“Recovered alcoholics often say, ‘Just not drinking is not enough.’ Just not drinking is a negative, sterile thing. That is clearly demonstrated by our experience. To stay stopped, we’ve found we need to put in place of our drinking a positive program of action. We’ve had to learn how to live sober.”

Living Sober, AA World Services Inc. p.13

READ/DOWNLOAD PDF version of Living Sober 50 Years (this blog)

The 75th General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous will be held from April 27 to May 3, 2025, in New York. Delegates from across the U.S. and Canada, along with trustees and AA staff will discuss agenda items that shape the future of the AA Fellowship. Item “L” for the Literature Committee is to consider the future of Living Sober.

Say “Happy Birthday,” as Living Sober, first published in 1975. How is it holding up?

• Should the 31 Chapters maintain the same theme but have the language updated to include contemporary pronouns, references to online (as well as in-person) AA meetings, podcasts, social media, and 21st-century ways newcomers find us and how we communicate?
• Should we add new chapters? More has been revealed since the disco era. Let’s make a list; what are we discussing in parking lots, coffee shops, and Zoom rooms? Some of these terms are not found in today’s Living Sober: neurodivergence, trauma, medically assisted recovery, mindfulness, aging, childcare, money troubles, attachment and relationships, process and other substance addictions, exercise, self-care. How many (if any) chapters should/could we add?
• Or should we write a second edition Living Sober? 
• What about how the book looks on the inside? Should we consider font, more white space, a place for notes like a work-book, pull outs in text boxes in several places through the book—something like the quote above to open this blog post? Could layout make our practical book of AA collective experiences more user-friendly? What about an illustrated or a graphic novel version?!?!?
• Or, with limited financial and human resources, should we focus on other, more urgent things?

Layout, editorial content, such as updating language, referencing current science (where appropriate), greater diversity, historical corrections and our efficacy at reaching our target audience are all included in the Literature Committee’s role. The Plain Language Big Book, revisions to Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, the AA Service Manual, the Preamble, pamphlet changes, and several spot-cleaning changes in Living Sober completed through the years (which we will review), are examples of the conference process and mandate. 

My own bias disclosed: 

For the record, I am a fan of Living Sober. 

I grew up with it. I was in the “contemplating sobriety” stage in AA when this stylish new book first landed on literature tables in Montreal’s West Island groups. I didn’t read it, or any other AA literature all the way through—the time and place that I was introduced to AA, our program was transmitted as an oral tradition (one alcoholic talking to another, or to a room full of “anothers”). The milieu of the time and place I found sobriety was not a book-based society. I don’t know if my learning style lent itself to book-learning or not. I modeled living sober, prosocial behavior from my peers in AA. We shared the AA program with each other by listening to and sharing our own story. Reading an instructional book together, helpful as this may be to others, wasn’t how I learned AA. 

Later in my AA recovery, I did start reading; my attention span improved, and I moved to Calgary and travelled through Western Canada. Meetings were commonly smaller than Montreal. We would read at many meetings, either 12 & 12 or Living Sober, which came in the earthtone brown and yellow booklet then, with black lettering. Today, it’s Big Book-blue with yellow lettering. 

I was not surprised that in atheists, freethinkers and agnostics AA groups, the ones that included readings in the meeting ritual, leaned on Living Sober—a secular explanation of the AA process. No sponsor, apologist or coach is needed in this AA missive as there is no God-talk in need of translation for non-believers. Living Sober language is neither for nor against supernatural worldviews. This isn’t one school of AA throwing stones at “our more religious members,”[i] The same experiences of recovery for most of us within AA is described, in a different language than “God could and would if He were sought.” Living Sober is in a humanist vernacular, about relying on fellows, and empowerment with examples of how and where our willpower can be pointed to growth and good. It could be, that 40 years into AA, many cases of sobriety without supernatural experiences was now widely seen as nothing risky, watered down or half-measures. Living Sober talks in a practical language that includes everyone and debates no one. Living Sober is an adjustable wrench that fits any nut. 

I’ve never been to a Living Sober meeting I didn’t like. All over USA and Canada, I have dropped into meetings that read about the biopsychosocial aspects of getting and staying sober from the chapters of the booklet. 

Sober second thought: the broad experience of Living Sober and why this booklet matters.

Living Sober has been translated into 39 different languages and is distributed in 40 different countries, 

Approximately 7.5 million copies have been put into circulation since 1975. 

Is that a lot or is that a little? Yes (to both). If Living Sober was our only publication we would be proud: 7.5 million freakin’ books! And yes, millions of copies pale to the tens of millions of Big Book copies sold. 

In our early days, many of our members were against writing and selling a book—any book. Despite the controversy, Alcoholics Anonymous articulated several years of early AA, based on dozens of cases—that’s helpful. As the book grew in popularity, resistance lessened. More members got on board with the idea of a record of our collective experience in print.

Three+ years and dozens of cases was our “truth with proof” in anecdotal reporting. Living Sober benefited from 40 years of AA experience, based on hundreds of thousands of cases. Is this not more truth and more proof? 

Living Sober represents a time in AA of doubling growth rates. At time of publication, we had doubled in size from 250,000 to 500,000 in less than ten years (1966-1974). Between 1975 and 1982 we doubled again to one million and we were two million in 1990. Since the two million mark, by our records, we have seen a 10% up and down stagnation since then. 

We hear alcohol-use-disorder described today as biopsychosocial: i) physical, ii) mental/emotional and iii) social, or coined as a three-fold disease—sometimes using “spiritual” instead of “social.” Or make the list longer if you like. Today we agree that many paths is a factor in our malady as well as our recovery. 

From the lived experience of AA members, we address these three factors in Living Sober:

• Physical sobriety—Getting Plenty of Rest (Chapter 12), Avoiding Dangerous Drugs or Medications (Chapter 21).
• Mental/emotional sobriety—Anger and Resentment (Chapter 15), Remembering Your Last Drunk (Chapter 20).
• Social sobriety— “Live and Let Live (Chapter 5), Going to A.A. Meetings (Chapter 29). 

Living Sober speaks specifically to our experience with overcoming alcoholism as being just a start and sobriety as an all-of-life experience. Juddi Krishnamurti (born the same year as Bill W,), encouraged the same wholistic approach to wellness that our recovery experiences teach: 

“You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing, and dance, and write poems, and suffer, and understand, for all that is life.”

LIVING SOBER a short history:

As a staff writer for AA, sober since the 1940s, Barry L[ii] noted practical approaches on 31 topics including, when to seek professional help, applying a 24-hour plan, letting go of old ideas, finding your own way, AA’s slogans, meetings, and our own quirky but effective folk wisdom. 

Demand and interest in Living Sober has been very steady. Earlier this century—pre-pandemic—Living Sober sales (USA, Canada only) ranged from just over 114,000 units purchased to just under 170,000 units annually. French and Spanish language versions (combined) range around 10% of the total sales. In 2020 and 2021 with our meetings and literature tables paused for shelter-in-place COVID response, sales dropped under 100,000 per year. In 2023, more than 132,000 copies were bought including our highest year in digital copies (eBook, Audio-book). Estimated 2024 numbers are well over 100,000 also. 

At 2022 72^nd General Service Conference, it was reported that overall audiobook sales of all literature, mostly through the largest retailers, Amazon, Apple and Google, AA audio books eclipsed 15,300 total sales, predominately, Alcoholics Anonymous, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, and Living Sober.

Reported in 2023, a tablet and digital content provider, including correctional institutions saw a 14% increase in AA e-Book and audiobook access reaching near 8,000 browsers in over 200 facilities. About half of all USA/Canada areas are onboard with this and more are joining monthly. Living Sober is the number two item being accessed.

For the last couple of years, anyone can read or listen to Living Sober and other AA books online[iii], free, anytime. 

This Book Changes with the Times

This book speaks of real experiences from many members. Living Sober, like Came to Believe before it, both published after our founder died (Bill W. 1895—1971), has been intended and treated like as a collection of ideas, subject to change. Living Sober has been updated—it doesn’t have the “sacred text” barrier to change that Bill Wilson’s writings have. 

In Chapter 30, we once said, “see your local telephone directory” as an instruction to find AA.

We now say, “see your local telephone directory or check G.S.O.’s A.A. website.” 

Today, the “new” version is old-sounding, don’t you think? Maybe we could connect with today’s readers better with:

“We have a meeting app that can find meetings close to you. Search on your mobile device for a wide variety of local in-person or worldwide virtual meetings. Or talk to us; AA members answer phones at regional offices, and we welcome the sober-curious to call and talk to one of us. We understand, it’s confidential and we have been there—done that, too.”

With 40 years of experience come confidence and humility. Living Sober is not preach the fervor of the recently converted. Ideas are freely offered, “even if you don’t want our meetings or program.” We are candid; we are inviting—we offer experience, not instruction, or fear mongering: 

Chapter 29, “Going to A.A. Meetings”

“Do we have to go to those meetings for the rest of our lives?

Not at all, unless we want to.

Thousands of us seem to enjoy meetings more and more as the sober years go by. So it is a pleasure, not a duty.

We all have to keep on eating, bathing, breathing, brushing our teeth, and the like. Millions of people continue year after year working, reading, going in for sports and other recreation, frequenting social clubs, and performing religious worship. So our continued attendance at A.A. meetings is hardly peculiar, as long as we enjoy them, profit from them, and keep the rest of our lives in balance.

But most of us go to meetings more frequently in the first years of our recovery than we do later. It helps set a solid foundation for a long-term recovery.” 

Chapter 1. “Using this booklet.”

“The point is, there is no prescribed A.A. ‘right’ way or ‘wrong’ way. Each of us uses what is best for [ourselves]—without closing the door on other kinds of help we may find valuable at another time. And each of us tries to respect others’ rights to do things differently.

Sometimes an A.A. member will talk about taking the various parts of the program in cafeteria style—selecting what [they like] and letting alone what [they do] not want. Maybe others will come along and pick up the unwanted parts—or maybe the member [themselves] will go back later and take some of the ideas [they] previously rejected.”

As the words are not sacred, in the Chapter 1 quote above, I modified pronouns (in brackets) because I think it sounds more inclusive than “him/he” or “himself/herself.” You might see other better or more accurate ways of expressing something—Fantastic! That’s what we are talking about in this blog—altering and/or improving with the aim of being more attractive and effective for more people.

We have a history of making changes where needed. Any member’s good idea is given fair consideration by our General Service Conference who knows they work for you—not the other way around. 

Sometimes changes we’ve made to Living Sober have been dated expressions that doesn’t land with today’s audience. Probably, in time we’ll need to change it again; good. To me, the core ideas of every chapter stand up today as being helpful, ringing true. Medical fact and best practices change about medicine, nutrition or alcohol use disorder. AA changes too; sometimes we have new ideas about sponsorship or safety in AA and why wouldn’t we add them here?

Our talk about AA members and drug use has required the most frequent review as science and research has revealed more. In 1983 the conference agreed to revise Chapter 21 “Avoiding dangerous drugs or medications.”  In 1998, sections from the pamphlet “The A.A. Member— Medications and Other Drugs”[iv] was added as an appendix. In 2018 (content originally included in the 1998 edition of Living Sober be returned), made changes reflecting, “A report from a group of physicians in A.A.” and a “Note to Medical Professionals.”

In 2012 some of the outdated language or practices were altered and approved.

In 2021 the literature committee considered new language from the Publisher, in keeping with our attention to reading levels/plain language, add safety in AA information and update references to sponsorship.

Not every request for a change is made, but each is given serious consideration. 

A couple of years after we published Living Sober (1977), an Advisory Action[v] proposal on “Living Sober Longer” a pamphlet was contemplated, explored and through group conscience, “ was not pursued further as there is not sufficient need for such a pamphlet.” 

In a pluralist society, not everyone is a fan of Living Sober. From a 2023 proposed agenda item (PAI #49), the trustees’ literature committee “discussed a request that the booklet Living Sober be discontinued and took no action. The committee noted that there is not a widely expressed need at this time.”

We take our own inventory, sharing our experiences including mistakes we have made. The 2024 edition of Living Sober:

From the earliest days of Alcoholics Anonymous it has been clear that many alcoholics tend to become dependent on drugs other than alcohol. Always consult your doctor if you think medication may be helpful or needed. … Because of the difficulties that many alcoholics have with drugs, some members have taken the position that no one in A.A. should take any medication. While this position has undoubtedly prevented relapses for some, it has meant disaster for others. 

A.A. members and many of their physicians have described situations in which depressed patients have been told by A.A.s to throw away the pills, only to have depression return with all its difficulties, sometimes resulting in suicide. We have heard, too, from members with other conditions, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, epilepsy and others requiring medication, that well-meaning A.A. friends discourage them from taking any prescribed medication. Unfortunately, by following a layperson’s advice, the sufferers find that their conditions can return with all their previous intensity. On top of that, they feel guilty because they are convinced that ‘A.A. is against pills.’  

It becomes clear that just as it is wrong to enable or support any alcoholic to become readdicted to any drug, it’s equally wrong to deprive any alcoholic of medication, which can alleviate or control other disabling physical and/or emotional problems.”

Explore Advisory Actions from 1951 to present day of the General Service Conference (in the footnotes). Open it up and do a “Find” search for “Living Sober” for details on many spot-fix improvements through the decades. 

Came to Believe (1973) preceded Living Sober, offering a newer look at spiritual AA life by members. Living Sober (1975) outlines the practical AA approaches learned over 40 years of AA experience. Living Sober is the last representation of AA life and/or original thought offered by AA World Services Inc. in book/booklet form. 

It’s true, A.A. World Services continue to add new pamphlets and changing existing ones, as needed. 

A.A. Grapevine writes stories by AA’s, mostly alive today (with a few blasts from the past) to an estimated readership of 170,000 (8.5% of AA members est. 2 Million). 

The General Service Conference has approved written books since 1975, too. But is this original thought?: 

1. Doctor Bob and the Good Oldtimers (1980),
2. Pass it On: The Story of Bill Wilson and how the AA message reached the world (1984), 
3. Daily Reflections: Bill W quotes with member commentary (1990), 
4. Our Great Responsibility: A Selection of Bill W’s General Service Conference Talks, 1951-1970 (2021).
5. Plain Language Big Book: A tool for reading Alcoholics Anonymous (2024), contemporary language – yes, but new ideas? - No. 

Not all change is improvement; what changes are possible/likely?

As mentioned above, Living Sober is the newest/best collective voice of AA today, in book-form. Like a house, there comes a time where substantial renovations are most practical, to reflect modern code and best practices, Our General Service Conference has been asked to consider such a revision at the 2025, 75^th gathering. In fact, the zeitgeist of the day has several requests coming from members, groups, districts and areas. Seven different proposed agenda items (PIA) came in to become “Item K” on the literature committee’s things-to-do list. 

Ideas and suggestions include an updated version with contemporary and plain language; an expanded version including more experience, strength and hope from AAs, and/or a second edition, 

In one case this went from group to district to area where 96% of the Area was in favor. My own group discussed it at length, a unanimous vote aske the GSR to bring it to district, where substantial unanimity asked to bring it to the Area. We discussed it; a sense of the room vote showed over ¾ of attendees in favor.

It was hoped that “the gentle humor of the original book” be mimicked by our new author(s). 

Based on what AA Grapevine podcast is talking about, what many of us who sponsor are discussing with members, there is room for more topics/chapters. From neurodivergence-informed meeting formats and service and outreach in an AI and search engine world, online meetings, socializing and conferences, podcasts, social media and technologies AA members are using. 

For members who find God-talk to be a barrier to accessing AA (because they don’t believe in religious ideology or the religion they follow doesn’t use the G-O-D word), and anyone born later than this book was published, which would be about half of us, revision helps ensure relatability to a wider audience.

Members who came to AA last century see a decline in meeting and regional conference attendance; they they hope that a brighter-looking, progressive language book could help keep AA attractive and relevant. 

Layout for a new, better Living Sober

If we are looking at enhancing readability, comprehension, engagement, navigation and accessibility, open up your Living Sober and tell me what you see. I see a need for more white space. Generous margins create a clean frame for text; the enhancing aesthetics aids in focusing the reader's attention on the content—who among us doesn’t benefit from better attention to detail? How about some lined sections between chapters for personal notes? Pictures or illustrations maybe? 

A modern look would also be a more functional book. A more appealing book would consider:

• fonts,
• images, line spacing and margins
• headings, subheadings, navigation
• multi-media: audio books, podcasts, e-books, message board, hyperlinks, videos
• Language: readability, accessibility
• Cover options, size(s)
• Should it be a reader, or a workbook with blank lines or space for notes?

This isn’t fashion; this makes our sobriety aid easier to find and share something we heard in a meeting last week. How are youth engaging with the written word and information in general? There is an opportunity to be more helpful and expand AA’s reach. 

Who reads the NA book, Living Clean? It was published in 2012 so it’s language obviously is more contemporary than any 1975 book. Notably, 32 years after AA’s Living Sober, a greater wealth of knowledge and experience is available to draw upon, Depending on the year of your Living Sober, you have 86 to 93 pages. Living Clean is over 250 pages, Plenty of sections in many chapters. I have mixed feelings about this NA book; I wouldn’t want us to emulate it exactly. Living Sober is practical; not supernatural. NA’s offering has the practical aspects but also higher power chatter. It’s not offensive or pushy at all, but that brings me to my final point about opening our minds to a new Living Sober. 

What is the downside; what unintended consequences may be lurking when this door is opened?

Of the people who use and enjoy Living Sober, most welcome a revamp of the tired old helper. Yet, some would prefer to let sleeping dogs lay. The concern: If everyone is invited to comment, what would AA fundamentalists want to see changed in our secular little corner of the world? What if the new book became a baby Big Book? This isn’t fear mongering or paranoia; it’s worth considering. Here’s an example. 

If you open up the history of Advisory Actions and search “A Newcomer Asks,” in 1980 you will find:

The pamphlet from Great Britain entitled “A Newcomer Asks” be adopted and adapted.

Created by the Great Britain General Service Conference, once in USA/Canada’s domain, it is now available in English, Spanish and French. It became the second most popular AA pamphlet every year. Of course Brits don’t disparage AA, but they don’t kneel at the alter of our hallowed program, either. They have a commonsense AA culture. They pamphlet does not pussyfoot around what newcomers anywhere would want to know or how to answer them. 

In one example they speak to a newcomers concern about God-talk. They don’t offer a confused double-talk rebuttal, like, “But AA’s spiritual not religious.” Instead, plain talk explains that many AA’s finding help from a power greater than ourselves. Some describe power as God. Others are talking about the AA group. Still others don’t believe in any of that at all. There’s room in AA for all, regardless of what one believes or doesn’t believe. 

I’ve done Public Information and Cooperation with the Professional Community; this question about AA theism comes up all the time. I lean on the way this pamphlet articulates AA pluralism. Do American’s squirm at claims that atheism and theism have equal footing in AA? I would guess that some see godless AA as second rate or egotistical or verging on disaster. Secularphobia is a fact; some believers have an irrational hate or fear of irreligious people. 

Back to your search in Advisory Actions, click next to the only other action regarding A Newcomer Asks in 2009:

A sentence encouraging newcomers to obtain and study the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, be added to the pamphlet, “A Newcomer Asks.”[vi]

What was already there in the pre-2009 pamphlet and what remains to this day in the Great Britain pamphlet is this passage:

What advice do you give new members?

In our experience, the people who recover in A.A. are those who:

1. stay away from the first drink
2. attend A.A. meetings regularly
3. seek out the people in A.A. who have successfully stayed sober for some time
4. try to put into practice the A.A. program of recovery

In P-24 (USA/Canada) to the newcomer, we added:

                    e) obtain and study the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous.

Sure, I know our age-old Alcoholics Anonymous helps people—I even know atheists who swear by it. But advice (d) already spoke to practicing “the A.A. program.” How is “the A.A. program” not enough? If I were a fundamentalist, I might fear (irrational as I see it) that A Newcomer Asks is killing newcomers if we don’t “show them the way.” To a practical brand of fundamentalist, only Big Book AA is the real AA that cures real alcoholics.

So, could a change of focus, pointing readers to this one way—the Big Book way, be the hypervigilance that crushes the reason and clarity out of Living Sober? To be clear, Living Sober already talks about other AA literature and why some members swear by the Twelve Steps. Living Sober doesn’t claim to be AA 2.0 or diminish any aspect of AA. 

I am cautious but not concerned; any good idea should be considered. I would hope we focus on new ideas. Here are some potential regressions or counternarratives that could inflict dark imaginings in those of us who would rather not draw too much attention to our little gem—Living Sober. I offer these possibilities with humour. 

Chapter 6. Getting Active: “Get a big book sponsor who has a big book sponsor, and you ought to take newcomers through the book exactly as the first 100 men did it?” Some of us have heard people say such things in meetings. It stands to reason thatmaybe they might suggest that this point of view be reflected in any and all AA literature. 

Chapter 13, “First Things First”: “First, drop to your knees every morning, as our founder Bill W tells us, ‘we trust infinite God instead of our finite self … we ask God what we should do about every specific matter.’[vii] Okay, that’s helpful to some to those who think this would be vehicle to help Living Sober become “real AA.” 

Chapter 21. “Avoiding Dangerous Drugs or Medications”: “How about avoiding outside issues, dude! Drugs and medications aren’t mentioned in the Big Book so why are we talking about this?” Okay, neither of these points are sober-as-a-judge arguments; the use of prescription or street drugs, while not a topic that AA-as-a-whole takes a position on, drugs other than alcohol are the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth of many AA stories. And drugs have been part of AA narrative from our origin story of our first two members. Mel B in Pass it On (p. 149) recalls Bill W and Anne, the wife of Dr. Bob, getting Bob ready for surgery after a relapse with beer and goofballs, a colloquialism for barbiturates. Nevertheless, there are members who feel strongly we should not be talking about such things. How do try to make them feel included and that we’re not destroying the AA they love?

 A question for the day is: Could those of us Living Sober fans that invited change, make room for strongly held views that differ from ours? Or do we think it is understood that Living Sober should remain irreligious (non-theistic)?

Does an overhaul sound like a lot of work, especially if we have done some of it before and we would just have to do it again? 

Sure, our limited human resources and other priorities need to be considered. But “Anytime, anywhere someone reaches out” – this is what we do. I think time invested in Living Sober would help us do what we do, and the people we serve, greatly. 

Thank you to Rainer L at GSO, my area, district, homegroup and everyone else I have been talking to, locally, at our Reginal Forum and service assemblies. Regardless of what direction we go, I think it’s vital that we talk about it, listen to each other, try new things. My home groups enjoys Living Sober as a meeting starter and with modifications, small and large, I expect this will be a great meeting starter for years to come, one day at a time.

READ/DOWNLOAD PDF version of Living Sober 50 Years (this blog)