12 Steps, Over 300 Disorders, and Recovery in a Mad, Mad World
How will you do your next Step 4? Do you use the AA Big Book list of resentments, fears and sex- conduct? Or will you us the newest version of the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). The first one in 1952 was 150 pages and 180 disorders. The current on DSM-IV is 900 pages and 365 disorders. DSM-5 will come out in 2013 and, while some insist that there is plenty of neurocognitive evidence to broaden definitions even further, critics see it as pharmaceutical cash cow that will help create a pill for everything.
Consider that OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorders) weren’t even part of our language when Bill Wilson wrote about how we work the Twelve Steps. The latest survey suggested that 60% of AA members are double winners, blessed with a psychiatric diagnosis as well as addiction. Chances are the new DSC check up from the neck up will increase that number. In the Globe and Mail on July 9th, Ian Brown ponders how much today’s science will look like quackery in another 100 years.
More… In The Rooms Addictions Magazine
The Recovery Freethinker Chronicles, the ongoing history of alternative beliefs in a Twelve Step world
“More than 2,000 years ago, whoever wrote Psalm 14 claimed that atheists were foolish and corrupt, incapable of doing any good. These put-downs have had sticking power. Negative stereotypes of atheists are alive and well. Yet like all stereotypes, they aren’t true — and perhaps they tell us more about those who harbor them than those who are maligned by them.” These are the words of Gregory Paul and Phil Zuckerman, from their April 29th Washington Post article called, “Why Do Americans Still Dislike Atheists?” Is this true and do anonymous 12-Step programs have attitude about their members of no theistic faith? Should we regard a faith in the same apathy we would his or her favorite color?
If someone shares our favorite color we might gasp, “Oh wow, me too!” and share a small bonding moment but if someone discloses in a meeting that they prefer a different color, we wouldn’t try to change his or her mind. The fact is that from the original few dozen members who stuck it out in early AA, atheists and agnostics were staying sober without having to accept anyone elses belief or deny their own. Today, the chapter “We Agnostics” doesn’t tell the story of most recovered non-theists. Some agnostics, atheists, Buddhists and Apostates find the chapter condescending or spiritually arrogant.
More… In The Rooms Addictions Magazine
The Recovery Free-thinker Chronicles, Bill W Relates to Non-Believers
In my last column, I explored some misconceptions that I have seen causing friction in the fellowship, specifically between atheists and God-conscious members in 12 Step programs. Like any society, variations in our heart-felt beliefs can make a mosaic out of community life or it can cause tension; it's all about love and tolerance. Today, I reflect on the deep empathy Bill Wilson felt for those alcoholics who's views differed from as to how the universe is unfolding. Bill learned a spiritual lesson from an Atheist doctor and he pondered how to, or how not to, talk AA with non-believers.
Back in 1961, while AA's 300,000 sober members celebrated its 25th anniversary, their founder agonized over how AA could be a better program along with more welcoming to newcomers. Here is an excerpt from the April 1961 Grapevine article, written by Bill Wilson: “Though three hundred thousand did recover in the last twenty-five years, maybe half a million more have walked into our midst, and then out again. No doubt some were too sick to make even a start. Others couldn't or wouldn't admit their alcoholism. Still others couldn't face up to their underlying personality defects. Numbers departed for still other reasons.
Yet we can't well content ourselves with the view that all these recovery failures were entirely the fault of the newcomers themselves.
More… In The Rooms Addictions Magazine
Rev. Ward Ewing, the best friend a nonbeliever could have
If you are new to Addiction Magazine blogs, welcome. I don’t believe in God. I feel about as welcome here as I do anywhere. I have found myself in the middle of AAs attitude adjustment about faith with tempers flaring on both sides of the God language in AA. In time we will have better language that expresses how we are 98% the same but until then, some of our language divides us.
The AA nonbelievers’ friend on the inside is certainly our fellow non-theists. Fellowship and cooperation with like-minded fellows is critical. But culturally critical to the sober atheist is the believer who says, “You belong, you are equal, I have much to learn from you.”
One of these great friends is Ward Ewing, Class A trustee and Chairman of our General Service Board.
More… In The Rooms Addictions Magazine
How will you do your next Step 4? Do you use the AA Big Book list of resentments, fears and sex- conduct? Or will you us the newest version of the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). The first one in 1952 was 150 pages and 180 disorders. The current on DSM-IV is 900 pages and 365 disorders. DSM-5 will come out in 2013 and, while some insist that there is plenty of neurocognitive evidence to broaden definitions even further, critics see it as pharmaceutical cash cow that will help create a pill for everything.
Consider that OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorders) weren’t even part of our language when Bill Wilson wrote about how we work the Twelve Steps. The latest survey suggested that 60% of AA members are double winners, blessed with a psychiatric diagnosis as well as addiction. Chances are the new DSC check up from the neck up will increase that number. In the Globe and Mail on July 9th, Ian Brown ponders how much today’s science will look like quackery in another 100 years.
More… In The Rooms Addictions Magazine
The Recovery Freethinker Chronicles, the ongoing history of alternative beliefs in a Twelve Step world
“More than 2,000 years ago, whoever wrote Psalm 14 claimed that atheists were foolish and corrupt, incapable of doing any good. These put-downs have had sticking power. Negative stereotypes of atheists are alive and well. Yet like all stereotypes, they aren’t true — and perhaps they tell us more about those who harbor them than those who are maligned by them.” These are the words of Gregory Paul and Phil Zuckerman, from their April 29th Washington Post article called, “Why Do Americans Still Dislike Atheists?” Is this true and do anonymous 12-Step programs have attitude about their members of no theistic faith? Should we regard a faith in the same apathy we would his or her favorite color?
If someone shares our favorite color we might gasp, “Oh wow, me too!” and share a small bonding moment but if someone discloses in a meeting that they prefer a different color, we wouldn’t try to change his or her mind. The fact is that from the original few dozen members who stuck it out in early AA, atheists and agnostics were staying sober without having to accept anyone elses belief or deny their own. Today, the chapter “We Agnostics” doesn’t tell the story of most recovered non-theists. Some agnostics, atheists, Buddhists and Apostates find the chapter condescending or spiritually arrogant.
More… In The Rooms Addictions Magazine
The Recovery Free-thinker Chronicles, Bill W Relates to Non-Believers
In my last column, I explored some misconceptions that I have seen causing friction in the fellowship, specifically between atheists and God-conscious members in 12 Step programs. Like any society, variations in our heart-felt beliefs can make a mosaic out of community life or it can cause tension; it's all about love and tolerance. Today, I reflect on the deep empathy Bill Wilson felt for those alcoholics who's views differed from as to how the universe is unfolding. Bill learned a spiritual lesson from an Atheist doctor and he pondered how to, or how not to, talk AA with non-believers.
Back in 1961, while AA's 300,000 sober members celebrated its 25th anniversary, their founder agonized over how AA could be a better program along with more welcoming to newcomers. Here is an excerpt from the April 1961 Grapevine article, written by Bill Wilson: “Though three hundred thousand did recover in the last twenty-five years, maybe half a million more have walked into our midst, and then out again. No doubt some were too sick to make even a start. Others couldn't or wouldn't admit their alcoholism. Still others couldn't face up to their underlying personality defects. Numbers departed for still other reasons.
Yet we can't well content ourselves with the view that all these recovery failures were entirely the fault of the newcomers themselves.
More… In The Rooms Addictions Magazine
Rev. Ward Ewing, the best friend a nonbeliever could have
If you are new to Addiction Magazine blogs, welcome. I don’t believe in God. I feel about as welcome here as I do anywhere. I have found myself in the middle of AAs attitude adjustment about faith with tempers flaring on both sides of the God language in AA. In time we will have better language that expresses how we are 98% the same but until then, some of our language divides us.
The AA nonbelievers’ friend on the inside is certainly our fellow non-theists. Fellowship and cooperation with like-minded fellows is critical. But culturally critical to the sober atheist is the believer who says, “You belong, you are equal, I have much to learn from you.”
One of these great friends is Ward Ewing, Class A trustee and Chairman of our General Service Board.
More… In The Rooms Addictions Magazine