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AWG Secular 12 Step Self-Esteem Group 🚀


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Zoom access and meeting times Meeting description Workbook Readings
Zoom access and meeting times

Meetings are every Tuesday from 11 am to 12 pm Eastern US Time. See Meeting Time in a Different Time Zone (normal calendar)


* Zoom link not working? Search the meeting ID below in the Zoom meeting database and then use the code to sign in: 

Meeting ID: 824 1142 4876
Code: 781927


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Meeting description

This is a secular 12 Step meeting focused on self-esteem recovery for late-identified autistic women and members of all other marginalized genders (nonbinary, gender fluid, MTF/FTM trans, agender, autigender, and more). 

We meet each Tuesday on Zoom, practice the AWG 12 Steps using the AWG 12 Step Workbook, share in response to weekly readings, and participate in the optional co-mentorship program if we so desire. 

It is not mandatory to turn on your mic or camera. Coming to listen is totally fine. By taking part, we hold space for others, and ourselves, to participate in a way that is manageable for us as we exist right now.

It is not necessary to actively be doing the AWG 12 Steps in order to be a full participant. Any contact with the group and its resources can be beneficial as long as it’s sustainable for each of us as individuals. Many of us participate simply by attending meetings.

As we participate in this meeting over time, we might find ourselves seeking to…

  • Find our own concept of self-esteem and grow toward it
  • Come to discover a more realistic sense of our place in the world
  • Reassess our relationships, especially in terms of our responsibilities towards ourselves and others
  • Come to understand personal boundaries, their roles in our lives, and how to develop and maintain healthy boundaries
  • Understand the concept of nonviolent detachment and how and when to enact it
  • Develop more manageable lifestyles
  • Develop a sense of self that leads to more health, well being, and manageability in our lives
  • Release others from the responsibility of defining or reinforcing our sense of self-esteem
  • Form personal goals about self-esteem and self-concept based on our own understanding of our own needs, as they exist today

AWG 12 Step Self-Esteem Readings

A prison of misunderstandings?

Tuesday, May 12, 2026

How can I escape from accumulated layers of mistrust and judgment?

From an anonymous contributor

I keep thinking about the Step 1 concept of factors affecting our sense of self and self-esteem that seem out of our control. For me, it's not just "seem". Some of these factors still really are out of my control. I even feel like new factors have emerged to cause unmanageability in my self-esteem since learning I'm autistic.

For example, I find myself keeping a distance from people, as I assume they won't ever understand my story. This is actually relatively new for me. It's almost like the more I understand about my autism and the surroundings that determined my life experiences, the more I am reluctant to put myself in a position where I might be blamed for my situation or blamed for actually pointing out the realities of said situation. But the distance I'm taking isn't exactly good for my self-esteem, either.

Complicating this situation is my new awareness of dynamics in my pre-identification years. For example, one of the things that affect my sense of self and self-esteem is clearly overstimulation, including meltdowns and burnout. I know I should feel relieved to know my lack of control in certain situations was never my fault. I don`t always feel that way, though. Instead, I feel confused and angry at a thought I've been having that a lot of the "mistakes" I made before identification, are now no longer MY mistakes. Best-case scenario, they happened due to a lack of information about autism. But I have to admit that they also happened because I was misled by people who might have known better if they had tried a little harder. It's like those pre-identification years created a baseline lack of trust that's now making it harder for me to work through the misunderstandings of the present.

I realize that regardless of who or what is responsible for the mistakes of the past, it is me though who needs to operate from a base built on those mistakes now. But how can I break out of this prison of misunderstandings?

Share questions:

  • Does your mistrust from past experiences ever make it hard for you to navigate misunderstandings in the present? 
  • Do you ever feel distanced from people because you're worried about being blamed for who you are, or for where you are in life? Because you're worried about how others will react if you tell your truth? 
  • Do mistrust and misunderstanding in your life ever feel unmanageable? What is it like? 
  • Has it ever seemed like knowing more about yourself, and knowing more about autism, has caused unmanageability in your life in certain ways? 
  • How do these questions relate to your self-esteem and self-concept?
  • Any tools, resources, or strategies to share?
  • Anything else to add?
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AWG 12 Step Self-Esteem Workbook

Step 1

We admitted that despite our efforts, many of the factors affecting our sense of self and self-esteem seemed out of control, leading to increased unmanageability in our lives.

Step 2

Coming Soon

Step 3

Coming Soon

Step 4

Coming Soon
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