Some observations from Wirral

“Thanks for your great site. I'd like to point your attention towards the Wirral meetings which I attended for some time until recently. I finally met a good sponsor who took me through the big book in an entirely compassionate way. As such I was able to see that it did indeed hold a lot of wisdom which has enabled me to move towards freedom in a realistic way. I have however seen the following at Wirral AA meetings, they are frequented mainly by a set number of individuals who seem to control things and have no qualms whatsoever about burdening or upsetting people often through stealthy and implied sinister means. I'm more than happy to quote particularly dangerous meetings if you require, although I'd say these elements are in almost every Wirral meeting I've been to:

1) Sexual predatory. One …... woman ….. making obvious advances towards me when I was new around and quite obviously unhappy at my refusal of her advances. What indeed I wonder was the implication? It is almost always that your life will be made difficult especially as you now 'have no choice' - in their words but to attend these meetings. Shocking. And it's happening to others too.

2) Discrimination towards dual addicted people. Open and obvious condemnation of anyone talking about non-alcohol related substances in meetings.

3) Pointless, platitudinal repetitive garbage based shares preaching rubbish about everything being great - and more importantly these shares are rewarded by the group leader. I'd say out of an entire meeting you might get one who is honest out of 20 who share. Most do not feel comfortable talking honestly in meetings and often resort to sharing outside or privately. There is a clear undercurrent of cult orientation here, where you feel outcast if you speak the truth.

4) Open criticism of members in meetings. One guy who has 'xx years sobriety' and is a well known and 'respected' member regularly complains about other people in meetings, even having the audacity to attack one woman who had to leave early because she had a panic attack. He is openly hostile to anyone who does not preach the 'AA gospel'. He is never challenged on this, and has many admiring 'peers' in the Wirral meetings who also have many years of 'sobriety'.

5) The constant preaching of certain death if you dare leave AA for any period of time. How is this helpful?

6) Rejection of returning members who've spent time outside of AA. Seems this door only swings one way.

7) Weak and clearly dogmatic Group Leaders throughout all Wirral meetings.

8) A general and ever present dis-satisfaction amongst members throughout the meetings.

9) Badly handled sponsorship. Implications that you will die if you do not get a sponsor. Some sponsors treating their sponsees like children, even scolding them if they do not ring them at a certain time of day. One sponsor even recommended I kill myself by cutting my wrists in a way that won't heal in time to stop me bleeding to death because I said I was depressed and had a case of the 'poor me's'. Several years later I got diagnosed with …...... by a professional.

10) Open recommendations not to take medication. I am actually unconvinced by present day medication, but do totally unqualified people really have the right to judge and advise from a position of influence on this topic?

11) A general concept of a 'select' group of people going around giving 'tough love' at every opportunity. Clearly egotistical 'now then mate' gang like mentality amongst those who are in the click, which is obvious every time they meet. I call them the Wirral AA Mafia.

12) Clear detachment and ostracisation by older members abusing their position of 'respect' within AA whenever a new or younger member says something they disagree with.

A right old mess, doing nothing like what AA was intended for - which has rotted the Wirral meetings to the core. I have withheld my name as I do not want to be identified, and that really does say it all!

Thanks again for your great site”

An interesting mail and it does suggest some worrying implications not only in terms of possible cult activity but also how AA itself operates. As we have indicated before the cult did not come from outside AA – it came from within. Cult members have simply interpreted the recovery programme, traditions, guidelines, concepts etc in such a way as to lend some legitimacy to their systematic abuse of the most vulnerable members ie. newcomers. However many of the above abuses existed in AA before the emergence of this dogmatic tendency and it might be worthwhile reflecting on this (and with specific regard to the prescribed medication issue, and the role of sponsorship within AA). An attentive study of the basic text of the Fellowship (the Big Book) should ensure that such exploitation (and discrimination) is eradicated, and that no member of AA assumes the right to direct the conduct of another, or erodes in any way their basic human rights.

Cheerio

The Fellas