Hi, I was court ordered to attend two meetings once, and I considered it a chore, but i still went in with a completely open mind. these are the observations i made:
1) there's nothing anonymous about it, everyone knows everyone else's name, they share phone numbers addresses, and meet in public places. it's ESPECIALLY not anonymous if you're sent there with a paper from the court and have to get the group leader to sign it to prove you went.
2) they claim to not be religious. that's bull shit. it's very religious.(they will counter this argument by saying "you don't have to be religious just believe in a higher power than yourself to help you through your alcoholism"
they contradict this claim at the end of every meeting when it's mandatory for everyone to hold hands and recite the lord's prayer together. it's extremely awkward and i felt like i was constantly being misled.
3) they use a lot of actual cult techniques, i'm not saying that as a joke. i picked up on it immediately from watching cult documentaries and youtube video's about commons techniques and methods cults like to use to recruit people and keep them from leaving.
when i got home i looked up one of those youtube video's again (it had been a while since i watched it) and the video started listing off all the methods cults like to use, a solid 80% of the video was listing the methods i noticed the AA group was trying to use on me.
it works for some people. but if you're like me, noooooo thank you. it was awkward and uncomfortable and i felt like i was constantly being misled and people wear big fake smiles for you if you're new and they make sure to make you the center of attention of the whole meeting if you tell them it's your first time...and the weirdness level gets ramped up to a million if you make that mistake. i did my two mandatory meetings and never looked back.
(i was just young and stupid and the court sent me there as a slap on the wrist for being punk in drublic. i wasn't really an alcoholic... you're not allowed to say that though. they don't like that at all. EVERYONE is an alcoholic, whether you like it or not.
literally even if you are just going as a guest to support a frriend or family member, you still have to say "hi my name is ___ and i'm an alcoholic" ...
it may help some people, but if you're anything like me, it's just an all around creepy and awkward experience. and when i picked up on the cult recruiting methods they were obviously using on me, it upset me a little. and i don't like how they blatantly lie about being non-religious. holding hands and saying the lord's prayer at the end of every meet is pretty fucking chrisitan , i should know...i was raised one. i gave that shit up for a reason, don't try to trick me back into that hoopla (not to mention i was raised catholic and they say protestant versions of the prayer, so even if i was still religious, it would be slightly offensive to me as a catholic (if i cared...i didn't...just sayin' though)