AWG Secular 12 Step Self-Esteem Group πŸš€


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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


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

Developing self respect

Tuesday, December 9, 2025

Does the way I refer to myself around others point to a need to show myself more respect?

By an anonymous contributor

As I progress in my improvement of self-esteem, I have started to notice that the way I talk about my life or myself with others is often not really respectful. Instead of seeing myself as a person worthy of the same respect that you would grant to everyone else, I find myself almost taking for granted that I am "less-than" or, for lack of better words, "not a real person" as much as other people. For example, I find myself minimizing my knowledge, using too much self-directed humor, volunteering too much information to "justify" why I did something, or else needing to joke to make myself "more palatable", as if I am constantly anticipating that I don't have a right to simply be taken seriously by others on an equal level.

I have made a commitment to change the kind of  communication and humor I use to share myself with others, in order to grow towards the idea that my life and opinions hold dignity as much as everyone else's in the room, even when I am limited by my disabilities.

Over time I have found that changing my actions is generally the way for me to change my inner world, more than vice versa, so I am focusing on directly changing the way I talk rather than focusing on changing the way I think.

Has anyone else noticed that they were holding a double standard when it came to respecting themselves v. respecting others?

Share questions:-

  • Have you found aspects of your experience where you realized you were not granting yourself enough respect? If so, how did this manifest? Where does it come from?
  • Have you ever anticipated disrespect from others, because of being autistic or due to other reasons?
  • How does self-respect relate to respecting others for you?
  • What have you found helpful to develop and express healthy respect for yourself?  
  • What is respect to you and how does it relate to self-esteem?
  • Do you feel like your past and current environments respect you?
  • Is there anything that you mistook for respect but it wasn't, or vice versa, mistook for disrespect, but later realized that it wasn't?
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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

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Step 3

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Step 4

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