Alcoholics Anonymous Demystified

I’ve heard some people say AA is group therapy. Or it’s a self-help program. Or it’s a religion. Or maybe it’s a cult. Actually, Alcoholics Anonymous is none of these things.

AA is not group therapy, but it is therapeutic. The obvious difference between AA and group therapy is that in AA there is no trained therapist leading the group. There is no trained anything or anybody.

Also, to reduce what happens in AA to simple group psychotherapy sells the results of the program short. The program is more than mind probing; it deals with three aspects of the disease: mental, physical and spiritual. A mental redirection or psychic change is part of the program but not the whole thing.

AA is not a self-help group, although, if you’re an alcoholic, you can help yourself a lot by doing the program. Recovery in AA is not Popular Mechanics for drinkers. Yes, there is a format, there is a “program”, but most members perform the program according to their own rules. You’re an AA member if you say so. Only you can say so, and you can’t get kicked out no matter how you perform (the only valid reason for kicking someone out of a meeting is if they disrupt it).

It’s not a religion. If AA is a religion, it’s the most irreverent religion I have ever come across. There are long time members that believe there is no God. In AA, we call them the same name as you do in normal circles; atheists. I have enjoyed some of the most perceptive discourses from our atheist friends (although I personally don’t understand how they stay sober with no belief in a Higher Power, but a significant number do).

I also know a number of agnostics in AA. A good friend of mine has 42 years sober (about 500 consecutive months). He readily admits he remains an agnostic to this day and he’s now 90. Agnosticism is not my cup of tea. My personal belief is that it’s like being a moderate politician; you’re too chicken to have solid beliefs. Make a decision dude! But I love that friend of mine; he’s like a grand pop to me and I smile every time I see him at a meeting.

There are a good number of AA members who disdain organized religion of any variety. They either felt repressed by it growing up or later developed a belief that the Almighty had abandoned them. Feeling abandoned by God is an easy concept to relate to if you’ve been deep in the throes of drinking for a long time. This group prefers to think of their belief system as spiritual rather than religious.

Then there are those, probably the majority of sober AA-ers, who continue to practice their birth religion until they die. They become better Catholics, better Presbyterians, better Muslims, better Buddhists etc. The various religious denominations by the way find no conflict between the teachings and practices of Alcoholics Anonymous and their own dogma, theology and liturgy. They don’t see us as a threat or in competition with them. If they are truly worried about us, why do so many AA meetings occur in the church basements of many different denominations?

AA is not a cult. There is no one person in charge (really), no devotion to a particular figure, historical or living, nor to a set of rules, ceremonies or liturgy. The nature of an alcoholic is rebellious. If you want to see and hear pandemonium break out, just suggest to a group of AA-ers they should approach the program in a certain way or even act at a meeting in some pre-approved manner. Then stand back and keep the exit door in view for your own safety.

So, if AA is none of these things, then what is it and why does it work? I think the best definition of what AA is, or at least what the program of recovery is, can be found in the third paragraph in the preface of the AA book “Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions”. It says:

“AA’s twelve steps are a group of principles, spiritual in their nature, which if practiced as a way of life, can dispel the obsession to drink and enable the sufferer to become happily and usefully whole.”

There it is. It’s not a “program”. It’s not group therapy or a cult. It’s a way of life. In my experience this definition is right on the money. Yet Alcoholics Anonymous is not my whole life, just its core. When I try to practice the principles embodied in those steps in all my activities, things go better even if I don’t know why.

On that question, nobody really knows why it works, yet AA members spend a good deal of time in and out of meetings discussing how it works. They’ve even made an acronym out of H.O.W. They say it stands for Honesty, Openness and Willingness. Of course AA-ers make acronyms out of every word they can (I have a list of more than 30 acronyms commonly used in AA meetings).

But ask an AA-er why the program works and, after they’ve stopped stuttering and stammering about spirituality, the Steps, a Higher Power and numerous other things, they usually finish by saying: “Who cares why it works, it just does.”

I’ve now been a member of AA for over 17 years and recently wrote a story of my experience under the pen name used for this article. It’s a 200 page novel, primarily based on my personal story, but enhanced with many of the peculiarities found in AA meetings.

I’m not promoting AA, just trying to demystify it.

AA is not group therapy, a self-help group, a cult or a religion. It is a way of life based on spiritual principles, yet there are no rules or requirements for membership. You’re a member if you say so and no one can kick you out.

Ian Asotte is a middle class professional, father of three who entered Alcoholics Anonymous in 1990 and hasn’t had a drink since. Author of “S.O.B.E.R. – How the Irritating Acronyms of Alcoholics Anonymous Got One Drunk Sober”. Email: ian@esober.com. Website: http://www.esober.com.

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