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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

Overwhelm and self-esteem part 2: Individual needs and self-care

Tuesday, April 21, 2026

Trigger alert: Sensory overwhelm

As a late-identified autistic person, I'm still coming to understand what my real needs are after years of pre-identification confusion. I've managed to put together some self-care strategies that really help. But I'm realizing that one of the reasons it's been hard for me to identify my needs is that they can be so different on days when I'm overwhelmed than on days when I'm not overwhelmed. Not only that, but on days when I've overwhelmed, I'm also less able to assess what my needs are or take the steps to fulfill them. That unmanageability makes it hard to feel like I'm in control of what's happening to me, which impacts my sense of self and self-esteem.

AWG Promise #9 has helped prevent me getting too despondent over my feeling of lack of control while overwhelmed. At those times, I try to remember that "I am a substantial and real human, and that my needs and sense of self have a dignity that is important for its own sake. That includes even on my lowest, most painful days". One act of self-care that I try to perform on days when my system is too overwhelmed to do almost anything else is simply to accept my state and recommit to loving myself. It helps ground me, even if my self-affirmation is coming through tears.

I'd like to learn more about how overwhelm can bring unmanageability to people's sense of their own needs and ability to self-care. What does this look like in your life?

Share questions:

  • Does sensory overwhelm impact what your needs are? Please describe. 
  • When overwhelmed, does anything happen to your ability to assess what your needs are in the moment? Does anything happen to your ability to self-care? 
  • Does the unmanageability brought by overwhelm make it harder to identify and express your needs to others? To get help? 
  • If you've gone through a period of time when your ability to assess your needs or self-care has been reduced, did it do anything to your self-image? Self-esteem? Were there any lasting effects over time?
  • How do you cope with not knowing what your needs are in the moment? With not being able to self-care in the moment? How do you cope physically? Mentally?
  • Any tools, resources, or strategies that helped you with questions like these? 
  • 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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