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In this podcast, we answer the question... How important are Anonymous meetings?

One of the myths about the AA or NA programs is that they are just about staying clean and sober. The programs are built around the 12-Steps, and only the first step mentions alcohol or drugs.

The rest of the steps are all about character development that will make us better people. To quote an AA speaker: "We came in as spiritually bankrupt people. We had violated virtually every norm that guides our society to think and act in an honest and compassionate way".

Addicts and alcoholics deep into their disease are extremely self-centred. They sincerely believe that the rules do not apply to them. They have become infantile personalities who do not want to be held accountable for anything they say or do, or don't do.

What the Anonymous programs do is teach addicts and alcoholics how to grow up, how to hold themselves accountable, and to make direct amends to the people they have harmed.

The program does not demand that the individual find a higher power defined a certain way; it suggests, however, that the sure path to liberation is to surrender to the idea that they are no longer the centre of the universe.

Helping others to get and stay clean and sober is at the heart of AA and all other 12-step programs. That is how we learn to become selfless, compassionate human beings.