This job can take its toll...
AA callers (especially worried mothers):
I don't care if Poor Pete (not his real name) really really wants help but can't stay sober for five minutes because OMG he just had a baby three weeks ago and his twu wuv walked out on his soggy ass (this is a tale I just got).
WE DO NOT DO THIRD-PARTY CALLS. No, you can't just tell me all about your kid's problem drinking and then have someone come to your house. I'll happily give you times and places for open meetings, so you can leave a list on the ground by your hedge so Precious Baby Boy will see it first thing when he wakes up, but that's ALL. AA doesn't send people out to counsel the wicked, lady, especially at this hour.
Pete has to make the call. AA is not going to go out and find him, bring him somewhere warm and cosy, and feed him. AA is not Mommy. You are. Nobody in the organisation will go out at half-three in the morning to whatever after-hours dive your 20-y-o son frequents, to capture him away and dry him out by force.
We also don't connect the obviously-polluted with volunteers, because who wants to deal with a drunk idiot? As I said, if Pete wants help, Pete will have to suck it up and sober up long enough to make his own phone call. It's too hard? Then he doesn't want it enough, and you're STILL wasting my time.
Also: friends of alcoholics? You can relate every sordid detail of how Dick or Jane got wasted and fell down stairs or argued with that cop or barfed on a stranger's kid, and it won't move me to do a fucking thing.
Newsflash, people - if they want the help, they will make the call. You can't force a drunk to change their ways, not really. You can isolate them and get the booze out of their system. You can yell and beg and abuse and all sorts of shit. You can do that.
YOU CANNOT 'FIX' SOMEONE WHO DOESN'T WANT HELP. I WILL NOT 'TELL [YOU] HOW TO MAKE IT BETTER'. IF I COULD DO THAT, I'D SELL THE INFO AND GET RICH.
Honestly, I don't CARE if you're angry with me for not telling you what you want to hear. I don't sit here answering the phone five nights a week out of the goodness of my heart. This is my job, and I have rules to follow, and frankly, coming from a family with its fair share of boozehounds, I'm not swayed by your feeble, enabling bullshit.
ETA: Answering service wench. AA is only one of our clients. I'm happy to provide the limited information that I have, but for all else, we are REQUIRED to refer them to the office, especially if the caller has been drinking, or if someone wants the locations/numbers for detox facilities or information on surprise interventions. Not my call. AA asks this of us.
FYI, I'm nice to my callers. Not because I have to be, but because nobody deserves abuse when they're trying to get help. But this is a rant about people who won't listen to me, and keep making demands I'm not permitted to grant. They don't get any sympathy from me if they refuse to take the steps I outline for them.
I don't care if Poor Pete (not his real name) really really wants help but can't stay sober for five minutes because OMG he just had a baby three weeks ago and his twu wuv walked out on his soggy ass (this is a tale I just got).
WE DO NOT DO THIRD-PARTY CALLS. No, you can't just tell me all about your kid's problem drinking and then have someone come to your house. I'll happily give you times and places for open meetings, so you can leave a list on the ground by your hedge so Precious Baby Boy will see it first thing when he wakes up, but that's ALL. AA doesn't send people out to counsel the wicked, lady, especially at this hour.
Pete has to make the call. AA is not going to go out and find him, bring him somewhere warm and cosy, and feed him. AA is not Mommy. You are. Nobody in the organisation will go out at half-three in the morning to whatever after-hours dive your 20-y-o son frequents, to capture him away and dry him out by force.
We also don't connect the obviously-polluted with volunteers, because who wants to deal with a drunk idiot? As I said, if Pete wants help, Pete will have to suck it up and sober up long enough to make his own phone call. It's too hard? Then he doesn't want it enough, and you're STILL wasting my time.
Also: friends of alcoholics? You can relate every sordid detail of how Dick or Jane got wasted and fell down stairs or argued with that cop or barfed on a stranger's kid, and it won't move me to do a fucking thing.
Newsflash, people - if they want the help, they will make the call. You can't force a drunk to change their ways, not really. You can isolate them and get the booze out of their system. You can yell and beg and abuse and all sorts of shit. You can do that.
YOU CANNOT 'FIX' SOMEONE WHO DOESN'T WANT HELP. I WILL NOT 'TELL [YOU] HOW TO MAKE IT BETTER'. IF I COULD DO THAT, I'D SELL THE INFO AND GET RICH.
Honestly, I don't CARE if you're angry with me for not telling you what you want to hear. I don't sit here answering the phone five nights a week out of the goodness of my heart. This is my job, and I have rules to follow, and frankly, coming from a family with its fair share of boozehounds, I'm not swayed by your feeble, enabling bullshit.
ETA: Answering service wench. AA is only one of our clients. I'm happy to provide the limited information that I have, but for all else, we are REQUIRED to refer them to the office, especially if the caller has been drinking, or if someone wants the locations/numbers for detox facilities or information on surprise interventions. Not my call. AA asks this of us.
FYI, I'm nice to my callers. Not because I have to be, but because nobody deserves abuse when they're trying to get help. But this is a rant about people who won't listen to me, and keep making demands I'm not permitted to grant. They don't get any sympathy from me if they refuse to take the steps I outline for them.