ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS

More youths, blacks, women, homosexuals, Hispanics and alcoholics addicted to other drugs now join A.A. (Adapted from “Getting Better: Inside Alcoholics Anonymous,” by Nan Robertson, to be published by William Morrow in April.)

By Nan Robertson

Only Bill Wilson could have imagined on the main street of Peterborough, N.H., a town A.A. as it is today, because only Bill, among the of 5,200 that has four A.A. groups. One of them old- timers of Alcoholics Anonymous, had such is called Our Town in honor of Thornton Wilder, grandiose, improbable dreams. In the summer of who took Peterborough as the model for his 1935, there were only two A.A. members – nostalgic play about American small-town life. Wilson, a failed Wall Street stockbroker, and Dr. The belfry of a Roman Catholic Church near Bob Smith, a practicing surgeon – sitting in the Covent Garden in London and a bank’s board Smith kitchen in Akron, Ohio, through half the room in Marin County, Calif., are reserved for night, chain-smoking and gulping coffee and A.A. meetings once each week. Some groups trying to figure out how they could sober up meet on ships, at sea or port. To these exotic other drunks like themselves. The society they settings must be added the thousands of prosaic had founded attracted only 100 members over basements and halls in churches, community the next four years; it would not even have a centers and hospitals where most A.A.’s inch name until 1939. Now there are more than a their way back to a life of quality. million and a half of us around the world – In the last decade or so, large numbers members of the most successful, imitated, yet of Americans, mainly entertainers, have gone often misunderstood self-help movement of the public to say they are recovered alcoholics. 20th century. Almost all said their motivation, and their hope, About half of all A.A.’s are in the United was, by their example, to inspire still-drinking States, the rest are scattered among 114 other alcoholics to recover. But the great mass of countries. Many additional millions have passed membership everywhere is composed of more through the movement and been made whole by or less ordinary people. They are neither movie its program, but A.A. periodically counts only stars nor skid row bums; the great drama of their those who are regularly attending meetings. lives has not been played out in the spotlight or For those in the know, there are clues to in squalid flophouses. These alcoholics have A.A.’s presence everywhere: the sign on a jeep’s suffered., increasingly isolated, in bars, in their hood in a Mexican town that says the “Grupo Bill own bedrooms, or in the living rooms of friends Wilson” will meet that night; a West Virginia who have become estranged by their drunken bumper sticker advising “Keep it Simple.” The behavior. Their recovery has been worked out in Serenity Prayer, attributed to the theologian private. Reinhold Niebuhr and recited at the end of A.A. Over the last 50 years, the substance of meetings, appears framed on the wall in a South A.A. – its core literature, its program of recovery African living room or embroidered on a pillow in and its ways of looking at life – has changed very a chic Madison Avenue shop. little. But in terms of the numbers and diversity A.A.’s meet in Pagopago, American of its members, A.A. today would be Samoa, on Wednesday nights, in McMurdo unrecognizable to its pioneers. In the early Sound, Antarctica, on Saturdays, and in years, A.A. members were almost exclusively Lilongwe, Malawi, on Mondays and Friday, They male, white, middle-class, middle-aged and of find one another just to sit and chat between Western extraction. They were men who had meetings in a doughnut shop and coffee shop

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fallen very far, often from the top of their more relaxed cultures. A.A.’s Ecuador-born business and professions. coordinator for Hispanic groups voiced the early The A.A. of 1988 is huge, increasingly point of view among his Latin friends: “A.A. is international, multiethnic, multiracial, cutting O.K. for gringos, but not for us. In Latin across social classes, less rigidly religious than America… if a man doesn’t drink, he’s not a it was in the beginning, more accepting of gay macho.” To his surprise, A.A. began to boom people, and of women, who now form one-third among Hispanics in the 1970’s. Mexico’s of the total North American membership and membership of 250,000 is now second only to about half of the A.A. membership in big cities. that of the United States. Brazil, with 78,000 Increasingly, many turn to A.A. for help in earlier members, and Guatemala, with 43,000, are stages of their disease. next-highest in Latin America. A much more abrupt and spectacular Until recently, A.A. had been unable to trend is that young people have streamed into gain a toe-hold in the Soviet Union or in Eastern A.A. in the last 10 years, most of them addicted Europe. The movement had been regarded to other drugs as well as to alcohol. Dr. LeClair there as possibly threatening, because of its Bissell, the founding director of the Smithers precepts of anonymity and confidentiality, its alcoholism center, in Manhattan, expresses the religious overtones and the fact that it operates consensus of the alcoholism research and outside any government control. Then last treatment world when she says: “There are summer, the Soviet Union sent to the United almost no ‘pure’ alcoholics among young people States four doctors specializing in addiction. anymore. They are hooked on booze and other They visited Alcoholism-treatment centers, the drugs, or only other drugs.” Summer School of Alcohol Studies at Rutgers It is common now at A.A. meetings to University and numerous A.A. meetings. When hear a young speaker say, “My name is Joe, they returned home, they took back quantities of and I’m a drug addict and an alcoholic.” A.A. pamphlets translated for them into Russian. The dually addicted anger some A.A. Still, the only Eastern European nation to members. One with 20 tears of sobriety says: embrace A.A. has been Poland. Its Government “This fellowship was formed to help suffering finally recognized what is called the alcoholics, and alcoholics only. That’s why it has “psychotherapeutic” value of A.A. been so successful – we don’t monkey around In the United States, those long familiar with other problems.” with A.A. meetings notice that there seem to be In a few communities, A.A. members disproportionately high numbers from certain have formed groups billed for those “over 30.” ethnic groups. “Alcoholism goes with certain The message is clear: No druggies wanted. This cultures, such as Celtic or the Scandinavian, development infuriates John T. Schwarzlose, that approve of drinking, or at least are executive director of the Betty Ford Center for ambivalent about it,” says Dr. Bissell. “But in substance abusers in Rancho Mirage, Calif.: some environments or religions, people don’t “A.A. is the epitome of tolerance, flexibility and drink on principle. These abstinent cultures in inclusiveness, but some drug addicts have told the United States include Baptists, some other me about being turned away from A.A. meetings Southern Protestant sects and Mormons.” in the Midwest and South when they say they For a long time, there was a widely held were just addicted to drugs, Now I tell them to belief that Jews did not become alcoholics. The say they are both alcoholics and drug abusers.” work of JACS – Jewish Alcoholics, Chemically In the big cities and at A.A. headquarters, Dependent Persons and Significant Others – is attitudes toward the dually addicted are much helping to dispel that myth. Jews are present in more welcoming. large numbers, JACS says, at A.A. meetings in many large cities where there is a significant For a long time, Alcoholics Anonymous Jewish population. But rarely do A.A. meetings was believed to be a purely North American take place in synagogues or Jewish community phenomenon. It was thought that its themes of centers. self-help and voluntarism would not transfer to

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Sheldon B., an alcoholism counselor in strikingly within A.A. Often, speakers at New York, told of how a few years ago he meetings begin: “My name is Mary, and I am an approached his own rabbi with the idea of alcoholic…and my father [or mother] was an opening their temple to an A.A. group. He alcoholic.” though that Jewish members in any A.A. group Longtime A.A. members believe that it is might be more comfortable about accepting help hopeless to drag another into sobriety if the in a synagogue setting than in a church. The alcoholic is determined not to be helped or rabbi informed him that there was no need: refuses to believe he is ill. Even so, the courts in “There are no Jewish alcoholics.” When Sheldon some states are sending thousands of offenders B. said, “But I am an alcoholic, “the rabbi to A.A. meetings instead of to jail. But the A.A. thought for a moment and them replied, “are you program sometimes catches on even with sure you know who your real father was?” unwilling alcoholics. Although there are black A.A. groups and mixed racial groups in large Northern cities, There are many things outsiders believe the number of blacks in A.A. does not appear to A.A. to be that it is not. It is not a temperance reflect the race’s proportion in the nation – 29 organization or Prohibition society. A.A. does not million, or 12 percent of the population. want to save the world from gin. Nobody invites “There is a great stigma in being black you to join A.A. You are a member if you say and being drunk, even recovered, a black you are, or if you walk into an A.A. meeting with Philadelphia teacher declared at a meeting the thought that you have a drinking problem devoted to the subject. “I made the mistake of and you want to stop. There are no papers to telling my principal that I had a problem. I sign, no pledges to take, no obligations to speak checked myself into a treatment center. She up, no arms twisted. The attitude of members used a hatchet on me.” toward those outside who drink moderately is, “I As a black Milwaukee social worker wish I could drink as you do, but I can’t.” explained: “The black community is afraid that if A.A. is not a religious cult. Some blacks admit their alcoholics, it will reinforce the members are agnostics or atheists. Many white stereotype that they are shiftless…The choose to believe that their “higher power” is black community likes to think that oppression their A.A. group. Most members prefer to call causes their alcoholism…Other oppressed A.A.’s program “spiritual.” Yet God is mentioned minorities use the same argument. “Who directly or indirectly in five of the Twelve Steps, wouldn’t drink?” they say..”Our lives are so which A.A. uses to help heal individuals, and this goddamed awful.. .Oblivion is the only way out sometimes repels outsiders who might otherwise of our pain.” be attracted. (Boiled down to six instantly Homosexuals are coming into A.A., and understandable principles, the Twelve Step in sophisticated communities are welcomed. program might read: We admitted we are licked Some recovered alcoholics have formed all-gay and cannot get well on our own. We get honest groups, just as there are special groups for with ourselves. We talk it out with somebody women, doctors, agnostics, lawyers, airline else. We try to make amends to people we have pilots and others. harmed. We pray to whatever greater Power we “Growing up in Alabama, I was taught to think there is. We try to give of ourselves for our hate myself,” one gay member told an A.A. own sake and without stint to other alcoholics meeting. “I was a nigger sissy. In A.A., I learned with no thought of reward.) that God loves us all. My business in A.A. is to A.A. does not work for everybody. But stay sober and help you if you want it.” then, nothing does. About 60 per cent of those A.A. surveys do not inquire whether coming to A.A. for the first time remain in A.A. members attend religious services or if they after going to meetings and assiduously believe in God. There are no questions about “working the program” for months or even years. ethnic or racial origins, sexual preference or Usually, they stay sober for good. But about 40 whether alcoholism runs in the family. But a percent drop out. These statistics refute a widely family predisposition to alcoholism is reflected held notion that A.A. is always successful or an

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“instant fix.” Even so, its success rate is “home group” is enough. This kind of autonomy phenomenally high. and decentralization typifies Alcoholics Freudian analysis and religious faith, for Anonymous. example, may be two great ways to heal the The average A.A. member, according to human spirit, but they do not work on their own surveys, attends four meetings a week. After for alcoholics. The vast majority of doctors, about five years of regular attendance, some psychologists and members of the clergy who A.A.’s go to fewer and fewer meetings. They are familiar with A.A. as well as almost all may stop altogether when they feel they are able experts in alcoholism, make A.A. their No.1 to function comfortably without alcohol. choice for a long-term program of recovery. A.A. However, some speakers at meetings are full of precepts are built into the programs of every cautionary tales about how they drifted away respected intensive alcoholism treatment center from A.A. and drank again, sometimes in the country, including those of Hazelden in disastrously and for long, periods of time, before Minnesota, Smithers in New York and the Betty returning to the fold. Ford Center. John Schwarzlose of the Betty The movement works in quiet and simple Ford Center expresses a typical opinion. ways. Members usually give of themselves “Patients ask how important it is that they go to without reservation; exchange telephone A.A. after they’re through here. I say, “I can give numbers with newcomers; come to help at any you a guarantee. When you leave here, if you hour when a fellow member is in crisis; are free don’t go to A.A., you won’t make it.'” with tips on how to avoid that first drink. Most A.A. has no ties with political parties, people in A.A. are flexible, tolerant of eccentrics, foundations, charities or causes, nor does it suspicious of “rules” and “musts.” The lack of sponsor research into alcoholism. ritual can be a surprise to beginners. So is the And unlike most tax-exempt absence of confrontation, finger-pointing, blameorganizations, A.A., whose current annual laying, angry debate and chronic whining. budget is $11.5 million, does no fund raising. The essence of A.A. can only be Nor does A.A. accept money from outsiders. guessed at in big, showy gatherings, such as its The funds supporting headquarters services international conventions every five years. It is in come mainly from A.A.’s huge publishing the intimacy of the neighbourhood meetings that empire, which distributes authorized literature to the truth, the flavor and the inkling of the members. reasons for A.A.’s success can be grasped. The Each group is self-supporting, passing a members may meet in groups as small as 2 or basket at every meeting to help pay for coffee, 3, or as large as 200, but the usual attendance snacks, literature and rent for the meeting is somewhere between a dozen and 40 people. space. Those present often give a dollar. Others In New York City, the most active single A.A. may just drop a coin in the basket. Some cannot spot anywhere, there is a choice of 1,826 listed give anything. meetings held by 724 groups every week. No member may donate more that As A.A. grew and diversified, the stigma $1,000 a year to A.A. Nor may a member of alcoholism gradually faded. There were many bequeath more than $1,000, or leave property to stages along A.A.’s road to respectability, A.A., which has never owned any real estate. beginning in the 1940’s, that gradually “The reason we discourage gifts and transformed the public’s perception of the bequests,” says Dennis Manders, a nonalcoholic society of recovered drunks from a butt of who served for 35 years as the controller at A.A. disbelief and even ridicule to that of an accepted headquarters, ” is that we don’t ever want some and admired organization. None was more person dropping a million bucks in the A.A. significant than the action taken by the American hopper and saying, ‘Now, I’m going to call the Medical Association. In 1956, the AMA’s tune.” trustees and its House of Delegates declared About half of the groups contribute that alcoholism was a disease, thereby nothing at all for headquarters services. Many validating a central belief of A.A., from its comembers feel that carrying the expenses of their founders on, that it is a sickness, not a sin.

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Now the Supreme Court of the United the trustees of the board and representatives of States is debating the legality of the issue. Last the head- quarter’s staff. Dec.7, the court heard a challenge by two The day-to-day business of Alcoholics Vietnam War Veterans against the Veterans Anonymous has been carried on since 1970 in a Administration for excluding “primary brick building at 468 Park Avenue South, in alcoholism” (in which drinking itself is the root midtown Manhattan. Whatever policies are disorder) from the list of illnesses and disabilities decided at the conference are carried out by the that allow veterans more time to claim education headquarters staff. Their jobs are divided into benefits. Extensions can be granted to veterans specialties such as literature, treatment centers, hindered by physical or mental problems “not prisons, public information and cooperation with the result of their own willful misconduct.” The professionals – doctors, counselors, social justices are expected to hand down an opinion workers and teachers, for example – in the before the Court’s term ends in June. alcoholism field. And just in case somebody should become overly fond of a specialty, all the The structure of A.A. is a little harder to top staff members, except the general manager grasp than the disease theory of alcoholism. It is and the Hispanic coordinator, regularly rotate close to the truth to say that A.A. consists of a jobs every two years. The same frequent million Indians and no chiefs. And that it is less rotation occurs at every level in A.A. Officers in an organization than an organism that keeps local groups usually step down every six splitting amoeba like, into ever more groups. If a months. member doesn’t like how things are run in his The seven nonalcoholic trustees, who group, he can start another one with people he are often experts in some profession, such as finds more compatible. This has given rise to an medicine, law, banking or social work, serve a A.A. saying: “All you need to start a new group is special need. Joan K. Jackson, a sociologist two drunks, a coffee pot and some resentment.” with long experience among alcoholics, There is a structure in Alcoholics explains: “We can use our full names in public. Anonymous, but it would set any conventional We are not perceived by outsiders as having notion of how to run a business on its head. any vested interest. Privately within A.A., our Basically, the local groups are boss and the greatest function is as gadflies and questioners.” board of trustees and the staff at the General What makes A.A. headquarters run is Service Office are supposed to carry out their the A.A. World Service publishing empire. It now orders. The board of trustees is made up of 14 brings in $8.8 million annually or 76 per cent of A.A. members and 7 nonalcoholics. A.A.’s yearly corporate revenues. It is the cause Although alcoholics hold all the top of some trepidation among those who have administrative jobs, they never handle money. taken what amounts to a vow of poverty. Each A.A.’s financial operation is run by year, A.A. distributes 7 million copies of more nonalcoholics. The reason is that Bill Wilson and than 40 pamphlets (mostly gratis for members), the early A.A.’s were afraid that if anybody and almost a million and a half copies of 6 books running A.A. fell off the wagon, that would be and two booklets. Seven million copies of the bad enough, but if he were handling finances as Big Book (A.A.’s central text, published in 1939, well, the results could be disastrous. The whose formal title is “Alcoholics Anonymous”) philosophy has endured. have been sold. Last year alone, about a million The manner in which A.A. directs its Big Books were purchased, virtually all of them collective affairs and sets policy can be seen at A.A. meetings, alcoholic rehabilitation centers most clearly – or in all its democratic confusion – or through mail orders. at its yearly General Service Conference, the At the time of his death, early in 1971, closest approximation to a governing body of Bill Wilson was earning about $65,000 a year in A.A. About 135 people attend, including 91 royalties from the Big Book and three other delegates elected at regional A.A. assemblies in books he wrote for A.A. Last year, his widow, the United States and Canada. Also on hand are Lois, received $912,000 in royalties. Under the terms of the agreement Bill concluded with A.A.

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headquarters in 1963, she was allocated 13.5 practicing of absorbing stuff like that in good per cent of Wilson’s royalties. Another 1.5 humor should be of value.” It was the first public percent went to his last mistress, who died a few criticism, and it proved to be one of the last. years after Bill. Privately within A.A., there has been a growing dissatisfaction with headquarters. Some There has been almost no negative members say staff members are becoming publicity about Alcoholics Anonymous over the frozen in bureaucracy and are overly sensitive to five decades of its history. Extensive research pressure from the most rigid and narrow-minded turns up only a handful of critical views in the members, particularly old-timers, who regard the press. Writing in The Nation in 1964, Jerome Big Book and other authorized literature almost Ellison charged that A.A.’s conservative top as Holy Writ. councils had lost touch with the ever more “If anything is going to destroy A.A.,” diverse rank-and- file. The same year, Arthur H. says Dr. John Norris, a nonalcoholic physician, Cain, a New York psychologist, in a book and friend of Bill Wilson’s and for many years articles for various magazines, called A.A. a chairman of A.A.’s board of trustees, “It will be “cult” that enslaved its members to self- what I call the ‘tradition lawyers.” They find it righteous sobriety. Bill Wilson’s reaction was easier to live with black and white than they do typical of the man’s tolerance. The co-founder with gray. These ‘bleeding deacons’ – these trying to calm the ensuing fuss at headquarters, fundamentalists are afraid of and fight any said: “In all the years, this is the first thorough- change.” going criticism our fellowship ever had. So the

Source: The New York Times Magazine, February 21, 1988.

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