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Cross Addictions
Addict Identification or Group Discrimination?
On page xxviii, A.A. 4th Edition, in the Chapter, "The Doctor's Opinion", it reads, "Men and women drink (use, act out in an obsessive-compulsive manner) essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol (drugs, obsessive-compulsive behavior). The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false. To them, their alcoholic (addict) life seems the only normal one. They are restless, irritable and discontented, unless they can again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks--drinks which they see others taking with impunity. After they have succumbed to the desire again, as so many do, and the phenomenon of craving develops, they pass through the well-known stages of a spree, emerging remorseful, with a firm resolution not to drink (use) again. This is repeated over and over, and unless this person can experience an entire psychic change there is very little hope of their recovery.
Our experience has shown that if a person be an addict of the hopeless variety, regardless of their addiction -- alcohol, drugs, gambling, sex, food, self-harm or injury, co-dependence, they all have one thing in common; they all experience the pattern of addiction that starts with a spree where they have no control over their behaviour, followed by a period of remorse, horror or hopelessness, followed by a firm desire not to do it again, only to succumb to the behavior again and repeat the cycle over and over.
Why then are some people so preoccupied with identification? How are we to cope with so much cross-addiction in the 12 step rooms today? If someone suffers from a number of addictions, should this person join every 12 step group that identifies with his or hers affliction or should they join "a" group and talk about one addiction only and keep the other ones secret? (Some fellowships do not permit the discussion of other addictions.)
Today, alcoholics are showing up in Gamblers Anonymous meetings. The A.A. rooms are filled with cross-addicted alcoholics - such as "black-out" drunks using "crack-cocaine" to extend their drinking bouts! Sex addicts are greeted with smirks and jokes about sex addiction. Gamblers think their addiction is "different". Alcoholics apparently don't relate to the "druggies". Among drug addicts there seems to be cliques about who is more "addicted".
I have personally worked with alcoholics, drug addicts, gambling addicts, heroin addicts, cocaine addicts, cystal-meth addicts, sex addicts, food addicts, and codependents or harmful relationship addicts. I have worked with men, women, "gay" men and "gay" women.
When making my approach, I first establish a confidence with the suffering addict by going over the passage in the Doctor's Opinion (page xxviii, A.A.) that describes the addiction cycle so eloquently. Substituting terms and phrases related to the words drink or alcoholism with their specific addiction works well and we are able to easily identify with each other as addicts. As a result of this approach I have witnessed many different kinds of addicts recover from their malady. Moreover, I can relate to any 12 step fellowship regardless of what addiction they specifically identify with.
What do you think about addict identification? Is it group discrimination to exclude other addictions? Are we not all addicts who suffer from a spiritual malady? Does the 12 step program work for any kind of addiction? Have you worked with other addicts who suffer from addictions that are not your own? What is your experience?
On page xxviii, A.A. 4th Edition, in the Chapter, "The Doctor's Opinion", it reads, "Men and women drink (use, act out in an obsessive-compulsive manner) essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol (drugs, obsessive-compulsive behavior). The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false. To them, their alcoholic (addict) life seems the only normal one. They are restless, irritable and discontented, unless they can again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks--drinks which they see others taking with impunity. After they have succumbed to the desire again, as so many do, and the phenomenon of craving develops, they pass through the well-known stages of a spree, emerging remorseful, with a firm resolution not to drink (use) again. This is repeated over and over, and unless this person can experience an entire psychic change there is very little hope of their recovery.
Our experience has shown that if a person be an addict of the hopeless variety, regardless of their addiction -- alcohol, drugs, gambling, sex, food, self-harm or injury, co-dependence, they all have one thing in common; they all experience the pattern of addiction that starts with a spree where they have no control over their behaviour, followed by a period of remorse, horror or hopelessness, followed by a firm desire not to do it again, only to succumb to the behavior again and repeat the cycle over and over.
Why then are some people so preoccupied with identification? How are we to cope with so much cross-addiction in the 12 step rooms today? If someone suffers from a number of addictions, should this person join every 12 step group that identifies with his or hers affliction or should they join "a" group and talk about one addiction only and keep the other ones secret? (Some fellowships do not permit the discussion of other addictions.)
Today, alcoholics are showing up in Gamblers Anonymous meetings. The A.A. rooms are filled with cross-addicted alcoholics - such as "black-out" drunks using "crack-cocaine" to extend their drinking bouts! Sex addicts are greeted with smirks and jokes about sex addiction. Gamblers think their addiction is "different". Alcoholics apparently don't relate to the "druggies". Among drug addicts there seems to be cliques about who is more "addicted".
I have personally worked with alcoholics, drug addicts, gambling addicts, heroin addicts, cocaine addicts, cystal-meth addicts, sex addicts, food addicts, and codependents or harmful relationship addicts. I have worked with men, women, "gay" men and "gay" women.
When making my approach, I first establish a confidence with the suffering addict by going over the passage in the Doctor's Opinion (page xxviii, A.A.) that describes the addiction cycle so eloquently. Substituting terms and phrases related to the words drink or alcoholism with their specific addiction works well and we are able to easily identify with each other as addicts. As a result of this approach I have witnessed many different kinds of addicts recover from their malady. Moreover, I can relate to any 12 step fellowship regardless of what addiction they specifically identify with.
What do you think about addict identification? Is it group discrimination to exclude other addictions? Are we not all addicts who suffer from a spiritual malady? Does the 12 step program work for any kind of addiction? Have you worked with other addicts who suffer from addictions that are not your own? What is your experience?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Cindy Mann on -
I have been to both AA and NA meetings. Now I am in a new area and have been using again for the last ten years. I have been clean and sober for the last five days and would love to go to a meeting but I only know of one NA meeting. I would hate to think that just because of my drug use I would not be able to talk about that as well as my drinking. It is the same 12-Steps. We all recover working the same twelve steps. Drinking is an addiction! I was very fortunate when I was clean and sober for three years to be able to walk into the rooms of both NA and AA and be welcome. Some AA memembers may not relate to a druggie but they are both walking the same path to recovery. I wish people would realize this.
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Permalink Reply by ~*JESYKA*~ on -
this is an interesting topic as it it something that i have struggled with since i started in anonymous meetings. in my town i decided that out of na or aa, thats all we have, that i liked na much better because in aa many alcoholics seem to think that things are different and they frown on you if you go in their saying addict.it is true that in my na groups we don't discuss any other anonymous groups but it doesn't matter how you introduce yourself in our group because most of us realize that everyone of us is cross addicted in one form or another. Me, I have many addictions and i finally caught on to my addiction with drugs and alcohol because i tryed using the 12 steps to help with another disease. People who drink, gamble, drug, or live for sex should just see themselves and all others as addicts because thats what we all are. I am addicted to many things, I just try to limit myself to the less harmful ones.
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Permalink Reply by melody mispireta on -
Jesyka, I tend to agree with you. I am also addicted to many things. I have OCD pretty bad, I have also been diagnosed with depression & post traumatic stress disorder. I have been taking non-narcotic phsyc meds for 4 months now and mentally I feel better than I ever have, I'm focused, I try not to live in the past anymore, and I work the steps in order to the best of my ability.
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Permalink Reply by Brittney on -
I'm a drug addict. I've drank during the time while I was using also. And of course, I took that to the extreme also, but I attend mostly AA meetings. That is for a couple of reasons. There are few NA meetings in my area, especially ones that offer any good structure or support. AA is where I choose to go because I do get more out of AA meetings than the NA
I believe that it is group discrimination in a way actually. And we are all addicts/alcoholics who work the 12 step program. And that works for ALL of us. This is what I think...Strictly acoholics (who've never done drugs) don't believe that alcohol is a drug and that is why those alcoholics are against drug-related discussion during AA meetings. If all strictly alcoholics believed that alcohol is just as bad as cocaine or heroin, They would not exclude it from the conversation in meetings because drugs and alcohol would be considered the same. And I also believe that NA members are more open to listening about alcohol BECAUSE in their B.B., it says that "alcohol is a drug."
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Permalink Reply by Joel M. on -
I'm an alcoholic, some people believe that you don't choose the drug. The drug chooses you. Other drugs were not for me, alcohol was always my thing. If I decided to smoke pot because it's not my drug of choice...within a short time I would be smoking all day everyday. I have great friends that are strictly addicts and we have alot in common because the addiction is the same. I've attended all addiction meetings before and found it very interesting but you need to look at the similarities not the differences. In the city where I live, there is one meeting that prefers to be just for alcoholics. The reason for this I believe is that it is a very old meeting and the idea is to keep AA the way it was in the beginning when Bill and Bob founded it and to keep the traditions intact. My personal opinion is people with different drug choices can still help one another to overcome their addiction. But to each their own, if others find it more comforting to stick with meetings with their same drug of choice. And it works for them, then wonderful. AA was founded when drugs that are used today simply didn't exist or it wasn't known at that time how addicting they were. But one thing I'm grateful for is that our 12 steps do work for whatever addiction you care to apply them to.
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Permalink Reply by Thomas Nachtmann on -
I think, that most important for me was to recognize and accept that I'm a drug addict. The 12 Step program and some experience in my clean life showed me, that I'm just an addict and if I won't take time for my recovery then the addiction in me comes through and it takes what it can get. Maybe not the drugs anymore, but anything else wich is part of my new life.
No, I don't think it's group discrimination but I think it's people discrimination.
Maybe one addiction can't be solfed with the 12 steps, but I'm not sure about it. The only one is maybe, the addiction to make differences and the insane I'm something better addict or what ever than the next to me.
A word from Jesus: "Love your Higher Power as good as you can with all your power, AND the next to you like you love yourselfe" My experience is that I only can be in love with the people in this world, when I'm in love with my higher power and let me love from my higher power.
My Vision for all the A Groups is that we can find together in love and happyness.
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Permalink Reply by Nancy "D" on -
Thanks for your Share Cameron. I have been struggling with this topic for awhile. For 13 years and all of my recovery I have been going to AA dancing with the 12 steps, trying to live the 12 traditions and stay clean and sober to the best of my ability. My partner became clean over a year ago then relapsed. I started going to NA to be of support and listening the the message of NA. over the 13 years I have also went here and there to NA. In NA they say Alcohol is a drug period which I do believe but also understand and believe the mental problems that come with both. I think it can be confussing when they separate the two and one fellowship doesnot support the other hardly wanting to say the name in a meeting. In the big book they relate to both just calling it different names. My heart belongs to AA, my head goes with NA sometimes neither meeting likes to relate anything to being an alcoholic addict mostly wanting you to say one or the other. Went I do go and do readings I sometimes become confused saying the wrong words because my brain gets so turned around. Thanks
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Permalink Reply by Tim on -
Cross Addictions? I know for myself i like anything that makes me feel good.For me being a over the road driver i really have to keep it simple.God put me and my Sponsor together he is also a AA'er .IM a NAer.so should i figure this out.i think not. This is something that my Higher Power put together.as long as im working the STEPS thats what counts for me.This stuff is a matter of life and death.SO as long as God has his hand in it.It really does not matter.guess Im Cross Addicted.are did i miss the whole point...lol
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Permalink Reply by auralaya on
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Is anyone familiar with the AA conference-approved pamphlet "Problems Other Than Alcohol"? It clearly states that:
"Sobriety - freedom from alcohol - through the teaching and practice of the 12 Steps is the sole purpose of an AA group. Groups have repeatedly tried other activities, and they have always failed. It has also been learned that there is no possible way to make nonalcoholics in to AA members. We have to confine our membership to alcoholics, and we have to confine our AA groups to a single purpose. If we don't stick to these principles. we shall almost surely collapse. And if we collapse, we can not help anyone."
Bill W. wrote that. There's a another smaller pamphlet that reiterates this one and specifically states that a non-alcoholic pill or drug addict can not become an AA member.
None of that means that someone who is an alcoholic and also an addict can not be in AA.
This is the official word of AA. Regardless of what any of us may want or what meetings may be convenient to us, if we are members of AA we should be respecting the guidelines handed down by AA. This is one such guideline. The sanctity of the rooms of AA is beyond compare for me, and it's upsetting that folks choose to buck the system to suit their needs.
Just my 2 cents.
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Permalink Reply by Elizabeth on -
I am an alocholic, drug addict, al-anon, food junkie and I have a mental illness and an eating disorder. When I am in a meeting of AA I identify myself as an alcoholic. There are several reasons I do this. 1. out of respect for the fellowship and to keep my sharing within the guidlines of the group. 2. I spent so much of my life trying to be unique, I really need to look for the similarities not the differences between us. 3. I feel comfortable with myself enough that when I say I'm an alcoholic it covers it all. After all I AM powerless over it all.
I have worked with sponsees that are not at that point yet. When we work together i share my experience in how this works for me, and the transition to get where I am with this. Don't get me wrong, when I fist came in the rooms identified myself as addict/alcoholic. It is easy to substitute one for another. But, as we know AA is specifically for alcohol related problems. Most alcoholics have also had a poroblem with drugs, but there are some who have not. So we have open meeting, closed meeting and many other twelve step programs to cover most if not all addictions.
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Permalink Reply by chrissy banks on -
you have presented a wonderful argument for equality in AA and for some time in my early sobriety I myself struggled with the "am i an Alcoholic and an Addict"( i introduce myself as alcoholic). I have come to know that I am truly Alcoholic and I know this because when I listened to ppl in the rooms share I could associate with primarily the alcoholics and as i read the book ad worked the steps my feelings were affirmed. That happened because something happens when "one alcoholic address's another". The reason some ppl are so hell bent on maintaining the primary purpose of AA is because they don't want the MESSAGE to be tainted not the experience pool I agree whole heartedly with Armando if you have solid recovery in time it will not matter. The only other thing I may have to add is this.........there are closed meetings and open ones it is your job to be respectful of the group councious in a closed meeting and it is the responsibility of the "CROSS ADDICTION HATERS" to go to a closed meeting
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