Mentioning drugs in AA meetings.

Question: I have been to meetings where people have mentioned they also have had drug problems and it was accepted. I have been to other meetings were people preached that you can not mention this. What is right?

Answer: There is no "correct" answer to this question. Each individual A.A. group decides for itself how it will deal with it.

We can't tell you what is correct, but we can try to explain why it is something of a controversial topic and how it is often dealt with.

A.A. is a fellowship open to anyone with a desire to stop drinking. Because of this among the membership are people with every sort of problem. It was realized early on that A.A. could not solve all the problems people have and long ago chose to limit it's primary purpose to helping people recover from alcoholism only. Drinking too much is just about the only thing we all have in common and many fear A.A. would loose it's identity and effectiveness if it were address problems other than alcoholism.

Other fellowships such as Narcotics Anonymous, and many people in A.A., see alcoholism and drug addiction as the same thing. At the same time A.A. tries to maintain it's traditional focus on alcoholism only. This creates friction at times, particularly because many in A.A. do not think that alcoholism and drug addiction are the same thing. Some see this as an antiquated view, but it is the way A.A. has been set up since it began, with it's sole focus on alcohol, not addiction. Among the membership are many people who have tried various drugs but find that alcohol is the only one they have problems with.

In A.A., Step One says that we admit we are powerless over alcohol which is a physical substance. In N.A., Step One replaces "alcohol" with being powerless over "our addiction" which is a concept, behavior or disease. This embodies a significant difference in approach. A.A. is focused on being powerless over one certain substance while N.A. is focused on addiction (not a substance).

A.A. tries to limit it's focus to alcoholism but all sorts of other problems can influence a person's recovery. Some in A.A. talk of how money, health, mental and other problems influence their recovery. Often people talk about how their drug addiction influences their recovery or alcoholism.

"The problem" comes up when some feel that the primary focus of a group or meeting is getting away from alcoholism. If a meeting were to focus on a problem such as tax evasion or smoking, many would object that the meeting was straying from A.A.'s "Primary Purpose" and suggest the meeting be refocused onto drinking problems. When the focus leans toward drug addiction some see this as OK, others think this too is getting away from the focus of alcoholism, it really often depends who happens to be in the room at the time.

It all depends on the group, meeting and situation. If a person goes on talking endlessly in a meeting about fishing they might be asked to let someone else share or change the subject. If someone talks about drugs in a manner that has little to do with the recovery from alcoholism they might be asked to move on to something else too. While one person may see their fishing addiction and alcoholism as one in the same, they could be asked to limit their comments to the alcoholism to keep the focus on the one thing all in the meeting share in common - alcoholism. Likewise, many view their cocaine and alcohol addiction as the same problem but in an A.A. meeting they may be asked to limit their discussion of their cocaine use to keep the focus on A.A.'s primary purpose of helping with alcoholism which, again, is the only thing everyone in the fellowship has in common.

In many places introducing yourself as something other than "an alcoholic" at an A.A. meeting is often an occasion for controversy or tension. Many feel that introducing oneself as an "addict" or an "alcoholic/addict" moves the focus away from the primary purpose of an A.A. meeting. The sentiment behind this is that if we focus on our differences, rather than what we share in common, we will loose the common thread that holds us together as a fellowship.

Despite whatever other problems one may have in life, introducing yourself as simply "an alcoholic" is often the easiest, most practical way to avoid tension or conflict. Since the primary purpose of A.A. is to help with alcoholism introducing yourself as something other than an alcoholic is often seen as putting focus on problems A.A. is not intended to deal with. A person may be an alcoholic/gambler or an alcoholic/tax cheat or an alcoholic/diabetic or an alcoholic/thief or, as is quite common, an alcoholic/addict, but the only thing we all have in common is the "alcoholic" part. As a practical matter then, introducing yourself as simply "an alcoholic" can be the easiest way to limit the tensions surrounding the issue and to help keep A.A. focused on alcoholism (even if addiction and alcoholism are the same thing - a subject which A.A. has no opinion on).

Going to an A.A. meeting and introducing yourself as "an addict" is seen by many to be like going to a square dance and doing the waltz; it is just not what the gathering is meant for. Even if your primary hobby is the waltz, there is a time and a place for everything and if you are at a square dance it is only polite to stick to square dancing. If many kinds of dances happened at a square dance it would no longer be a square dance. Likewise many fear A.A. would no longer be A.A. if the common focus on alcoholism were to be lost amid a multitude of addictions or bad behaviors.

Likewise an A.A. member attending an N.A. meeting might also want to consider showing respect for the intended purpose of that fellowship and introduce themselves as "an addict" instead of "an alcoholic." There the commonality is found in addiction and introducing one's self as an alcoholic could be seen as emphasizing an individual difference rather than the shared problem.

The fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous has stated this concept in this way:

The focus of AA is on the alcoholic, and we ought to respect that fellowship’s perfect right to adhere to its own traditions and protect its focus. If we cannot use language consistent with that, we ought not go to their meetings and undermine that atmosphere. In the same way, we NA members ought to respect our own primary purpose and identify ourselves at NA meetings simply as addicts, and share in a way that keeps our message clear.

   Source: World Service Board Of Trustees Bulletin #13
   ©NA World Service (1985, revised 1996). Link to the full text.