PO Box 1980

I am responding to the article "No More Shame" in the September 1995 Grapevine, which discusses forming a women's meeting. When I first came to AA, I was frightened of men, especially alcoholic men. Initially, I dealt with that fear by attending women's meetings only. Fortunately, my sponsor pulled me up short on this practice. She warned me that I would deprive myself of the broader range of experience, strength, and hope that meetings open to all alcoholics would provide. Moreover, it was a symptom of my disease to believe that I was a special kind of drunk who needed special kinds of meetings because I was a woman. Recovery through the Twelve Steps did not depend upon my identity as anything other than an alcoholic willing to go to any lengths to recover.