The Al-Anon Family Groups are a fellowship of relatives and friends of alcoholics who share their experience, strength, and hope in order to solve their common problems. We believe alcoholism is a family illness and that changed attitudes can aid recovery. Al-Anon has but one purpose: to help families of alcoholics. We do this by practicing the Twelve Steps, by welcoming and giving comfort to families of alcoholics, and by giving understanding and encouragement to the alcoholic.
Al-Anon in Playa del Carmen
You Are Not Alone! We Welcome You to Playa Del Carmen’s English-speaking fellowship of Al-Anon.
alanon, playa del carmen, Mexico, alateen, Al-Anon, na-anon, family alcoholism, zoom, zoom meetings
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yanaplaya
607-891-5750
Welcome to our English-speaking Al-Anon group in Playa del Carmen!
Find out more about Al-Anon as a whole both in Mexico and around the world.
Al-Anon
Al-Anon and Alateen in Mexico
Covid-19 and YANA
The coronavirus pandemic is changing how we connect with each other.
During the COVID-19 quarantine in Quintana Roo, we began an online Al-Anon meeting and it’s been such a popular option that we are continuing our weekly Zoom meeting every Saturday at 10:30am and have opened an in-person meeting Wednesdays at 10:30am.
Quintana Roo has lifted mask mandates and left it up to individual businesses and organizations.
To adequately provide for a safe environment for all members, we ask that attendees bring masks. Masks may or may not be required of members, it will depend on the group conscience at any given meeting.
We have weekly online Zoom meetings Saturdays at 10:30am.
We have weekly in person meetings Wednesdays at 10:30am.
Al-Anon Meetings
Our online meetings are taking place via the Zoom platform.
All the meeting times listed are Playa/Cancun time.
- Al-Anon Meetings
- Location
- How to Zoom
- 7th Tradition
Al-Anon
Al Anon is a meeting for people who have been affected by someone else’s disease of alcoholism. According to the third tradition, the only requirement for membership is that there be a problem of alcoholism in a relative or friend.
Online and In Person
Find our online Al-Anon meeting on Zoom at 10:30am every Saturday.
Find our in person meeting in the YANA room at 10:30am every Wednesday.
Zoom Details
Zoom Meeting ID: 607 891 5750
Meeting Link: zoom.us/j/6078915750
Password: yanaplaya
Call in on the phone, follow the prompts and input the meeting ID:
-
- In Mexico? Dial one of these numbers:
- +52 554 161 4288
- +52 229 910 0061
- Elsewhere? Find your local/country number
- In Mexico? Dial one of these numbers:
Suggested Topics
First Saturday of the month
→ Step
Second Saturday of the month
→ Tradition
Third Saturday of the month
→ Story
Fourth Saturday of the month
→ Open Topic
Fifth Saturday of the month
→ Open Topic/Speaker
Where We Are
Find us in the YANA room, on Avenida 45 between Juarez and Calle 2. Wednesdays at 4:30pm.
Accessibility
The meeting room is not fully accessible, as there is a single step up to enter the room.
Safety
Quintana Roo has lifted mask mandates and left it up to individual businesses and organizations.
To adequately provide for a safe environment for all members, we ask that attendees bring masks. Masks may or may not be required of members, it will depend on the group conscience at any given meeting.
What to Tell a Taxi Driver
Tell the taxi driver it is between Juarez and Calle 2 Nte, on Avenida 45 (en avenida cuarenta y cinco, entre Juarez y calle dos norte). Or you can ask the driver to go to the intersection of Calle 2 Nte and Avenida 45 (hasta avenida cuarenta y cinco con calle dos). You can also pull the room up on google maps and show the driver the pin on the map.
All About Zoom
You can join a Zoom meeting from any device. That means you can connect on your smartphone, you can video join on your computer, or call into the meeting with your cell or landline.
Using the App
If you want to join a meeting using a smartphone, tablet, or computer you will first need an app. The easiest way to get the app is to just try to join a meeting and follow the prompts.
When you click to join a meeting, you will be prompted to download and install Zoom on whatever device you’re using. It’s perfectly safe to use this method and to download and install the app.
Life Hack: Do a test run with a test meeting by visiting zoom.us/test
Meeting IDs and Links
Zoom Meeting ID: this is is a 9 to 11 digit number that is used to join a Zoom meeting, you can use this ID directly by visiting zoom.us/join and inputting the ID, opening the app and using the ID, or when you call in on your phone.
Zoom Meeting Link: This link can be used on any device to bring you to the meeting, just click and follow the prompts.
Call in on a phone, dial your local number and follow the prompts. You’ll need to input the meeting ID to join the meeting.
-
- In Mexico? Dial one of these numbers:
- +52 554 161 4288
- +52 229 910 0061
- Elsewhere? Find your local/country number
- In Mexico? Dial one of these numbers:
In a Meeting
If you are not a chairperson, all you need to do is what you would do in any other meeting, just sit back and enjoy the ride. It’s helpful to learn how to mute and unmute your microphone to prevent ambient noise during other people’s shares and to be able to speak when you need to. There are other fun tricks and tools available in a Zoom meeting, but like they say in AA, let’s just keep it simple.
Al-Anon 7th Tradition
Every group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions. We are using online platforms to “pass the basket” because we cannot do so in person. This is a place to provide the 7th tradition information to Al-Anon attendees who want to put change in the basket.
Donate Online from Anywhere
TEXT to DONATE
From a US or Canadian phone, text ALANON to +1 (202) 858-1233
Al-Anon Meeting Resources
Here are some of the basic meeting materials and our online format.
- Opening
- Steps
- Traditions
- Rights
- Closing
- Safety
Al-Anon Meeting Opening Statement
We welcome you to the Playa del Carmen English Speaking Al-Anon Meeting, and hope you will find in this fellowship the help and friendship we have been privileged to enjoy.
We who live, or have lived, with the problem of alcoholism understand as perhaps few others can. We, too, were lonely and frustrated but in Al-Anon we discover that no situation is really hopeless and that it is possible for us to find contentment and even happiness, whether the alcoholic is still drinking or not.
We urge you to try our program. It has helped many of us find solutions that lead to serenity. So much depends on our own attitudes, and as we learn to place our problem in its true perspective, we find it loses its power to dominate our thoughts and our lives.
The family situation is bound to improve as we apply the Al-Anon ideas. Without such spiritual help living with an alcoholic is too much for most of us. Our thinking becomes distorted by trying to force solutions, and we become irritable and unreasonable without knowing it.
The Al-Anon program is based on the suggested Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, which we try, little by little, one day at a time, to apply to our lives along with our slogans and the Serenity Prayer. The loving interchange of help among members and daily reading of Al-Anon literature thus make us ready to receive the priceless gift of serenity.
Al-Anon is an anonymous fellowship. Everything that is said here, in the group meeting and member-to- member, must be held in confidence. Only in this way can we feel free to say what is on our minds and in our hearts, for this is how we help one another in Al- Anon.
Preamble
The Al-Anon Family Groups are a fellowship of relatives and friends of alcoholics who share their experience, strength, and hope in order to solve their common problems. We believe alcoholism is a family illness and that changed attitudes can aid recovery.
Al-Anon is not allied with any sect, denomination, political entity, organization, or institution; does not engage in any controversy; neither endorses nor opposes any cause. There are no dues for membership. Al-Anon is self-supporting through its own voluntary contributions.
Al-Anon has but one purpose: to help families of alcoholics. We do this by practicing the Twelve Steps, by welcoming and giving comfort to families of alcoholics, and by giving understanding and encouragement to the alcoholic.
Crosstalk Reminder
Our Group Conscience has requested that we refrain from Cross Talk.
Cross talk is defined as directly addressing another member with your comments, using the word ‘you’, giving advice or trying to problem solve for someone else. We encourage each member to share their own experience, strength and hope or similar struggle on the topic. In this way, we model detachment, and participate in a loving interchange.
When sharing, a member may request to hear personal experience strength and hope from members on a specific issue as it pertains to Al Anon either during, or privately after the meeting.
Twelve Steps of Al-Anon
1
We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.
2
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.
4
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5
Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7
Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.
8
Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out.
12
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Based on the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Twelve Traditions of Al-Anon
1
Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon unity.
2
For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as expressed in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
3
The relatives of alcoholics, when gathered together for mutual aid, may call themselves an Al-Anon Family Group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation. The only requirement for membership is that there be a problem of alcoholism in a relative or friend.
4
Each group should be autonomous, except in matters affecting another group or Al-Anon or AA as a whole.
5
Each Al-Anon Family Group has but one purpose: to help families of alcoholics. We do this by practicing the Twelve Steps of AA ourselves, by encouraging and understanding our alcoholic relatives, and by welcoming and giving comfort to families of alcoholics.
6
Our Family Groups ought never endorse, finance or lend our name to any outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary spiritual aim. Although a separate entity, we should always co-operate with Alcoholics Anonymous.
7
Every group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8
Al-Anon Twelfth Step work should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
9
Our groups, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
10
The Al-Anon Family Group has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
11
Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, films, and TV. We need guard with special care the anonymity of all AA members.
12
Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
Reprinted with permission from Al-Anon Family Groups.
Personal Bill of Rights
1
I have the right to ask for what I want.
2
I have the right to say no to requests or demands I cannot meet.
3
I have the right to express all of my feelings, positive or negative.
4
I have the right to change my mind.
5
I have the right to make mistakes and not have to be perfect.
6
I have the right to follow my own values and standards.
7
I have the right to say no to anything when I feel I am not ready, it is unsafe, or it violates my values.
8
I have the right to determine my own priorities.
9
I have the right not to be responsible for others' behaviors, actions, feelings, or problems.
10
I have the right to expect honesty from others.
11
I have the right to be angry at someone I love.
12
I have the right to be uniquely myself.
13
I have the right to feel scared and say, ''I'm afraid.''
14
I have the right to say, ''I don't know.''
15
I have the right not to give excuses or reasons for my behavior.
16
I have the right to make decisions based on my feelings.
17
I have the right to my own needs for personal space and time.
18
I have the right to be playful and frivolous.
19
I have the right to be healthier than those around me.
20
I have the right to be in a non-abusive environment.
21
I have the right to make friends and be comfortable around people.
22
I have the right to change and grow.
23
I have the right to have my needs and wants respected by others.
24
I have the right to be treated with dignity and respect.
25
I have the right to be happy.
As used in our Playa del Carmen Al-Anon meeting, noted as “author unknown”
Al-Anon Suggested Closing Statement
In closing, we would like to say that the opinions expressed here were strictly those of the person who gave them. Take what you liked and leave the rest.
The things you heard were spoken in confidence and should be treated as confidential. Keep them within the walls of this room and the confines of your mind.
A few special words to those of you who haven’t been with us long: Whatever your problems there are those among us who have had them, too. If you try to keep an open mind you will find help. You will come to realize that there is no situation too difficult to be bettered and no unhappiness too great to be lessened.
We aren’t perfect. The welcome we give you may not show the warmth we have in our hearts for you. After a while, you’ll discover that though you may not like all of us you’ll love us in a very special way, the same way we already love you.
Talk to each other, reason things out with someone else but let there be no gossip or criticism of one another. Instead, let the understanding love and peace of the program grow in you one day at a time.
Would all who care to join me in the Serenity Prayer.
Serenity Prayer
God, grant me
the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Closing statement reprinted with permission from Al-Anon Family Groups.
A Special Word to Anyone Confronted with Violence
Al-Anon’s gentle process unfolds gradually, over time. But those of us facing violent, potentially life-threatening situations may have to make immediate choices to ensure safety for ourselves and our children. This may mean arranging for a safe house with a neighbor or friend, calling for police protection, or leaving money and an extra set of car keys where they can be collected at any time in case of emergency.
It is not necessary to decide how to resolve the situation once and for all—only how to get out of harm’s way until this process of awareness, acceptance, and action can free us to make choices for ourselves that we can live with.
Anyone who has been physically or sexually abused or even threatened may be terrified of taking action at all. It can require every ounce of courage and faith to act decisively. But no one has to accept violence. No matter what seems to trigger the attack, we all deserve to be safe.
Tapping Other Resources
Al-Anon’s purpose is to help families and friends of alcoholics. We come together to find help and support in dealing with the effects of alcoholism. In time we discover that the principles of our program can be practiced “in all our affairs.” But there are times when, in order to work through especially challenging circumstances, we may need more specialized support from mental, spiritual, physical, or legal advisors. Many of us have benefited from taking care of these needs in addition to coming to Al-Anon.
Safety in Al-Anon Meetings
Safety is an important issue within Al‑Anon—one that all can address. Open discussion on the topic can aid groups in developing workable solutions to safety issues—solutions that are based on the fundamental principles of our fellowship and that will help keep our meetings safe.
It is not necessary to decide how to resolve the situation once and for all—only how to get out of harm’s way until this process of awareness, acceptance, and action can free us to make choices for ourselves that we can live with.
In any situation, if a person’s safety is in jeopardy, or the situation breaches the law, the members involved can take appropriate action to ensure their safety. Calling the proper authorities does not go against any Al‑Anon Traditions. Anonymity is not a cloak protecting criminal or inappropriate behavior
Tapping Other Resources
Tradition Five states: “Each Al‑Anon Family Group has but one purpose: to help families of alcoholics. We do this by practicing the Twelve Steps of AA ourselves, by encouraging and understanding our alcoholic relatives, and by welcoming and giving comfort to families of alcoholics.” It is hoped that our primary purpose will transcend most issues and curtail negative behaviors. However, sometimes issues of safety jeopardize group harmony.
Safety is important to the functioning of the group. When members maintain order and safety in meetings, the group as a whole benefits, and all those involved are able to focus on recovering from the family disease of alcoholism and learning how to live a serene life.
Ultimately, the experience of how these situations are handled can be as varied as our fellowship. Using good judgment and common sense, while adhering to the Twelve Traditions, seems to provide the best guide.
Reprinted with permission from In All Our Affairs: Making Crises Work for You, Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc.
And from the Al-Anon document, Safety in Al-Anon Meetings.
Finding Al-Anon Readings Online
With a lack of meeting space and a difficulty in being able to access printed copies of our Al-Anon literature during this time, it’s possible to find some of our Al-Anon readings online for free.