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Tuesday 29 July 2014

Conference questions (2014) – almost! (contd)


38. Would Conference discuss if AA UK should use or not use the term “self help group” when referring to AA groups?

Background

On the webpage section "Newcomer to AA ‐ Who We Are" it says:
"Through meetings and talking with other alcoholics we are somehow able to stay sober."
This could give the impression AA is a self help group and that talking to others "somehow" keeps us sober. The Big Book has a chapter called "How it Works". It does not mention going to meetings and then "somehow" staying sober. Instead it talks about taking certain steps and through them building a relationship with God that works.
As much as it is understandable that we cannot explain the whole chapter in one sentence at the web, this description on how it works given now on the page, may cause the impression steps have nothing to do with recovery and that we don't know what got us sober in the first place.
In addition the flyer "To Professionals" actually states we were self help groups. As far as I know that is the only piece in AA literature that does so, especially as this information is wrong. Step 2 states exactly that "we came to believe that only a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity" and hereby refers to God, because we cannot help ourselves

Terms of Reference No. 7 Covered by existing literature, for example our Preamble which states AA is a “Fellowship”.”

Comment: Oh dear! Another bloody recovery 'expert'! This is one should really try reading the book sometime maybe starting with the above quoted chapter – Working With Others - and the very beginning of the section no less:

Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when other activities fail. This is our twelfth suggestion: Carry this message to other alcoholics! You can help when no one else can. You can secure their confidence when others fail. Remember they are very ill.”

(our emphasis)

Presumably “carry[ing] the message” might involve at some stage actually talking with the person concerned. Or perhaps the message is somehow transmitted via the esoteric art of telepathy? As for whether meetings are mentioned in the literature – they are....and guess where! …. The Big Book no less! (A Vision For You, p. 161)

Now, this house will hardly accommodate its weekly visitors, for they number sixty or eighty as a rule. Alcoholics are being attracted from far and near. From surrounding towns, families drive long distances to be present. A community thirty miles away has fifteen fellows of Alcoholics Anonymous. Being a large place, we think that some day its Fellowship will number many hundreds.”

Then, in this eastern city, there are informal meetings such as we have described to you, where you may now see scores of members. There are the same fast friendships, there is the same helpfulness to one another as you find among our western friends.” (p. 162)

Note: From the above it can be seen that 'self-help' refers to one 'self' helping another. Not fixing or curing..... but helping! Jeez! If you're going to cite the literature maybe read it first!

See here for a full list of other questions that didn't quite get through the 'filter'

Cheers

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)

PS How do you do a step Five by the way without talking to someone else? Telepathy again perhaps!! Talking with other alcoholics is referred to all the way through the book!

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