I’m an atheist. I got sober 17 years ago. I did it with the help of AA. I still attend meetings, I’m still an atheist. Is the program perfect? Fuck no. Is its success rate pretty low? Probably. It’s never really been able to be studied in any scientifically rigorous way because of the anonymous aspect of the program. Addiction is a hell of a disease, though. I’m not aware of any treatment program that has a very good, long-term success rate. Relapse is common, regardless of the program.
Is AA a religious program? It can be, but it isn’t inherent in the program, in my experience. The problem is that the organization is completely decentralized. Each individual AA group does its own thing. The only thing the central office really does is publish literature. So…you will find AA groups that stress God and religion more overtly, especially in the Bible Belt and other red states and rural areas. You will find people who say that your Higher Power has to be God/Jesus and groups that always say the Lord’s Prayer at meetings. I try to avoid those groups and I’ve never had trouble doing that. I mostly go to LGBTQ groups, because a lot of us have been harmed by religion or religious people and so that whole aspect tends to be minimized or eliminated entirely.
Some people in these programs can also become overly enamored with them, and believe that they can fix all your problems. These people will tell you to stop taking your anti-anxiety meds, etc., and they can do a lot of damage. These people also don’t know AA’s history very well, because Bill Wilson never said AA could fix everything in your life, and he struggled with depression for all of his, even after he got sober, and he continually sought help for that, with not a lot of great results. He even took part in the early LSD trials.
Lastly, the passage in question in this case comes from chapter 4 of the book Alcoholics Anonymous. That chapter is titled “We Agnostics”. This chapter purports to tell people how they can work the program if they are agnostic or atheist. However, the tl;dr of it is that the solution is to not be agnostic or atheist anymore. It’s one of the worst parts of the book, I hate it every time any part of this chapter is read in a meeting, and the entire chapter needs to be trashed. It is full of really stupid myths and misconceptions of what agnostics and atheists do and don’t believe about the universe. I was going to say it’s the worst part of the book, but To The Wives is arguable worse because holy shit, the misogyny.
Ok, actually this is the last point. Courts and judges have been ordering people to 12 step meetings for a long time. It’s a controversial practice, even within AA. A lot of people in the program do not think judges and courts should be forcing people to go, and I am one of those people. Honestly, if a court wanted to try to confirm that someone (obviously this only applies to someone not currently incarcerated) went to the court ordered meetings, no one would be able to confirm that for the court because the program is anonymous. Hell, a lot of people don’t even use their real names.
I debated whether or not to even comment on this post. I know people have strong feelings about AA, both good and bad, so I want to make it clear that if you had a bad experience with AA, or someone you know did, I am 100% sure that you did. I am not disagreeing with or discrediting anyone else’s experiences, only sharing mine. As I said, it’s definitely not a perfect program.
ETA: Someone mentioned predatory behavior and “13th stepping”. Yeah, that happens. I wish I could say it didn’t, but I can’t. The original 13th stepper was Bill W. himself. In addition to struggling with depression, he also struggled with not hitting on newer women in sobriety. Again, I’ve found this sort of thing happens less at LGBTQ meetings, but it still happens there, too.
