Two speakers who will be part of the in-person 4th Biennial International Conference of Secular AA (ICSAA)  - Washington DC, scheduled for October 28-30, 2022 - give us a sneak preview from their 2020 "Addiction, Mental Health and Recovery in thee time of Zoom and social distancing" presentation.

See what they got right about COVID life for people with substance/alcohol use disorder. See what you got right, with the facts and stats presented about those who have struggles + those who have thrived in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. As it turns out, some of our natural instincts and reactions have been bang-on. This is Brian Gill, MSW and Dr. George Kolodner: keynote speakers December 11 2020 on our first Zoom ICSAA.

Brian Gill talks about recovery in the virtual world and the effect of social isolation on recovery.

Dr Kolodner kicks off with an virtual adaptation of Intensive Outpatient Treatment (IOP), and clinical findings with how people are coping in the early months of the pandemic.   Following these two short talks, you'll hear Q&A from the packed (Zoom) house of virtual ICSAA 2020.

Secular Alcoholics Anonymous (humanists, freethinkers, atheists, pagans, agnostics, etc)
Come Zoom with us. If you'd like to peruse agnostic/atheist AA meetings (100 meetings each day) or attend events like this,  Zoom with us live. Check the schedule for times where you life @ https://bit.ly/secularmeetings where you can find agnostic, atheist and freethinkers AA groups.

Email us at [email protected] 
Info on conferences etc: https://aasecular.org
Kolmac Outpatient Drug & Alcohol Treatment

Secular AA is AA sobriety that is neither religious nor irreligious, focusing on the practical, humanist tools of Alcoholics Anonymous and borrowed from the wider recovery community. Secular AA is a growing subculture within AA, offering 100 agnostic/atheist/freethinkers AA meetings every day + regional events and the International Conference of Secular AA (ICSAA). More @ https://aasecular.org 

We hear from Ginny, Diane, Amber Brianna and friends - some from Kansas City We Agnostics meeting and others Zooming in.

If there is a theme, this month it's where the healthcare profession meets secular AA and peer-to-peer support more broadly. We have people talking about the role of of treatment and medical intervention, and we have a healthcare professional who confronted her own alcohol and other substance use, just four months prior to the recording of this meetings. We'll hear about the importance of Zoom in a pandemic, secular AA and mainstream AA and plans for our next face-to-face ICSAA gathering in Washington DC October 28-30, 2022.

This would be a great panel for everyday AAs, healthcare workers wanting to know more about AA or people in recovery curious about AA for atheists and agnostics.

ICSAA (the International Conference of Secular AA) facilitates this first-Sunday-of-the-month world tour of secular AA story time. Our previous stops include: Hong Kong, Seattle, Montreal, Massachusetts, Cape Town, Canberra, London, New York, Glasgow, London, Cottonwood, Orlando, Georgia and Dublin. 

 For more audio anywhere podcasts of agnostic/atheist/freethinker AA, visit us @ https://secularaa.buzzsprout.com/
Zoom meetings for atheists, agnostic, freethinkers Alcoholics Anonymous... Check the schedule for times where you life @ https://bit.ly/secularmeetings where you can find 16 hours per day of agnostic, atheist and freethinkers AA groups.

Email us at [email protected]  

Secular AA is AA sobriety that is neither religious nor irreligious, focusing on the practical, humanist tools of Alcoholics Anonymous and borrowed from the wider recovery community. Secular AA is a growing subculture within AA, offering 100 agnostic/atheist/freethinkers AA meetings every day + regional events and the International Conference of Secular AA (ICSAA). More @ https://aasecular.org 

Beth H from Arizona, (pen-name Beth Aich) tells her story with inspired We Are Not All Egomaniacs: Adopting the Twelve Steps for Alcoholics with Low Self-Esteem.

Not everyone share's the Bill W narrative of Type-A self-centered person with a drinking problem who needs ego-deflation at depth to find and keep sobriety. Beth finds that when faced with distress some of us are fighters. But some flee, freeze or fawn. This is the story of empowering instead of dis-empowering those of us who suffer from alcohol use (or other drugs).

December 11th , 2021 was the second virtual International Conference of Secular AA  and with six hours+ of content coming from two Zoom rooms, three months later, we are still editing and posting panels and talks from a wonderful day of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Listen, share, enjoy.

More like this: https://secularaa.buzzsprout.com/
More about AA for atheists, agnostics and freethinkers: https://aasecular.org
Find online Zoom meetings of secular AA and more: https://bit.ly/secularmeetings

Secular AA is AA sobriety that is neither religious nor irreligious, focusing on the practical, humanist tools of Alcoholics Anonymous and borrowed from the wider recovery community. Secular AA is a growing subculture within AA, offering 100 agnostic/atheist/freethinkers AA meetings every day + regional events and the International Conference of Secular AA (ICSAA). More @ https://aasecular.org 

On the first Sunday of every month ICSAA (International Conference of Secular AA) Zooms around the globe to bring secular AA storytelling from a different local around the globe. February 6, 2022 we have Georgia on our mind with southern hospitality from Megan, Christopher, Mary and friends.

You need to hear it to believe it to understand life for freethinkers in the AA South.

For more audio anywhere podcasts of agnostic/atheist/freethinker AA, visit us @ https://secularaa.buzzsprout.com/
January 2021 from Ireland Freethinkers, February in Orlando, Cape Town in March, Montreal in April, May was Rainham UK, Cottonwood AZ in June, New York City in July, August in Canberra Australia, Massachusetts in September, Glasgow in October, Seattle in November and wee capped off the year with the ICSAA day-long Zoom conference December 11th.

January 2022 we were in Hong Kong, February in Georgia and what's next? Stay tunes. Zoom with us live. Check the schedule for times where you life @ https://bit.ly/secularmeetings where you can find 16 hours per day of agnostic, atheist and freethinkers AA groups.

Email us at [email protected] 

Secular AA is AA sobriety that is neither religious nor irreligious, focusing on the practical, humanist tools of Alcoholics Anonymous and borrowed from the wider recovery community. Secular AA is a growing subculture within AA, offering 100 agnostic/atheist/freethinkers AA meetings every day + regional events and the International Conference of Secular AA (ICSAA). More @ https://aasecular.org 

Transpersonal-psychologist  John Welwood, coined the term,  “spiritual bypassing,”  He defined spiritual bypassing as using “spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep personal, emotional ‘unfinished business,’ to shore up a shaky sense of self, or to belittle basic needs, feelings, and developmental tasks.”

This presentation is moderated by John R from the Freethinkers Living Sober group in Cottonwood, AZ, December 11th, 2021 at the International Conference of Secular Alcoholics Anonymous on Zoom.

More from Freethinkers Living Sober

More about us: https://aasecular.com
Email us: [email protected]
hundreds of online secular AA meetings: https://bit.ly/secularmeetings
Social Media:
https://twitter.com/ICSAA2021
https://www.facebook.com/SecularAA    

Secular AA is AA sobriety that is neither religious nor irreligious, focusing on the practical, humanist tools of Alcoholics Anonymous and borrowed from the wider recovery community. Secular AA is a growing subculture within AA, offering 100 agnostic/atheist/freethinkers AA meetings every day + regional events and the International Conference of Secular AA (ICSAA). More @ https://aasecular.org 

The occasion:  International Conference of Secular AA December 11th, 2021 

Stonehenge AA Freethinkers Step meeting started on Zoom in the pandemic. In this recording, we are treated to how this AA group runs their regular meeting. We kick off with Jeffery Munn's Staying Sober Without God: The Practical 12 Steps. We were pleased to present this meeting with simultaneous Spanish/English translation.

With Kenji as secretary, Antonia gave a history of the meeting, a couple of pages about "Why the 12 Steps" were read, Sukhi and Terra shared and then the meeting was opened to attendees around the world. But why read about it, click to listen.

More about us: https://aasecular.com
Email us: [email protected]
hundreds of online secular AA meetings: https://bit.ly/secularmeetings
Social Media:
https://twitter.com/ICSAA2021
https://www.facebook.com/SecularAA   

Secular AA is AA sobriety that is neither religious nor irreligious, focusing on the practical, humanist tools of Alcoholics Anonymous and borrowed from the wider recovery community. Secular AA is a growing subculture within AA, offering 100 agnostic/atheist/freethinkers AA meetings every day + regional events and the International Conference of Secular AA (ICSAA). More @ https://aasecular.org 

The International Conference of Secular Alcoholics Anonymous all day Zoom event's grand finale, held December 11th, 2021, was a reading from AA conference approved Living Sober with discussion to follow. Chairperson, Geri B of Las Vegas NV spoke about the value of the practical book of AA life:  Living Sober. This 1975 record of the first 40 years of collective AA experience (updated as needed), is the centerpiece for Living Sober meetings for decades. 
Throwing the choice of topic and chapter out to participants, we settled on Chapter 24 about relationships, sex and intimacy in AA sobriety with reading and sharing from around the world.
 
This was from our Zoom conference of ICSAA December 11th, 2021.

More about us: https://aasecular.com
Email us: [email protected]
hundreds of online secular AA meetings: https://bit.ly/secularmeetings
Social Media:
https://twitter.com/ICSAA2021
https://www.facebook.com/SecularAA  

Secular AA is AA sobriety that is neither religious nor irreligious, focusing on the practical, humanist tools of Alcoholics Anonymous and borrowed from the wider recovery community. Secular AA is a growing subculture within AA, offering 100 agnostic/atheist/freethinkers AA meetings every day + regional events and the International Conference of Secular AA (ICSAA). More @ https://aasecular.org 

Happy 2022 from the International Conference of Secular Alcoholics Anonymous (#ICSAA) 

Our monthly world tour of International speaker meetings Zooms to the world in January from We Agnostics Hong Kong with Jim, Shari and John speaking to us. Ireland, the Netherlands, Australia, Mexico and members from coast-to-coast in USA, Canada, Shanghai and Hong Kong ,are in the house. 

Every month it’s somewhere new. Last year we visited  Orlando, Cape Town, Montreal, Cottonwood AZ,  Ireland, New York City, London, Canberra AU, Seattle, Massachusetts and Glasgow. Zoom enabled us to host our first ICSAA Europe June 19th, 2021 and while our Washington DC in-person conference was postponed due to COVID, December 11th, we came together from around the world online again.

For more audio anywhere podcasts of agnostic/atheist/freethinker AA, visit us @ https://secularaa.buzzsprout.com/ 

Email us at [email protected] 

To join us online, search for secular/freethinkers/agnostic meetings, 16 hours a day at

https://bit.ly/secularmeetings

Join us on the First Sunday of Every Month for our live, recorded Zoom world-tour speaker meetings. Time's will vary, depending on what city/time zone we have hosting the event. 

Secular AA is AA sobriety that is neither religious nor irreligious, focusing on the practical, humanist tools of Alcoholics Anonymous and borrowed from the wider recovery community. Secular AA is a growing subculture within AA, offering 100 agnostic/atheist/freethinkers AA meetings every day + regional events and the International Conference of Secular AA (ICSAA). More @ https://aasecular.org 

While Alcoholics Anonymous is not affiliated with Al-Anon or other peer to peer support—including 12-step fellowships—there has always been cooperation, since our early days. 

Today, many of us fall prey to more than affliction, simultaneously or one addiction at a time. Friends we haven’t met yet await us in many mutual-aid groups. At the 2021 International Conference of Secular AA we are pleased to have members from other fellowships gather with us: Secular Overeaters, Secular Narcotics Anonymous and Agnostic, Humanist and Atheist Codependency Support Group. 

We hear firsthand accounts of trials and triumphs of people in recovery from addiction and codependency, led by participants, Jim, Jenne, Ken and Matt. If you are so moved by this podcast, please visit these websites for information and/or connection:

https://secularovereaters.org/ 

http://atheistcodependent.com/ 

https://secularna.org/ 

This was from our Zoom conference, ICSAA 2021 held December 11th, 2021.

More about us: https://aasecular.com
Email us: [email protected]
hundreds of online secular AA meetings: https://bit.ly/secularmeetings
Social Media:
https://twitter.com/ICSAA2021
https://www.facebook.com/SecularAA  

All content © 2021 secular AA's Podcast. 

Secular AA is AA sobriety that is neither religious nor irreligious, focusing on the practical, humanist tools of Alcoholics Anonymous and borrowed from the wider recovery community. Secular AA is a growing subculture within AA, offering 100 agnostic/atheist/freethinkers AA meetings every day + regional events and the International Conference of Secular AA (ICSAA). More @ https://aasecular.org 

People, meet Brianna, Marsha, Lyra D, Janie B, Charlize and Adam M.

"LGBTQIAP+, find out what it means to me!" From the OMAGOD room at the International Conference of Secular AA 2021, we heard from a sampling of Alcoholics Anonymous' gender and sexual identity members.  We can find sobriety in AA without accepting anyone else's beliefs  nor denying our own. "Love and tolerance of others is our code."

This was from our Zoom conference, ICSAA 2021 held December 11th, 2021.

More about us: https://aasecular.com
Email us: [email protected]
hundreds of online secular AA meetings: https://bit.ly/secularmeetings
Social Media:
https://twitter.com/ICSAA2021
https://www.facebook.com/SecularAA  

Secular AA is AA sobriety that is neither religious nor irreligious, focusing on the practical, humanist tools of Alcoholics Anonymous and borrowed from the wider recovery community. Secular AA is a growing subculture within AA, offering 100 agnostic/atheist/freethinkers AA meetings every day + regional events and the International Conference of Secular AA (ICSAA). More @ https://aasecular.org