Do I have to do AA as a part of my recovery process? No, absolutely not! AA is only one possible tool on your road to sobriety. You don’t have to do it at all. In fact, it has a very low overall success rate: addiction treatment experts peg AA at about an 8 to 12 percent overall success rate. The dropout rate is high as well. This doesn’t mean that AA doesn’t work. It does, for some people. It may work for you, too. However, there are some things you should know about AA before you decide to join.
AA and Medication
AA prohibits any kind of medication assistance. This includes Suboxone for opioid maintenance treatment and certain medications used to help alcoholics fight their alcohol cravings. It even includes naltrexone or Vivitrol. This medication blocks the opioid receptors in the brain so no high can occur from taking opioids. Vivitrol isn’t a narcotic or even a controlled substance, but AA forbids it. Any kind of marijuana use is prohibited, too. This includes medical marijuana and even cannabidiol or CBD, which causes no high at all. All these substances have their place and are medically approved for certain health conditions, but AA doesn’t allow them.
At the same time, AA does permit its members to smoke cigarettes and drink coffee. Moderate coffee use is likely not a health issue for most people, but caffeine is a stimulant and technically can be mildly addictive. Nicotine is a highly addictive and harmful substance, and cigarette smoking is a proven cause of cancer, heart disease and high blood pressure. Cigarettes kill, yet AA sees no problem with this.
If you’re using Suboxone, methadone or any other type of MAT or medication-assisted treatment, AA will not be compatible with this. The same is true of medications used to control alcohol cravings, such as acamprosate and naltrexone. These medications have been proven to be effective, far more effective than AA in fact, yet AA prohibits them.
AA and your Higher Power
On the surface, this makes no sense. Why not take advantage of an effective therapy? The main reason AA doesn’t approve of medications for either drug withdrawal or maintenance may be because their philosophy is based on dependence on a higher power. This higher power isn’t necessarily God, Allah or some other standard deity but rather what you perceive to be your own higher power.
AA requires you to follow and complete 12 ascending and often complex steps. At the beginning, you must admit that you have lost control of your life due to your drinking or drug use. This is almost certainly true, and you must admit that you have a problem before you can begin to fix it. After you admit your problem, you must turn over control of your life to your higher power. This is required and is likely the reason why AA doesn’t approve of medications. They see a conflict there that I don’t see, but I’m not the founder of AA, either.
AA Steps and Sponsors
You will be assigned a sponsor to help you work the steps. This sponsor will usually be of the same sex and will always be someone who has completed the steps and who has a considerable period of complete abstinence and sobriety from drug and alcohol use. AA also provides worksheets to help with the more difficult steps, such as the notorious steps 8 and 9. In step 8, you must identify all you have harmed through your drug and alcohol use, at least as much as you can. Step 9 is even harder because it requires you to make amends to those people, unless doing so is either not possible or would do more harm.
In addition to the steps, you will be required to attend a certain number of AA meetings per week. These meetings are held in just about all areas of the country. In fact, there is probably one going on right now within a reasonable distance of your location as you read this. You can attend as many meetings as you like, even several a day. People get up during these meetings, identify themselves by first name only, wait for the group to respond with something like, “hello, Julie,” and then proceed to talk about how alcohol or drug use has affected their life.
Call us for Help
We’re here 24 hours a day at 844-844-3463 to help you find the best drug treatment for you in your area. We can help you with finding AA meetings near you. If you decide that AA isn’t for you, we can help you with the many alternatives available as well. You’re not alone, and there is always hope.