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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

Making friends with my torso

Tuesday, July 28, 2026

My new awareness means that my shape is no longer life-defining in the way it used to be. Part 4 of 4 readings on body image.

Trigger warning: Body dysmorphia

If I had to tell you I'm a Millennial without telling you I'm a Millennial, I could do it in two words:

Bare midriff.

The craze for low-rise jeans and crop tops started when I was about 10, just hitting puberty. With the style trends and my physical changes, there was suddenly no place for me in clothing stores, changing rooms, or anywhere people could see me (or so I felt at the time). My curvy torso, apple body shape, and healthy weight just felt wrong.

The social demands time period really did a number on my mental health. My torso is the most central part of my body. It faces towards anyone I'm interacting with. There's no way I can hide it or change how it looks. And with a lack of spoons and no internet yet, I wasn't able to do the research to "dress for my body" as I was urged to. Today, I know there was no need to change or "dress for my body" to be worthy as a person, but my younger, pre-identification self felt irresistibly pressured.

The body positivity movement has done a lot to help me embrace my shape, changing my life for the better. So has learning I am autistic. This meeting encourages me to think about self-care and my values, both of which help me in my relationship with my body overall. My self-concept has been able to evolve see my body as an expression of positive things like self-care and my values, countering negative messages from the media and triggering memories fro my past.

Finding a new social context with other individuals and groups has helped, too. I now have autistic friends who aren't overly fussed about clothes or evaluating me based on how I dress. One of my friends has clothes as a special interest, and yet they see me as me, the whole picture instead of sub-aspects like my wardrobe or on my shape. I feel more relaxed and able to be myself.

I still have stress around the shape of my torso and shopping, for example, around special events like weddings. But my new awareness of myself and my self-concept means that my shape, weight, and wardrobe, and how they happen to show up at that one event, are no longer life-defining in the way they used to. My relationship with my torso is still not perfect, but it's much more manageable.

Share questions:

  • What is your present relationship with your torso, and how does it fit into your self-esteem and sense of self? 
  • Have your thoughts and feelings about your torso changed over time? 
  • If your thoughts and feelings have changed, why have they changed? Was it due to outside influences, like the body positivity movement? Interactions with other individuals and groups, like finding affirmative friends? Self-care, like evolving your self-concept so body image is only one part of it? Other?
  • If your thoughts and feelings haven't changed, please describe what that is like. How are your self-esteem and self-image affected, and how does that influence your experiences in daily life?
  • This reading focused on body image and the torso. Do you have other thoughts and feelings about your torso outside of that topic? Please describe.
  • Has learning about autism affected your relationship with your torso at all?
  • 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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