We
quote:
“Hello
I'm
an NA member in the Devon Fellowship.
I
just read your article about NA and DAA in Plymouth and thought you
might value an update.
As
your article accurately states, up until about 9 years ago 'Roads to
Recovery' AA was trying to infiltrate NA with the same agenda and
tactics of aggressive recruitment and controlling sponsorship they
still use in AA.
They
set up NA groups titled 'Into Action' (chapter from AA's Big Book),
and no one was allowed to sponsor using NA literature, and everyone
had to be part of the same sponsorship chain that was rooted in Roads
to Recovery in Plymouth.
As
you might imagine, this caused huge disunity in NA in what I assume
is a similar way to what AA is still experiencing, and also caused a
lot of harm to the reputation of NA in all the services that engage
it.
Fortunately,
In 2009, these groups finally accepted that the Devon NA fellowship
was never going to accept their processes, and they shut down their
'rogue meetings', and immediately reopened them as 'DAA' meetings.
They
continued to be being sponsored in chains rooted in the Roads to
Recovery AA group, and continued to aggressively recruit sponsees. NA
members never attend their meetings so they have enjoyed unity in
their own culture, though strangely, with regular splits where groups
form factions.
Over
the last few years, NA in Devon has been free from these people and
has grown much stronger. Its meetings have trebled in size and
healthy, gentle, non-controlling sponsorship chains have flourished.
Devon
NA's service structure has become very strong and enjoys a peaceful
and loving group conscience, strongly committed to NA's spiritual
principles, and a unity in service that seemed impossible a few years
ago.
The
DAA meetings split into two factions, and more recently some of their
members have left and started a CA group.
NA
has recently had some DAA members again seeking to promote their
fellowship by recruiting newcomers from NA, but NA quickly put a stop
to this. NA has written clarity statements and developed practices
that make very clear that whilst NA respects that there are many
pathways to recovery, its meetings exist only for those people
wishing to recover through its processes.
My
personal favourite intervention is to ask the occasional DAA member I
see two simple questions:
1.
Are you here to receive the Narcotics Anonymous message of recovery
for application in your own recovery process?
2.
Are you here to share the experience, strength and hope you've gained
through NA meetings, NA sponsorship, and NA literature?
This
makes no judgment of them and honours the 3rd Tradition, but also
leaves them having to make a choice about facing their own motives
and communicating honesty.
It's
never failed yet. They either leave immediately or don't return.
Just
to be 100% clear; If any one of these people wanted my help, I would
very willingly be there for them. My experience is that they never
attend seeking help for themselves. They only attend seeking
recruits.
Local
drug services are now pretty much up to speed on these dynamics. I'm
not so sure about probation etc.
I
speculate that there are some very distorted religious beliefs behind
these people's 'fundamentalist' behaviour that actually stem from the
same religion I am part of, just, from my perspective, from a
completely deluded misinterpretation of what the text of this
religion names.
What
ever my religious beliefs, I trust in NA's group conscience and am
coming up to 19 years complete abstinence clean time thanks to NA's
literature and culture of recovery, and am still very grateful for
this.
I
have written this post to be of service to the AA fellowship. In NA
we call it 'The Mother Fellowship'. NA is not affiliated with AA and
has developed its own distinct recovery message and culture, but it
is also hugely grateful for what AA created and allowed it to benefit
from. In rural areas many NA members seek sponsorship from AA, and
attend both fellowships to maintain enough meeting attendance to
support their recoveries.”
Comment:
The description above mirrors fairly accurately what is happening in
AA in those parts of the country contaminated by the Road to Recovery
'strong sponsorship' ethos (ie. bullying). The fellowship has
factionalised splitting between what we would term real AA and its
sick counterpart – the cult. It's a pity that AA seems less able to
deal with this phenomenon than its sister fellowship. Maybe there are
lessons to be learnt here. But on past performance it seems unlikely
that any effective action will be taken and this process will
continue accelerating the already established decline of AA until
yet another 'temperance' group is consigned to the dustbin of
history. For a fellowship that places such emphasis on the value of
experience we seem to be quite unwilling to learn from either our
past or our mistakes! The Traditions exist neither by accident nor as
a mere afterthought. They are crucial for our survival. The cult may
be entirely ready to pervert their meaning but we simply cannot
afford that luxury.
Cheers
The
Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)
PS
Thanks to our correspondent
