AA Deserves a Sober Look at Its Successes

I sometimes think people have more knowledge of the secret rites of Free Masons than they do of the workings and the accomplishments of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Odd indeed for an organization that’s been around for more than a half-century and is a lot more open than your average session of Congress.

Maybe it’s that very openness and simplicity of operation that confuses the cynics among us and sends them digging for ulterior motives or “unknown secrets” of the group.

A prime example of this silliness appears in the March issue of Los Angeles magazine under the headline “Is AA the New EST?”

And while I must admit the author does a fairly good job with the basics, she is thwarted at every turn by the editors, who blow up every elbow-in-the-side line in the piece.

“At AA . . . you can not only lose an addiction, you can network yourself silly--even find a spouse,” reads one headline outtake.

“Recovering substance abusers have hit the lecture circuits and they’re grabbing fees ranging from Margaux Hemingway’s low ball $5,000 a shot to Stacy Keach’s $25,000,” says another.

The main indictment of the article seems to be that “abstinence is chic,” the “in thing” of the ‘90s.

Which is OK with me--and I would think anyone else who knows the statistics on the destruction alcohol and drugs have wreaked on family life and our society as a whole.

What concerns me here, though, is the presentation of AA as a fad not far removed from Ouija boards or crystal pyramids.

And because Alcoholics Anonymous has no national spokesperson (or officials of any sort for that matter) to set the record straight, please indulge me for a few minutes.

AA had its beginnings in the late 1930s when two longtime alcoholics discovered that they could keep each other sober by sitting down and discussing their common problems.

After they had succeeded for a while and their circle grew to more than 100, they published a book called simply “Alcoholics Anonymous” in which they told their own stories and outlined the steps that had worked for them.

I suspect they had a pretty good knowledge of history because they adroitly sidestepped some pitfalls that destroyed a similar movement in the 1800s called the Washingtonians (after George).

The Washingtonians were also a group of alcoholics who got together to help each other stop drinking and “to keep sober those who are sober.”

By the 1840s, they had grown to about 600,000 and were taken over by evangelical ministers and others who saw them as a potential national political force. When the group’s goals changed from keeping people sober to electing politicians, it was doomed.

AA’s founders wisely decreed anonymity for all members and stressed in the forward to the book: “We are not allied with any particular faith, sect or denomination, nor do we oppose anyone. We simply wish to be helpful to those who are afflicted.”

In 1946, AA came up with some rules, called the “Twelve Traditions,” to clarify its goals and further ensure its independence. Among them are the determination that AA should “never become organized,” that it have “no opinion on outside issues,” and that (are you listening, Margaux and Stacy?) “we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films.”

Eligibility for membership is simply “the desire to stop drinking.” There are no secret handshakes, initiation rites, membership cards, oaths or funny hats. There aren’t even any dues.

Just a bunch of people from all walks of life sitting around sharing their experiences and hopes one day at a time.

The fact that AA works is attested to by the millions of alcoholics around the world who have turned their lives around in the 50 years since the group was founded.

Precisely how it works is more of a mystery, even to those who practice its principles in their daily lives.

“I have all the willpower of a cocker spaniel in heat,” says one member. “I can’t stop smoking, I can’t stay on a diet and I can’t let loose of old resentments and relationships.

“But, more than a dozen years ago, I went to my first AA meeting and was able to walk away from what had become a routine of drinking more than a quart of gin a day.”

All that matters to him--and, it seems to me, that should matter to the rest of us--is that it works.

EST should be so lucky.