Does AA work for Atheists?

Emphatically, YES.  Despite the 12 Steps calling us to rely on a higher power, that higher power can be many things, not limited to a deity.

Recently I was at a meeting where there were some conflicting opinions being thrown around about whether someone who doesn’t believe in God can stay sober in AA.    Opinions are always swirling around with people, but in AA, we share experience, strength and hope, not opinions.  If someone doesn’t have experience either a.  being an atheist that stays sober, or b. knowing an atheist that stays sober, then they really don’t have experience in that subject and should keep their opinions to themselves.

My experience was that I was definitely atheist when I joined AA. I didn’t have any other choices really.  I was talking to a counselor that was trying to get information on a program that would cater to an atheist that wanted to get sober, but he never found anything.  Getting sober wasn’t something I could really wait around for, so I took the plunge.  I remember to this day how angry I was at the end of the beginners meeting circling up with all the AA members that were chanting the ‘Our Father’ at the end of the meeting.  I didn’t do it.  (Eventually I did, but after several years I returned to my ‘roots’ and quit any kind of group chants all together for an entirely different reason).

The thing that really worked for this atheist is that I was ‘willing’ to believe that a power greater than myself could restore me to sanity. I knew I was insane, and that my life was insane. For a time, the biggest part of my insanity was that I could figure my “life problems” out on my own, and ideally still drink. After beating my head against the proverbial wall for years, I finally admitted that I was willing to believe that a power greater than myself could restore me to sanity.  As an atheist though, I just couldn’t figure out what that power was.  Willingness to believe meant that I was willing to listen to others and take their suggestions.  They suggested that I pray and meditate. As an atheist, one might feel that its a bit contradictory, but I did it.  I even tried going to church and doing what I was told in AA initially, “listen for the similarities, not the differences”.  While it wasn’t something that ‘caught on’, I tried it.

What happened to me can be described as miraculous if one is so inclined.  If you’re an atheist, just say its pretty cool, but my life started changing for the better, one day at a time. What happened is that the AA program worked for me.  Day after day, year after year, I worked the program and continued to “seek through prayer and meditation” for a conscious contact with God as I understand him.  I’ve studied Eastern and Western philosophy and several religions.  SEEKING.  What I’ve FOUND is that my opinions about a deity haven’t changed in all that time seeking.  Seeking is actually good exercise. . Prayer and meditation for me became an exercise for my mind that would settle me down and help me build a positive attitude.  I find that I can practice each and every one of AA’s principles every day without conceding that God created the world in 7 days or that “Jesus loves me”.  I’ve even found a ‘church’ that I can belong to that doesn’t conflict with my beliefs, which has been great for me socially and mentally. So in all my years of sobriety, while my ACTIONS have changed, my WILLINGNESS has changed, my  beliefs have stayed the same.

Today I don’t refer to my self as an atheist, simply because I don’t reject the existence of a God. I’m like AA in that I just don’t have an opinion.  Hard core atheists can be as frustrating with their attempts to indoctrinate the world as some religious folks are.    God may or may not be there.  I’m open.  Bill W. said that  we all have a fundamental idea of God, that’s just not true for me yet.  Maybe some day, but after many year of willingness to believe, the simple truth is that my beliefs haven’t changed, and I’m still happily sober in AA!

Anonymous Guest Blogger