According to the website “164andmore.com,” the word God appears 315 times in the Big Book and 12 and 12. The concept of God was essential to AA at its founding and continues to be the bedrock for many long-time sober members of Alcoholics Annonymous. Do you need God to get sober? It’s All Very Confusing…
I think one of the most remarkable and useful innovations that AA brought into the world of recovery (and beyond) is the way they treat the God concept as that of a “Higher Power.” This inclusive and somewhat benign term takes much of the power out of arguments believers make for their particular flavor of…
Whenever I am in a meeting, sooner or later I always return to the same thought stream over and over again. That thought is, “Why isn’t AA more successful than it is?” The Best and Only Way I have to be cautious sharing this thought with others, as many in AA have very strong opinions…
For me, learning to trust a few sober people, then a group, then a sponsor, then a program of recovery was what led to my sober life. Trust was the lynchpin. Once I opened up candidly about my situation and the role drinking played in it to a few people I trusted, it started the…
Eventually, all in recovery will come up against so-called “book thumpers” in AA meetings. Thumpers are well-intentioned AA members who stress the book Alcoholics Anonymous (aka “Big Book”) as the ultimate and final source of all matters of recovery. Not just the writing as a whole, but the words themselves, line-by-line. Fundamentalists I call…
Now is the time to show compassion at AA meetings. Give Tough Love and Ego Smashing a Break The euphemistically labeled “tough love and ego smashing good-old-days of AA” had its time. Today it has mostly been replaced by a more compassionate tone. Some like this change, others don’t. Personally, the ribbing and jocularity I…
These are extraordinary times that are upon us. No doubt. Anyone who says they see clearly around the corner, be it three-weeks, three-months, six-months, or beyond, is fooling themself. Sorry. The situation we are in is uncharted water. We all have to take it one day at a time and see what happens. So what…
Many AAs are finding themselves coming to grips with changing their behaviors during this pandemic. With many (or all) meetings canceled, AAs craving the sobriety meetings offer are going virtual. Most challenging to this shift is that many are doing this for the first time. This post is about good news and bad news about…
NOTE – THIS WAS WRITTEN JUST BEFORE CHANGES IN PUBLIC GATHERING WERE ENACTED. We are all alarmed with COVID – 19. Alarming to AAs specifically is that many AA meetings have a disproportionate number of older, higher risk, members – often highly valued old-timers – in attendance. With meeting attendance being a key ingredient…
New to AA? Sent by the courts, your psychologist, or your employer and not sure what to expect? Or, maybe you’ve stumbled into a meeting and are now scratching your head wondering, “what the heck is going on here?” Well, this post is for you! AA Background AA may be the most successful mainstream “treatment”…