AWG Secular 12 Step Self-Esteem Group

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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 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

AWG 12 Step Self-Esteem Readings

Positivity from past unmanageability?

Tuesday, August 12, 2025

Now that I look back, I can see that all the unmanageability I faced did influence me positively in some ways.

My life was so unmanageable for so long. Sensory, social, and executive function stress, and other stressors, kept me in a state of mental and physical pain for years.

Now that I look back, though, I can see that all the unmanageability I faced did influence me positively in some ways. For example, I think it made me more resourceful. It gave me a level of self-awareness that, while unhealthily overactive for a long time, is actually useful now that life is more stable. I'm able to sympathize with people who themselves in unmanageable situations, and I can spot people who've succeeded in making difficult situations livable without hurting others. So, though unmanageability has taken a toll on me, I think I do owe some good parts of myself to it, as well.

Does this idea ring true for anyone else?

Share questions:

  • Has anything good emerged from having gone through a time of so many unmanageable factors? Strengths in professional, emotional, social, family, or other sides of life? Resilience? A sense of perspective? Other?
  • Is there anything positive about your personality, mindset, or abilities that you feel emerged as a result of past unmanageability?
  • Does your prior experience with unmanageability keep you safe in your present life in any ways?
  • Have you ever imagined what you might be like if pre-identification unmanageability had never been a factor? Would there be anything "missing" compared to who you are today?
  • Are there any tools, strategies, or resources that helped you think about this?
  • Anything else to share?
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