● | Do you often get drunk when you drink, even when you do not mean to |
| ● | Do you drink because you have problems? To face up to stressful situations? |
The answers are nobody’s business but your own. If you can answer yes to any one of these questions, maybe it’s time you take a serious look at what your drinking might be doing to you.