I've been to a lot of meetings over my 26 years sober in AA. Another "party line" that people like to repeat in AA is how alcoholism is not only an problem of mind and body but a spiritual malady also. While being correct in my view it's not a good idea to talk about that a lot in meetings, especially meetings with many new commers.
To people who like to go on about that I ask ... please show me in the Big Book or in the 12 and 12 where it goes
into detail describing Alcoholism as a spiritual malady and then you
can justify going on about that in meetings.
It's a popular party line in the meetings to say it's also a
spiritual malady but it is not useful to start telling that to new
commers. That is why it is only briefly mentioned once in one sentence
in the 4th step portion of our Big Books first 164 pages.
There is however an entire section called the Doctors Opinion
that goes into depth describing the physical allergy - phenomenon of
craving part of alcoholism.
There is an entire chapter called "More About Alcoholism" that
goes into depth about the mental obsession portion of alcoholism .... as
AA describes Alcoholism
Carl Jung's writings to this effect seem to be correct due to the success of AA but Carl Jung's literature is not a part of the AA program. However interesting it may be his writings are not officially AA . When first working with newcommers I never go on about
alcoholism being a spiritual malady ... that is what AA calls "leading
with the chin". Its' borderline evangelical which drives some
from AA and has them telling their friends that AA is a bunch of Jesus
freaks and never going back, possibly dying drunk having been improperly introduced to the program. It is best to stick with what AA says in the chapter "Working with Others." We describe how the problem of body and mind worked in the our problem drinking and how we discovered that we were alcoholic. Later on when a newcommer is curious about how we recovered, then we talk about spirituality and working the steps - not before talking about what AA says alcoholism is and how we could not control our drinking because of it.
I have sponsored many men over the years and I use the chapter
"Working with Others" as my guideline. It specifically says to NOT
talk about God or spirituality in the beginning when approaching a
new alcoholic to help. Be careful, if that's what you are doing you might be
driving alcoholics away who could use a more delicate approach to God
and spirituality.
