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Alcoholics Anonymous - The Big Book

6 min read

A Mutual Aid Success Story

I can sound very critical about A.A., but it’s only in response to the tone set by the How It Works section that’s read at the beginning of every meeting. If any enthusiastic newcomer is taken aback by the language about people being born too naturally dishonest to work the program, I want them to know there are people promoting other paths to recovery. They don’t have to decide between active addiction and alcoholics anonymous.

If I set aside my own reservations about the program, I have to honestly admire that AA is perhaps one of the biggest success stories for what a mutual aid network can accomplish if its people are sufficiently motivated. After every social institution has proved to have a disastrous handling of substance abuse and mental health, an explicitly non-professional society with religious overtones started with collectives across the world. In theory, anyone can walk into an AA meeting and find fellow addicts trying to recover or maintain sobriety together.

It’s not just emotional support either. Tangible resources are shared in recovery meetings. I’ve seen jobs reserved for people in recovery, first-month rental assistance, transportation arrangements, food and basic essentials especially when partnering with churches that hold donation drives. It’s more than I’ve seen out of grassroots political movements for sure

The Big Disclaimer

I can sometimes take a somewhat critical stance around A.A. literature and the official A.A. nonprofit organization. I try to contextualize my tone as a contrast to the specific parts of A.A.’s philosophy that can be harsh towards those it may not be the best fit for, especially when religion and spirituality are used interchangeably.

Despite showing up as a newcomer with a lot of enthusiasm to begin managing an unmanageable life, I was taken aback when I saw the terms “unfortunates” and “constitutionally incapable” applied to those who search of an “easier, softer way” as if alternative recovery options didn’t exist. I generally have a strong aversion to the idea that immoral or amoral lifestyles are the result of being “born that way” since that can be a slippery slope to associating poor character with genetic predestination. I was confused for a while about how a loving, caring, all-powerful Higher Power from a “higher independent reality” that is prayed to as “God”, “Creator”, and “Father” under the justification of convenience isn’t actually just God.

If we wanted to talk about general spiritual principles, well the concepts of “self-will run riot” and “misidentification with an impermanent ego through attachment” from various Buddhist and Hindu traditions are quite similar. There could be something to finding common ground rooted in empirically verifiable psychology, like framing the results of excessive self-will or egoistic attachment as irrational distortions to be challenged. That common ground can fall apart when introducing a Higher Power as a causal independent agent in recovery, yet the Steps aren’t possible to do without it.

These can certainly have a discouraging effect on newcomers to recovery or even those simply curious about a desire to stop drinking - not because they don’t believe in God or a Higher Power that would be compatible with the Steps, but because it’s unexpected and heavy-handed for people who are shopping around a recovery marketplace. My tone is intended to convey to these newcomers that no, you are not crazy for experiencing doubts about the spiritual vs religious nature of the program. It is general religious content, not just general spiritual principles. I’m not even sure those can be split up and defined separately.

But the same applies to my own content. It can be discouraging to see someone only express criticism about the most widely available free community to meet others struggling with one of the most complex yet stigmatized diseases to exist. My desire to share alternatives to A.A. should not be read as a condemnation of A.A., and by no means does being religious mean that A.A. is any less effective or worthy as a solution for recovery. I have no problem believing the claim from A.A. that over 2 million alcoholics have improved their sustained abstinence through the program and the Steps.

By nature I am an anarchic contrarian, so my M.O. always involves poking holes in the common narratives promoted by institutions out of a suspicion of power. I am rarely motivated to discuss anything because of A.A. members or meetings on the whole, which are filled with lovely supportive people and decades of wisdom in recovery. It’s the way A.A. has become institutionally embedded as a manualized suggestion or protocol in standard recovery treatment, partially because of the literature and public relations media put out by an official organization, that catches my suspicion. After all, A.A.’s philosophy itself highlights the non-professional, non-hierarchical network with no opinion on outside issues as critical to its success.

I make a point not to do a blanket endorsement or condemnation of any program as long as it’s not advocating for sacrificing babies for adrenochrome under a mountain on a remote island or doing massive amounts of untested hallucinogenics in a haunted cave. It would be entirely against the spirit of this site if someone who might only have access to A.A. meetings in their area ends up isolating and continuing to experience a life becoming increasingly unmanageable by substance use.

So, despite not being someone who intends on working the Steps, I’m going to cover the ideas behind A.A. in the most charitable way I can while honoring the many Christian philosophers who laid the foundation for the program. I will resist the temptation to cite Reinhold Niebuhr. That way, even if we end up at disagreement about The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous itself or the character defects of William Wilson (Bill W.), we can step back and still engage with the ideas through other means.

The only exception is going to be scientific claims. If there is a reliable body of evidence that substantially impacts the merits of a claim about addiction and recovery, I will bring it up so that you can separate the principles of recovery from the dynamics of the disease.

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