Alcoholics Anonymous prides itself on the fact that everyone is welcome. Unless it’s a “closed” meeting (only for alcoholics, not their friends or families), the policy is “come one, come all.” Or so they say.
About a year ago, I was chairing a fledgling meeting of Dual Recovery Anonymous, which is for people who struggle with both mental illness and addiction. It’s great, but unfortunately, very few people know about it.
Just to give you an idea about the need for DRA — using a bipolar example – there are 5.7 million bipolar individuals in the U.S., sixty percent of who are addicts. So there is an obvious demand for AA combined with mental health services.
However, DRA is underfunded and therefore nearly obsolete. The meeting I chaired had about four people in attendance before it died. People just weren’t showing up. They didn’t know about it. We made flyers, but AA meetings would not allow us to pass them out.
There are gay meetings, men’s meetings, women’s meetings, even one in Chicago called Sobriety in the Arts. The arts meeting involves a speaker reciting a poem or playing a song and giving a speech about it. Given the fact that so many mentally ill people are creative, I attempted to have our flyer passed around the room, but the meeting chair wouldn’t allow me to do it.
So if a DRA flyer is not permissible, why not create an AA meeting with a focus on mental health? That way we could get listed in AA’s Chicago Area Service Office’s directory of meetings, which would attract a sizeable pool of people.
I went downtown to the CASO and spoke with the director, the person you talk to if you want to start a new meeting. As soon as I mentioned the words “mental health,” I was met with disdain. “We don’t allow dual-diagnosis meetings,” the director told me.
I rattled off my 5.7 million/60 percent statistic and he still wouldn’t budge. I told him, “It’s not a dual-diagnosis meeting, but a meeting where people can talk openly about their feelings.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “It’s not allowed.” I told him “I have only four people showing up to my meeting and it’s because people don’t know about it.” No empathy.
Now not only is there no DRA in Chicago, there is no “mental health” meeting of AA. There is Dual Diagnosis Anonymous, similar to DRA, but it also struggles with membership numbers.
Part of the reason I’d like a separate group to attend is because of the faction of Alcoholics Anonymous that believes recovering alcoholics should not take any kind of substance — including medication — that alters your mood. They advocate a “pure” lifestyle, one without pharmaceuticals, including antidepressants, mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, et al.
We who are bipolar need these medications. It’s not a question of purity. Our doctors tell us we need to be on drugs like lithium and Prozac.
I stopped going to AA for this reason. I was tired of the subtle notion permeating these meetings that prescription drugs are bad. “I know I shouldn’t be on Prozac, but…” I heard at one meeting. I was the only one who spoke up in this woman’s defense. The book Alcoholics Anonymous was written in 1939 and has barely changed since. It mentions nothing about prescription drugs.
I only go to Dual Diagnosis Anonymous now. There, I feel welcome no matter what my emotional state is or what prescription drugs I’m taking. AA must change with the times if it wants to continue to attract those who most need it, rather than turning them out due to outdated ideologies. Unfortunately, the organization is as slow and unwilling to change as the Catholic Church. Until this attitude stops, I will not go back to AA. It’s ignorant to think that people with mood disorders can just power through their days with the help of God and the steps. It just doesn’t work that way. Some of us need medication because of our conditions. Who am I to trust: My doctor, an accredited addictionologist, or the CASO director who’s got an 18th-century mentality about mental health?
Biased. Aa states that “those with grave mental and emotional disorders do recover if they have the capacity to be honest.” So yes, AA does indeed accept those with mental illness. Although it is not titled dual diagnosed they are familiar that some alcoholics (and addicts) have mental and emotional disorders. I do have a diagnoses and am very accepted at Aa because I am openly honest about what I go through and have a lot of support. I like how aa is more God based than other fellowships because without a higher power I would of never been able to reach sobriety.