1-PREAMBLE
I have asked …………..to read the preamble.
ALIENATION is a family disease. Living with the effects of someone else’s ALIENATING BEHAVIOR is too devastating for most people to bear without help. In PA-A we learn that nothing we say or do can cause or stop someone else’s ALIENATING behavior. We are not responsible for another person’s disease or recovery from it.
By learning to focus on ourselves, our attitudes and well-being improve.
Before Parental Alienation Anonymous (PA-A), we kept ourselves busy seeking solutions for the alienator (child, parent, spouse, etc.). When what we were trying to accomplish wasn’t succeeding, we told ourselves to work harder or to try something else. We may even have told ourselves; it was our fault if we couldn’t convince the alienator (child, parent, spouse, etc.) to get help. If we could only find the right words at the right time, relayed in just the right tone of voice, then maybe we could get the alienator to see things our way.
Desperate to fulfill our dreams for a happy family life, we thought that devoting all our energy to the problem was the answer. Little did we know we were actually contributing to the problem by trying to force solutions.
PA-A is a fellowship that offers a program of recovery for the families and friends who are affected by alienation regardless of whether or not the alienator recognizes the existence of a problem or seeks help. Members give and receive comfort and understanding through a mutual exchange of experience, strength, and hope. Sharing of similar challenges binds individuals and groups together in a bond that is protected by a tradition of anonymity. PA-A is not a religious organization or a counseling agency. It is not a treatment center nor is it allied with any other organization offering such services. PA-A, neither expresses opinions on outside issues nor endorses outside enterprises. No dues or fees are required.
Membership is voluntary, requiring only that one’s own life has been adversely affected by someone else’s alienating behaviors.
2-PROMISES
I asked ………….…. to read the 12 Promises of PAA
The 12 Promises of The PA-A:
The promises are from pages 83-84 of the Big Book and cover the promises of what will happen when we diligently work the steps of the 12-step program. Note that these promises from the Big Book come in the context of working Step 9, the step of making amends.
“If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through ” (i.e., referencing the step 9 described in the previous paragraph of the Big Book)
Promise 1 We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.
Promise 2 We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.
Promise 3 We will comprehend the word serenity.
Promise 4 We will know peace.
Promise 5 No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.
Promise 6 That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.
Promise 7 We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.
Promise 8 Self-seeking will slip away.
Promise 9 Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.
Promise 10 Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us.
Promise 11 We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.
Promise 12 We will suddenly realize that OUR HIGHER POWER is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
3- PA-A CLOSING
I have asked…… to read theClosing
As a reminder the zoom link will stay open an extra ten minutes at the end of the meeting for questions and fellowship.
In closing, I would like to say that the opinions expressed here were strictly those of the person who gave them. Take what you liked and leave the rest. The things you heard were spoken in confidence and should be treated as confidential. Keep them within the walls of this room and the confines of your mind.
A few special words to those of you who haven’t been with us long: Whatever your problems, there are those among us who have had them, too. If you try to keep an open mind, you will find help. You will come to realize that there is no situation too difficult to be bettered and no unhappiness too great to be lessened.
We will now have a moment of silence for anyone out there struggling with the effects of parental alienation.
Please join me in the Serenity Prayer.
God Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change
The courage to change the things I can
And the wisdom to know the difference.