I was thinking back about how AA was when I came in and what they talked about at meetings. It was the steps and what their experience was in working the steps. The reason they did, they said, was that this is what got us sober and what keeps us sober.
My sponsor pointed out to me that I had some experience with psychology and that psychology never got any of us sober. The story of Dr. Jung with the young man in the BB showed that. That self knowledge alone could not get us sober or keep us sober. Certainly my background in religion and my searchings in the church showed me that religion wasn’t the answer. And, of course, I sure had spent a lot of time with physicians looking for an answer.
Their solution was in a pill or two, or, as one doctor told me that I needed more sex and should get a mistress. Really. Another doctor friend of mine asked if he had written a prescription for me so that I could take it home to my wife. But that was the extent medicine had for an alcoholic like myself.
So, I was thinking, if psychology and psychiatry didn’t solve our alcoholic problem, why do we sit in meetings doing group therapy? And if religion wasn’t the answer, would we have a religious service for a meeting? I’ve been in meetings, where it just skirted that. And why would we even think about discussing medicine? Yet, I have been in meetings, where some have tried to diagnose others and prescribe for them.
The truth is that the steps combine the best of these three disciplines in such an effective way that anyone can apply them to their life and get sober and stay sober. Yet, I notice how often we try to avoid even mentioning them in meetings. Is that some kind of insanity or what?
Anyway, I was thinking about this today.