Secret of AA: After 75 Years, We Don't Know How It Works

[progree]

34. Yes, one has to fight these, unfortunately

Many courts by default sentence people to A.A./N.A. I've been involved in an anti-coercion Yahoo Group for a long time, and most who have brought these court cases to the attention of the judge succeed, but then some other program is substituted which might be harder to get to and worse in other ways.

Minnesota in 2007, and probably now, got around this explicit sentencing to A.A. by indirection -- requiring out-patient evaluation and treatment and then requiring that we follow the treatment center's recommendations. In my case the treatment center's recommendations included A.A. attendance. I could have fought that, but since I had a jail sentence hanging over me as leverage, I decided not to. Fortunately it was only once a week attendance for a year.

I went to many "We Agnostics" A.A. meetings, and some "Addiction Busters" (a secular non-AA group) meetings, as a substitute for some of the A.A. meeting requirements, and probation didn't complain.

The Agnostic A.A. meeting movement has grown rapidly in the last few years, and I am grateful to A.A. that these have been allowed.

https://aaagnostica.org/
List of secular A.A. meetings https://secularaa.org/meetings/?tsml-day=any

There are also alternatives to A.A. that one can Google by searching on "A.A. alternatives"