Our guest today is writer/journalist, from Los Angeles, Tracy Chabala a Technology, food and addiction/mental health writer, now working on an upcoming novel. We’ll talk about the craft of writing, the writing industry, some of the nuances of the addiction/recovery media world. Recently TheFix.com charged Tracy to write about researcher, Sarah E. Zemore et alia’s “A longitudinal study of the comparative efficacy of Women for Sobriety, LifeRing, SMART Recovery, and 12-step groups for those with AUD(Alcohol and other Drugs).” 

Much of the resistance to AA from people in treatment centers is the perceived religious or spiritual component and so AA effectiveness was compared to non-religious, spiritually benign or secular fellowships, that have formed to meet the need for secular peer-to-peer or mutual aid support. Who’s come up with a better modality to concur alcohol and other drug use disorder? Or does AA have something that yields better results today compared to these newer options? 

I’ll talk with Tracy for the bulk of our time together. First, here’s some up-dates on recent activities (March/April 2018) that I’ve been posting about on Rebellion Dogs social media… 

AA Road-warriors who “carrying the AA message” in various ways gathered in Sedona Arizona to talk about the future of AA. Attendees included circuit speakers, past delegates/trustees, GSO workers, treatment industry workers, AA historians, researchers and people working within the General Service Structure today. Sobriety varied from 11 years to 50 years, from all over America, from Iceland, Denmark and Canada. 

Discussion points included AA’s changing culture, the question about our literature being up to the task for future newcomers and what might be altered or improved, spirituality and social media. 

I was on an outreach trip for ICSAA 2018, in Toronto this August 24 – 26, the International Conference of Secular AA, formerly known as We Agnostics, Atheists & Freethinkers. 

Prior to the USA S/W outreach leg the host committee was in Toronto at the Ontario Regional Conference at the Area 83, Eastern Ontario International Assembly in Kingston and North Bay’s We Agnostics Group, 150 miles north of Toronto. Later this Month, it’s Alberta with meeting stops in St. Albert (near Edmonton) and Calgary Alberta. 

The musical offering today is an LA pop-punk foursome called The Regrettes.

Notes & Links CLICK for links:

http://www.tracychabala.com/

The FIx article:

The Regrettes band: http://www.theregrettes.com/

Photo credit: For IndieCan.com (Sirius XM Radio) Wendy L. Rombough Photography

The Journal of Substance Abuse Therapy

Tracy Chabala on After Party Podcast with Anna and Danielle

February 15, 2018 is the launch of a new memoir about addiction, about recovery called, Parallel Universe: The Story of Rebirth. Author David B. Bohl, like all of us, has an incredible personal adventure to share. Everyone confronts certain demanding existential questions: who am I, what am I doing here, who are these others? My personal sense of identity has been a prerequisite to sanity, integrity and a satisfying, purposeful life. 

“’Who’s my biological mother?’ I asked my adoptive mother as a child,” David recounts on page 16 of Parallel Universes. 

What are the catalysts to the life we lead, overachieving, underachieving, addiction or recovery? Duality and addiction and later duality and recovery are challenging dance-steps for any of us. How much more challenging is an integrated sense of identity if you’re adopted; if much of your pass is locked away in a filing cabinet in an office that you have no access to.

“Two Parallel Universes, two realities. I was marked for life, destined by my circumstances to have my perception warped from the get-go.” 

For anyone who's still waiting for a previously hinted about show, here's an update on the Ten-thousand Beyond Beliefs Blog: most of a show done about  our book, Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life was finished over a month ago. The episode recounts how it was conceived, written and some notable facts/stats upon reaching the 10,000 mark of paperbacks and eBooks now on people’s mobile devices, reading nooks and bedside tables. We reached that milestone in December. I’m going to do this story, as some of you have requested. It will include a few ideas to anyone else thinking they have a book in them. The problem is, like today, I have another book or another subject I want to talk about way more than my own efforts. There is a wealth of good books and stories going on.

Another writer, Anne Fletcher, needed help with addiction late last century. So, I would guess two things about her: First assumption: she may not have an executive-style health care benefit plan whereby no treatment cost is prohibitive. I’m a writer and I don’t have a fancy employer-sponsored health plan. Secondly, it’s natural that she might want to channel her lived experience into a narrative. That’s what writers do. From treating obese patients to penning, Thin for Life, Fletcher championed medicine, folk-wisdom and subjects held up as examples that she called masters of weight control.  Thin for Life comes from the consumer/lifestyle/wellness genre whose titles flirt with best-seller-ness often. Hers became its own franchise of follow up books that inspired and helped 100’s of thousands. Channeling the Thin for Life winning formula Anne M. Fletcher, found in her own life-challenge, a new project, the 2001, SOBER for Good: 

“Along the way I tried some of the conventional solutions for alcohol problems. Though I was impressed with how helpful AA was for others and I’d benefited from the support, I’d come home from a meeting feeling like the odd one out. My take-responsibility attitude—along with my tendency to challenge the status quo and want to do things my way—didn’t mesh with the program’s twelve-step philosophy. I wasn’t ‘in-denial.’ I was looking for help but felt I had nowhere to turn. So I crafted my own rather lonely path to resolving my troubles with alcohol, with the help of some open-minded therapists who did not demand that I become abstinent or that I attend a recovery group but respected my ability to make the decision to stop drinking and encouraged me to develop my own strategies to do so.”[i] 

SOBER for Good, went on to quote and interview people in long term recovery, provide a consumer guide and overview of the recovery world, with—or without—AA style peer-to-peer. In 2013, she followed up with Inside Rehab after doing more research. As a respected writer, she was invited to observe in and out-patient programs and she reported her findings from the campuses of Caron, Hazelden, Promises and other infamous facilities. 

I think it’s great that people investigate, criticize and report on addiction/recovery modalities. Skepticism isn’t cynicism. Yes, some find fault like there’s a reward for it; we know enough about recovery from addiction to separate the attention getting nay-sayers from sincere outcries to aid addicts seeking help.

And story-telling - be it alcoholic to alcoholic, eyeball to eyeball or print, documentary or social media accounts of experience, strengh and hope - is one of the best lessons learned from the 1939 Alcoholics Anonymous. Sharing our experience can empower others.

Similarly, to Anne Fletcher, and many of us, David wasn’t a by-the-book alcoholic that fit nicely into a by-the-book recovery.

First, David’s worldview didn’t fit the popular 12-Step recovery narrative of an intervening higher power that “could and would if He were sought.”

Secondly, imagine how one takes inventory or reconciles one’s past where “nurture” happened in an adoptive family home and “nature” is out of the reach of personal scrutiny? 

Today we’re going to hear from David, who is stepping up to share his story, his memoir, Parallel Universes: The Story of Rebirth. We’ve talked with other authors on this podcast and it never gets old. This one’s special for me because David is a friend of mine. I came to know him the same way I have come to know many of you, online at first and eventually in the rooms. David and I, and some of you, were among the 300 or so who attended the first Secular International gathering of AA in Santa Monica in 2014. Since then, I’ve been to meetings in his hometown and he’s been to meetings in mine. 

I loved David’s Parallel Universes. I sometimes take public transit and on my way to Toronto Intergroup, I was transported by the tale of David landing in India, an alcoholic on the run again. I missed my bus stop; I missed three of them. Four stops later I sufficiently snapped back to my universe and start my mile, or so walk back to my destination, in a Toronto winter. I didn't mind the unplanned walk at all. It's gave me time to think more about the book.

Just like in Anne Fletcher’s quote above, David didn’t feel right at home in AA either. He felt different because he was different; we’re all different. That’s something I trust Anne Fletcher found in her research… there is no universal solution but instead there are many paths and many absolutely fascinating stories to be shared.

If you don’t know David he as a Masters of Addiction Studies and he’s a member of the National Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors (NAADAC). I’ll let him tell you how that happened. Here’s David on the phone and me at my desk, talking about life and recovery and his new book, out now, called Parallel Universe: A Story of Rebirth.

UPDATE: ICSAA 2018, The International Conference of Secular AA in Toronto Hashtag #OnToToronto is six months away.

I happen to be your host-committee outreach coordinator. I’m working with Thomas, the outreach coordinator for the Secular AA board. I’m saying this because I am inviting you, if you are willing, to be a local liaison for your home group or the Agnostic/Atheist groups in your region. Send me your email and maybe a physical address too.

The www.secularaa.org site has meeting info but not always phone numbers, contact names, etc. So, I need people to get the word out at your own group and maybe your district table or your local intergroup. Not all of the secular AA community belong to atheist/agnostic/freethinker groups and we want to reach anyone, anywhere.  

The Toronto ICSAA 2018 conference is just around the corner and the host committee is ready to help people plan their trip. Check out Facebook and Twitter for info on things to do in Toronto. While we’re meeting August 24th to 26th in Toronto, the Canadian National Exhibition is on before, after and during the conference. Maybe you’d like to take an extra day this summer and attend Canada’s national exhibition. There are walking or bicycle tours, art galleries, museums and shopping walking distance from the Toronto Marriot Eaton Centre Hotel.

Niagara Falls or Canada’s Wonderland are short drives away. We have local intel on how to get here by bus, plane or train but we need—I need—people to help get outreach to your local meetings. Toronto is an expensive North East city but from first-class to starving artist, there is lots to do on any budget. So check the show notes bellow or come register at www.secularaa.com and send us an email with your contact info. 

Since posting this podcast, David B's book was reviewed by fellow Memoir writer, Thomas B, click to read it on AAagnositica.

March 1, 2018 David B was the guest of John S on AA Beyond Belief Radio. Listen Here

LINKS for Episode 36 of Rebellion Dogs Radio Click the words and enter "Parallel Universes."

Rochester (pictured at the Mod Club Theatre, Toronto Canada photo credit: Wendy L. Rombough, www.IndieCan.com) APPLE MUSIC - SOUNDCLOUUD.

Helschel Haus Books.

David B Bhol website.

Register for ICSAA 2018 August 24 - 26 HERE

ICSAA 2018 on FACEBOOK

ICSAA 2018 on TWITTER

Thanks for being part of Rebellion Dogs Radio. See you on line, see you in the rooms,

[i] Fletcher, Anne M, SOBER for Good. 2001: New York, Houghton Muffin Company 

[ii] https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/balance/1324728516?i=1324728520

Think Think Think: The Truth and How to Reconcile

“Think, Think, Think…” Show me another AA slogan that doesn’t get the respect it deserves. Everyone loves, “Easy Does It,” and “Live and Let Live.” I’ve seen sober club houses that hang “Think, Think, Think” upside down. What is that supposed to mean? Meditation isn’t Step One in AA so perhaps it’s a more advanced tool in the kit than, “First Things First.”

On Epiosode 35 of Rebellion Dogs Radio we are think, think, thinking about Truth and Reconciliation. We borrow from Science, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Dave Chappelle's waxing philosophical in Los Angeles, lessons learned from Apartheid in South Africa and Canada's indigenous Truth & Reconciliation.

We look at a AA - history, current conflicts and we ponder about how our actions today will shape our future. We compare AA's current day personalities with Refuge Recovery mindfulness.

Nelson Mandela, in his 1990, The Struggle is My Life said this:

"Since my release, I have become more convinced than ever that the real makers of history are the ordinary men and women of our country; their participation in every decision about the future is the only guarantee of true democracy and freedom."

So fellow ordinary men and women; it's up to us... let's talk. Episode 35 is about an hour of chitter-chatter, you can help yourself to a PDF or online transcript from Rebellion Dogs BLOG. As always, share, re-post, download or stream and if you feel inclined, join the conversation.

“More than just a professional historian, as a Women’s Studies professor, I’m a professional feminist.  That means that my orientation to history is informed by an awareness of the unequal distribution of power between men and women, and a desire to reveal, critique and correct that inequality. Feminism works for me as what Ernie [Kurtz, Not God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous] called a filter—it colors the questions that I ask and the answers that I formulate.” Trysh Travis: 2017 AA History Lover's Symposium, Sedona Mago Recovery Series. 

The history of woman in AA (and throughout the larger recovery community) is the focus of  Rebellion Dogs Radio #34. Rebellion Dog's 21st century look at 12-Step Life welcomes, from the University of Florida Center for Gender, Sexualities, and Women’s Studies Research, Trysh Travis. Having just come back from Sedona Mago Retreat (Arizona), I can tell you that the place is still buzzing from Trysh Travis' shared research and insights on women and the 12-Step community. 

Working on culture and literature book # 3, Trysh Travis authored The Language of the Heart: 12 Step Recovery from AA to Oprah Winfrey, and more recently Re-Thinking Therapeutic Culture. Add to that, as Managing Editor Emeritus of Points: The Blog of the Alcohol & Drugs History Society, our 12-Step culture has never been too far from this researcher's gaze. Today, it my rebellious and dogged pleasure to share my recent conversation with Trysh Travis about some of what her extensive research can tell us about women, addiction and recovery. 

Respecting your time, I compromised my way from what could have been the "longest Rebellion Dogs show ever" to a "longer than usual Rebellion Dogs Radio show." That's the great thing about podcasting; we don't have to break away to the news at the top-of-the-hour. Still, I understand you are a busy person, too. What to cut and what to showcase is never a pleasant decision when the content is so rich and important. With some good fortune, episode 34 won’t be the last we hear from Dr. Travis. If you care about any particular marginalized populations in the addiction/recovery community, or if you are intrigued by AA and other 12-Step history, you are in for a treat. This might be one of those, "I have to listen twice to catch it all," shows. 

Background: 

PhD, Yale University, American Studies, 1998   
MA, Bread Loaf School of English, 1995   
BA, New York University, Gallatin Division, 1987 

Contact 

University of Flordia 

CLICK the PIC to Visit the Blog Post, "Points" 

Two Books (and counting) by Trysh Travis 

“Readers who come to this book looking for blanket condemnation or praise will be disappointed.” Trysh Travis from Language of the Heart.   Also by Trysh Travis: anthology Rethinking Therapeutic Culture (co-edited with my friend Tim Aubry 2015) extends my work on popular self-help and other “mental hygiene” movements.

"Ernie Kurtz was one of the most generous people I ever met. I think that the most important lesson that he ever taught me was that humility, curiosity and good manners, are the true fruits of both spiritual and intellectual investigation."  Jay Stinnett, Sedona Mago Retreat Center

This is part of the story Jay shares with us in a chat which makes up the lion's share of Episode 33 of Rebellion Dogs Radio. Jay runs the Recovery Series of weekend workshops at Sedona Mago Retreat Center in Arizona. If you haven't already meet Jay, today's the day! 

We planned on talking about an upcoming retreat we're working on together October 27th to 29th, 2017. It's called, "Beyond Belief: A secular journey through the 12-Step... with - or without - God." 

Anyone who follows surveys or demographics is preconditioned to the reality that generation-next newcomers differ from our AA generation. Today's newcomers need AA, just like us. But today's newcomers include more freethinkers. 

More millennials wants AA sobriety without the "God stuff," the monotheistic narrative about addiction and recovery. Why so fussy? 

We have all read, "...deep down in every man, woman, and child, is the fundamental idea of God (Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 55),"

That just isn't universally true, anymore. How do atheists make sense of "Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character"? Does Step Three make sense without a higher power? Can there still be prayer, if nobody's there? 

Largely, American atheists are still closeted. Think gays and lesbians, Circa: 1950. LGBTQ Americans found greater safety in the shadows during more homophobic times; atheists have learned how to avoid that familiar tyranny of the majority in our present-day "secularphobic" era. So how many people in North America don't believe in a prayer-answering, sobriety-granting higher power?

A sneaky new survey suggests that that one quarter of Americans may not believe in an intervening deity. Conceivably, that could be 500,000 of today's AA members. No shit?!? Could that be true? Recently, Pew Research Group bluntly asked, "Do you believe in God." Of respondents, 11% identified as nonbelievers (but only 3% go so far as to call themselves "atheist"). Regardless of how you personally feel, there is a very real dislike of atheists in the USA. Think of how we talked/joked about "fags" in the 1950s - or the 1980s for that matter. Today's favorite scapegoat is the American atheist. Pew Research also revealed an American public who wouldn't want to vote for an atheist or learn that their child was marrying a godless partner. Let me introduce you to some sneaky researchers who believe they found a way to out American nonbelievers from our closets.

Will M. Gervais and Mazime B. Najle of the University of Kentucky crafted a subtle way to text people. Five Thirty Eight.com spoke with the researchers and reported:

“Instead of asking about belief in God directly, they provided a list of seemingly innocuous statements and then asked: “How many of these statements are true of you?” Respondents in a control group were given a list of nine statements, such as “I own a dog” and “I am a vegetarian.” The test group received all the same statements plus one that read, “I do not believe in God.” The totals from the test group were then compared to those from the control group, allowing researchers to estimate the number of people who identify as atheists without requiring any of the respondents to directly state that they don’t believe in God. The study concludes that roughly one-quarter (26 percent) of Americans likely do not believe in God. 

Why am I telling you all about this right now?

Jay and I don't actually talk about any of this on this podcast or much about the upcoming retreat. We got distracted. But we will stay focused October 27th to 29th. We will discuss how to approach today's newcomers with a non-exclusive -- neither religious nor irreligious -- language. As for today's podcast, Jay and I drift a wee bit. Jay and I had to catch up, and it was so interesting, I want to share it with you. We are talking about the Oxford Group, smoking as it relates to recovery, the history of the Taoist Sedona Mago Retreat and how it has braided the beard of the "No Californication for my Arizona" locals. 

It's a great show. Here's some pictures from my last Sedona Arizona trip. The bottom left picture is a Tradition 11 anonymous selfie - my feet and the view part way up to the peak of Bear Mountain Arizona. The other three are the Sedona Mago grounds.

If you've booked for Beyond Belief: A Secular journey through the Twelve Steps and Traditions, see you in Sedona. It's going to be epic.

If you're not booked but impulsive... throwing caution to the wind and coming for the weekend is still cheaper than a crack relapse-lost weekend and you'll be back to work, Monday without a hangover or regret. So, think about joining us. Besides, who doesn't want to show-off how open-minded they are. If you can't make it, it's not as if this issue is going away and I'm sure this conversation will be oft' discussed in every corner of 12-Step culture. 

Also on Episode 33, we touch on SOAAR - the Secular Ontario AA Roundup held in Toronto Canada, this past September 16th. SOAAR was well attended with members from Northern California to up-state New York. Ontario members came from South, North East and West to join the downtown Toronto crowd. The day ended with entertainment and singer/songwriter Kevin M of The Kat Kings and other performers who were well received. We close today's podcast, like we closed SOAAR in Toronto, with a Kat Kings song. 

As always, stream or download the show from the link below. Share Episode 33 freely.

If you're new here -- don't binge all in one sitting, but -- check out some of our previous shows. There are 32 more if we've counted correctly and many more blogs, too. Many of them still have that new-car smell.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/way-more-americans-may-be-atheists-than-we-thought/

http://www.sedonamagoretreat.org/beyond-belief/

https://secularaa.com/registration/The Kat Kings: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/artist/the-kat-kings/id423404170

Writer, Douglas Coupland wrote a 1990s book called Generation X and it helped dignify a generation lost in the shadow of Baby Boomers. If not for X, if not Coupland maybe there wouldn’t be a Gen Y (18 - 36-year-olds we call Millennials now) or Generation Z who make up today's teenage alcoholics and addicts. Douglas Coupland said something in the Foreword of a book that I have on order by Rosa Harris called, Boomerville: Musings on a Generation that Refuses to Go Quietly. He wasn't talking about AA, he wasn't warning us about any generational communication-breakdown but let's hear him out:

“We stood at the turning point,”

“We beg of you to be fearless,”

“…we continued to practice these principles in all of our affairs,”

“God as we understood Him.”

It sounds like Coupland is looking right at "we" AAs as he’s making this generational distinction. Episode 32 of Rebellion Dogs Radio takes a wide-angle look at demographics with some help from Pew Research Group. We look at some challenges with bringing up the idea changes to the literature with "unselfconscious" Boomers. That won't go well, but we have four ideas of how we can overcome communication-breakdown and ensure 12-Step rooms are as Next-Generation friendly as "we" surely are for Boomers (my generation).

Want to read along? If you want to download the transcript, visit our blog page by clicking HOW BABY BOOMER ARE HOLDING AA BACK & 4 WAYS TO FIX IT. If you are ADHD there's lots to read, lots of links and pictures, too.

Download or stream the show from our player below or groove to the Pod-0-Matic feed below.

Want a PDF transcript to follow along with? CLICK HERE

The Business of Recovery[i] was the title of the debut documentary produced by institutional insider, Greg Horvath. I talked to Horvath in November 2016 at Toronto’s film/art festival, Rendezvous With Madness. Rendezvous is an art, addiction and mental health amalgam. Painters, filmmakers and psychiatrists sit on panels together and discuss well-being and falling off the beam in panels that precede and follow indie films and documentaries. 

Greg Horvath with Geoff Pevere of Rendezvous With Madness

This just in: Horvath! Crowd-sourcing is underway for his second treatment business inventory-taking documentary. His followup documentary has a working title of The Truth About Rehab[ii]. It aims to frame the addiction treatment business as a wild, wild west, where wild claims are made and wild fees are charged for healthcare. Greg’s film is dedicated to exposing corruption and unethical, predatory practices. The new trailer to The Truth About Rehab quotes 50,000 as the number of people who died of addiction in 2015 (the year of his first documentary). Death is something Greg has some insight into. As the drama of his film unfolds, some of the people Horvath interviewed in The Business of Recovery, who are going through the addiction treatment system, don’t live to the documentary’s completion; Others are no longer alive, today. 

The Business of Recovery motivated Rebellion Dogs to do our own digging around behind-the-scenes of the $US $35 Billion + addiction treatment industry. We share some of what we’ve found in this episode. Pundits, advocates, critics, lobbyists, all have a spin on this. Why not? A lot is on the line—a lot of well-being and profit to be had. 

Background we need to know for context: 

Ask Google: What does addiction treatment cost? A 30-day program could be $14,000 to $27,000, or $80,000 in Malibu. Out-patient treatment could be in the $500 range. Detoxing can cost $600-$1,000 per day. 

Resources: 

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)[iii] was formed in 1992. Formed by Congress, SAMHSA describes itself as “the agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that leads public health efforts to advance the behavioral health of the nation. SAMHSA's mission is to reduce the impact of substance abuse and mental illness on America's communities.” 

Here is a mind-blowing statistic from SAMSHA: 

In 2015, they count just under 286 million people 12 or older with either alcohol or drug dependency or abuse. By the way, the $35 Billion that is reportedly spent only meets the demand of 10% or so of Americans seeking addiction treatment. 

SAMHSA itself has requested Congress for a budget of $4.3 Billion to carry on its work. 

The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD)[iv] has some AA history. A first in many regards, Marty Mann was AA’s first LGBTQ success story and an early advocate outside the AA rooms. It’s interesting to wonder if we had formal Traditions or finger-pointing tradition enforcers back then, if Marty M could have or would have done what she has done. Mann is credited for organizing the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism in 1944, which became National Council on Alcoholism in in 1950, became equally concerns with drugs and re-branded as NCADD in 1990. 

Mission Statement for NCADD: “Affiliate Network is a voluntary health organization dedicated to fighting the Nation’s #1 health problem – alcoholism, drug addiction and the devastating consequences of alcohol and other drugs on individuals, families and communities.” Activities include professional and community training, referral services, support and advocacy and public information. 

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)[v] or 

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)[vi] 

Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)[vii] 

Horvath’s first movie makes the claim that treatment center cost for addiction in America is $35 Billion and has risen 300% over 25 years. He also points out that treatment centers have tripled in 25 years now with 14,000 places that take your money to treat your addiction. 

We also bring you some of what we’ve found from Vice, In Recovery Magazine and The Guardian. Of note, many within the industry are dedicated to ethical best-practices, education and outing predatory and unethical practices. We will report on some of their efforts and advocacy, also.

Visit the links below to buy or rent The Business of Recovery or keep up to date with Greg Horvath’s newest project. 

Mark your calendars for November 3 - 12, 2017 for this year’s Rendezvous With Madness[viii] art and film amalgam. 

A complete PDF transcript will be coming soon. 

[i] http://www.thebusinessofrecovery.com/ 

[ii] https://www.gofundme.com/thetruthaboutrehab?mc_cid=3efc9cc66c&mc_eid=21e35c81c1 

[iii] https://www.samhsa.gov/about-us 

[iv] https://www.ncadd.org/ 

[v] https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/about-niaaa 

[vi] https://www.drugabuse.gov/ 

[vii] http://www.doh.wa.gov/DataandStatisticalReports/DataSystems/BehavioralRiskFactorSurveillanceSystemBRFSS 

[viii] http://www.rendezvouswithmadness.ca/ 

SEDONA MAGO RETREAT October 27, 28, 29, 2017 "A Secular view to Twelve Steps & Twelve Traditions: http://www.sedonamagoretreat.org/beyond-belief/

Secular Ontario AA Roundup September 16, 2017 SOAAR http://www.soaar.ca/

Issues of Substance, Calgary November 13 - 15: http://www.cclt.ca/Eng/newsevents/Issues-of-Substance-Conference/Pages/default.aspx

Feature song: "Crazy" by Ash Leigh Ball http://www.ashleighballmusic.com/

March 2017: Joe C was on Talk Recovery Radio, 100.5 FM in Vancouver B.C. Hosts Darren Galer, Frances Stone and Giuseppe Ganci bring recovery and addiction issues to the airwaves with expert guest interviews, question of the day, call in time and awesome music. 

Vancouver Co-operative Radio, CFRO, 100.5FM is a non-commercial, co-operatively-owned, listener-supported, community radio station. Located in East Vancouver and with long-time roots in the Downtown Eastside, Co-op Radio strives to provide a space for under-represented and marginalized communities. Co-op Radio aims to increase community participation by encouraging examination of the social and political concerns of the geographic and cultural communities of BC and beyond. 

Toronto AA Intergroup had just made peace with AA secular groups including them in the directory without conditions. Vancouver Intergroup was debating reinstating agnostic/atheist AA groups at the time of recording, March 2, 2017. Congrats Van-city. They did, restoring unity to local AA and inviting the no-God groups back into the fold. Joe C loved being back on Talk Recovery. It's a show you can listen to online any Thursday at noon Pacific Time (3 PM EST)or visit their podcast section anytime for past shows. See links below...

So what do we talk about? We cover different ways that secular AA meetings ignore, embrace or interpret AA's 12-Steps. We talk about the Toronto Human Rights case that reviewed the Intergroup discrimination (expulsion) of agnostic/atheist AA groups. We talk about identity politics, AA rituals and we share each others struggles with semantics, autonomy, willfulness and how we each make peace with and find a place in AA. Are words sacred? Does changing them help or hinder?

The Last Door
 

More Talk Recovery Radio on 100.5 FM

A discussion on AA service with John S & Joe C. 

'Tis the season to show our gratitude. Is gratitude a feeling or an action; is it talked about or demonstrated? 

The circle-triangle often associated with Alcoholics Anonymous represent three tenets of AA life: recovery, unity, service. Today we're talking about service. At the time of posting this podcast, I had some bad news come my way. AA World Service Director and Class B Trustee Joe D died this week. I last heard Joe D talk about AA’s history of diversity at our 2015 District 10/Area 83 service workshop called, “So You Think You’re Different: Diversity in AA” about a year ago.

This episode is dedicated to the memory and legacy of Joe D. 

Joe was on the trustees’ Literature Committee that was recommending the atheist/agnostic pamphlet that was rejected by the General Service Conference. Joe was visibly frustrated by the time, love and service that went into the draft, which was all for not. Joe was one of the “good guys,” (not to suggest there is any nefarious element at General Service). He would certainly have been a voice or reason and asset to AA World Service – and all of us – at the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal mediation now underway. In this regard, the timing couldn’t be more tragic. 

I have a hard time grasping that Joe D is gone for good. He was a former Area 83 delegate (South East Ontario Canada and NW New York State – AA’s only international Area). He was a mentor to many past and present trusted servants both in Ontario Canada and around the General Service Office. It is timely that we’re talking service; many of us to step up to fill a void created with the loss of Joe D. If 2016 has taught us anything, it is this: Don’t take your democracy for granted; liberty comes with responsibility.

"What keeps you clean and sober, through thick and thin, all these 40-years, Joe?" you might ask. While why I am sober is still partly a mystery, there's no mystery to what I do to stay sober. I stay busy. Service, within AA and in our larger community, isn't something I do out of duty. It isn't something I do because I fear relapsing if I'm not a good boy. Maybe that was true at one point in early recovery. But today, service - in and outside of AA - is a building block within a purposeful life. A higher purpose was something I learned from secular AA friends who didn't drink the sobriety-granting, prayer-answering higher power Kool-Ade. 

If you are like me, if you don't connect with popular AA God-talk that comes with 12-Step discussion, read the Traditions, read the Concepts. Our Traditions make one vague reference to god and the Concepts of World Service don't mention supernatural forces at all. To a theist, god is assumed in every corner of AA and good for theists. But for me, service work is a reprieve from the "turn it over, trust god" talk in so many meetings. Service work is secular. Hospitals, correction facilities, public information, accessibility, cooperation with the professional community, being group treasurer or answering the phones - these are all roll-up-your-sleeves activities will little concern for philosophy or abstractions. 

Rarely do I ever get into debate over supernatural vs. natural worldviews when I'm talking about how AA can reach more underrepresented populations. Phones, trade-shows, coffee pots and committee meetings don't care what any of us believe. The same folks that make me roll my eyes if we're talking about Step Three, are good-natured colleagues when it comes to AA service work. In this regard, service and unity are linked. Regardless of opposing views on this or that, I find myself united in common good, in carrying AA's message, cheerfully with no cause or time for debate about spirituality. 

Some will tell you that for them service is spiritual. I don't fight them on that. For me, service is secular; it is neither religious nor irreligious. It can help keep us sober and satisfied with life, regardless of what we do or do not believe.

Rendezvous With Madness Episode (Rebellion Dogs # 27)  VIEW or download the PDF

To download the audio file of Rebellion Dogs Radio, scroll down to the download tab bellow. To stream (listen) click on our stream, Pod-0-matic or SoundCloud below... Enjoy.

Since the November 2016 election In the USA, identity politics is front-of-mind for many of us as a social issue. We’re going to continue our Rebellious, Doggy way of looking @ addiction and recovery through our less-dogma, more-bite, current-day lens. Rebellion Dogs Radio Episode 27 is called Rendezvous with Madness.

In this episode, we review the annual conference for National Association for Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors (NAADAC): the Association for Addiction Professionals which met in Minneapolis in October 2016. Also on Episode 27, Rendezvous With Madness(Toronto), the longest running arts/film festival devoted to addiction and mental health is 24 years old this year, November 4 – 12, 2016... the Madness continues. We have the first of two parts of #RMW2016 coverage this month  on art and it's ability to help us understand life and heal for life's challenges. From NAADAC, I have a wonderful conversation with Mita Johnson who points out “to discriminate” isn't strictly a barrier building word. To discriminate can mean “to recognize differences” and accommodate or integrate these differences.

Mita Johnson reminds readers that counselors and service providers have a duty to develop ethical multicultural skills and there are three stages to achieve this skill:

1. exploring
2. understanding and
3. acting.

Johnson explains, that cultural affiliation represents and celebrates “the beliefs, customs, practices, historical frames, experiences and ways of being that are unique and vital to a group’s identity.” Mita Johnson is an addiction and mental health practitioner and a dedicated supporter of NAADAC.

Lee Mun Wah is a movie maker and workshop facilitator. His 1994 documentary The Color of Fear is still widely used in humanities/social- science classes. Lee Mun Wah says: “I think this country has a huge mythology and that mythology is that our differences are valued. I don’t think so. I think they are celebrated. I think that if you really value somebody’s culture, you integrate it into your workplaces, it becomes part of businesses and part of the culture… We are more multi-holiday than we are multi-cultural.”

So we spend a little under an hour talking about films and art and what both professionals and peer-to-peer organizations are grappling with in the changing environment. Also, at the time of recording, we were getting ready for We Agnostics, Atheists & Freethinkers International AA Convention being held in Austin TX, November 11 – 13. There's a link below.

Rebellion Dogs is live on location. A full transcript of this Episode is available here (click).

 

At the time of recording it is October 2016—a great day to be living sober, or clean or clean and sober or living in long-term recovery if you like. I would call 2016 a great time to be part of the recovery community and especially great to be a part of the 12-Step community. Change is afoot and we are part of it.  

Oct 7 – 11 I was presenting to addiction professionals in Minneapolis Minneso-ber for the NAADAC national conference. NAADAC's theme was “Embrace Today, Empower Tomorrow.” Catchy… 

transcript PDF CLICK HERE
 

We Agnostics, Atheists & Freethinkers International AA Conference is—or was, depending on when you are listening to this—November 11th – 13th in Austin TX. Rebellion Dogs is co-hosting a panel/workshop called: LIVING CYBER along with the team from SinceRightNow.com, home of Recovery Revolution. Chris is co-host of KLĒN + SŌBR podcast and also on our panel is Tammi S whose blog, My Life Is A Work In Progress, chronicles her ongoing sobriety. We’ll talk about f2f recovery vs. online sobriety.  

This is such an awesome time for skeptics/atheists in AA. A new pamphlet from the United Kingdom General Service office is called:

The “God” Word: Atheists and Agnostics in AA.  

And meanwhile back in New York, Grapevine just released their first Atheists/Agnostic features month.  

Way to go AA for both of those initiatives. Still, it’s not very popular not believing in a sobriety granting higher power in America. We learn from Phil Zuckerman, PhD professor of sociology and secular studies that there exists a phenomena called, “secularphobia.” Zuckerman says:  

"While about 10 percent of Americans said they’d be unhappy if a family member married someone of a different political persuasion, and about 30 percent of Americans said they’d be unhappy if a family member married a gun owner, nearly 50 percent of Americans said that they’d be unhappy if a family member married an atheist.  

This finding comes as no surprise. Social science has long revealed high rates of secularphobia – the irrational dislike, distrust, fear or hatred of nonreligious people – within American society." 

 
Episode 25 features a chat with conference committee members, Pam W and Dianne P, looking ahead to Austin, November 11th to 13th for the second biennial We Agnostics, Atheists & Freethinkers International A.A. Conference. Addiction comes with identity issues. Holding a particular worldview comes with identity. We explore identity, beliefs, worldview and we look for cues from feminism and LGBTQ culture in aid of our own identity in recovery from addiction/alcoholism. 

It’s July 2016. Every year in Toronto, July kicks off with the Pride Parade. Prime minister Justin Trudeau and other dignitaries marched with Toronto’s Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Transgender and Queen community. Not everyone in the world is all about inclusion and “free to be me” and the 2016 celebration in Toronto was shadowed by the 49 shooting victims in Florida last month. “We can’t let hate go by,” said the prime minister at the 36th annual parade. “We have to speak up anytime there is intolerance or discrimination.” 

This isn’t a liberals vs. conservatives issue when it comes to discrimination, harassment and hate crimes in a liberal/pluralist society. While Toronto’s conservative mayor John Tory voted for the other guy in Canada’s 2015 Federal election, he echoed Trudeau’s thoughts. Tory said the Orlando mass shootings showed that "we've got things to do" to promote tolerance and inclusion.
 
Andrew Solomon is a New York Times writer and author of Far from the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity. Solomon says:

“There is always someone there to take our humanity away and always someone to restore it. Oppression breeds the power to oppose it. Identity politics always works on two fronts. First it gives pride to someone who has given characteristics and secondly, it causes the outside world to treat such people more gently, more kindly.” 

It is so frustrating to know that in light of all this, Toronto Intergroup is committed to defend it’s right to discriminate against AA members who hold a minority view. Toronto Intergroup in some kind of McCarthy era puritanism sees inclusion and tolerance as harmful to local AA. How can anyone or any service body be so far off of current cultural and political values? 

Well, it turns out that beliefs aren’t that easy to sway. OMG, addicts/alcoholics should know that. Why wouldn’t I see that drugs and drinking were leading me down the wrong road? In this episode, we listen in on psychotherapist, Mel Schwartz who talk about how when we’re persuading others to evaluate their thoughts and feelings, we miss the bigger part of the iceberg under the water (See illustration). At our core, is our worldview. Some call it a paradigm and others call it our core-beliefs. Our worldview informs our beliefs. Our beliefs steer how we interpret and experience the world. 

And when it comes how marginalized members of society can be “doin’ it for themselves,” we don’t have too far into our history to go. Let’s look at the feminist’s movement and how leading women in recovery made a home of their own under the 12-Step umbrella. Thanks Joanne for lending me Charlotte Kasl’s in 1992 modern-era classic, Many Roads, One Journey: Moving Beyond the Twelve Steps which I’ll read from in our podcast. Here’s a great tidbit: 

A fundamental question arises at this point. Is a spiritual path as suggested in twelve-step programs necessary for someone who wants to cease their addictions to substances or behavior? The answer is, not necessarily. Atheists, agnostics, and lots of other people stop their addictive use of alcohol and drugs without even attending twelve-step support groups. Put in its simplest form, sobriety is sobriety and a spiritual journey is a spiritual journey. Many people who become sober decide to embark on a healing journey but it is not necessarily the criterion for sobriety.

The early 1990s were what I would call the age of reasonable thinking. The Alternative 12 Steps: A Secular Guide to Recovery published by HCI Books came out around the same time, as did Philip Z’s A Skeptics Guide to the 12-Steps (Hazelden Publishing). What do owe the good fortune of reasonable, enlightened literature? 
Well, what sits well with my worldview of cause-and-effect would be that the conservative, protectionist, unfriendly movement in AA gave rise to enlightenment. Maybe the previous 1980s era of 12-Step culture was influenced by the Moral Majority rhetoric of the Regan/Thatcher/Mulroney era of true blue politics across the USA, Canada and the UK, where much of AA is found. But leading up to the era of enlightened literature from members of our recovery community, tension was rising at AA Headquarters.

Who remembers this stern warning from steward, Bob P who’s story is in the Big Book and his AA service dates back to the Bill W days. As he bid farewell to the General Service Conference, let’s remember that he felt a reason for us to be concerned in 1985: 
  

If you were to ask me what is the greatest danger facing A.A. today, I would have to answer: the growing rigidity -- the increasing demand for absolute answers to nit-picking questions; pressure for G.S.O. to "enforce" our Traditions; screening alcoholics at closed meetings; prohibiting non-Conference-approved literature, i.e., "banning books"; laying more and more rules on groups and members. And in this trend toward rigidity, we are drifting farther and farther away from our co- founders. Bill, in particular, must be spinning in his grave, for he was perhaps the most permissive person I ever met. One of his favorite sayings was, "Every group has the right to be wrong." He was maddeningly tolerant of his critics, and he had absolute faith that faults in A.A. were self-correcting. 

  
But our show doesn’t end on a downer. Bigotry, like we see in Toronto Intergroup, can’t keep evolution down. We are reminded that while we need vigilance, great things are happening as more is being revealed in the 12-Step community. We’re looking forward to Austin—it will be a celebration, like Pride in Toronto this month. Yes, there will talk about how we can and must do more. But we are in the age of reason and those of faith ought to know that we’re great bedfellows - not enemies. 

It’s always fun to introduce listeners to great new music. After our Thursday Beyond Belief Agnostics & Freethinkers AA group meeting this week, I had the pleasure of bringing some fellow AA’s to enjoy some sober musical fun and listen to some brit-band friends of mine, Moulettes who are on a cross-Canada festival tour in support of their new album, Preternatural. 

POD-0-MATIC listening and downloading link - SOUNDCLOUD listening and downloading link (Click to stream)

As always listen if you like. Weight in if you like. We’d love to hear your thoughts on today’s subject(s); we’re all in this together. TRANSCRIPT coming soon.

Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press July 4, 2016 

http://www.waaftiaac.org/

http://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_solomon_how_the_worst_moments_in_our_lives_make_us_who_we_are?language=en 

http://www.melschwartz.com 

Kasl, Charlotte Davis, Many Roads, One Journey: Moving Beyond the Twelve Steps, New York: Harper Collins, 1992 

Bob Pearson (1917-2008) was General Manager of the General Service Office from 1974 to 1984, and then served as Senior Advisor to the G.S.O. from 1985 until his retirement. His story is in the Big Book as "AA Taught Him to Handle Sobriety," 3rd edit. (1976) pp. 554-561, 4th edit. (2001) pp. 553-559. 

http://www.moulettes.co.uk/

The episode about AA and the courage to change.

"Let us never fear needed change. Certainly we have to discriminate between changes for the worse and changes for the better. But once a need becomes clearly apparent in an individual, in a group, or in A.A. as a whole, it has long since been found out that we cannot stand still and look the other way. The essence of all growth is a willingness to change for the better and then an unremitting willingness to shoulder whatever responsibility this entails.”
Bill W. A.A. Grapevine July 1965, As Bill Sees It p. 115

Episode 24 of Rebellion Dogs Radio looks at change and Alcoholics Anonymous. This show includes:

• The latest change in AA membership brought to you from General Service Office's Box 459
• Examples of how AA does change - a look at Accessibility and accommodating AAs with special needs
• Examples of AA resistance to change - Toronto Intergroup, AA World Services and Human Rights
• A great new find or is it an old find? AA: An Interpretation For the Nonbeliever (Hazelden)
• News and music included

Today we muse about a fictional look at The Tao (The Way) which encourages compassion, moderation, and humility. According to Christopher Moore's absurdist fictional work, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal, the point of these three enlightened attributes is that compassion begets courage, moderation begets generosity and humility is the key to leadership. Is this true? We look at the state of AA stewardship today. Are we slaves to inaction or do we possess the courage to change?

Transcript  of show in PDF HERE.
Thanks to our friend Jackie B, we look at the content of an out of date Hazelden pamphlet, AA: An Interpretation for the Nonbeliever from 1975. We have some new music from our friend Kevin M, his band The Kat Kings and their new album "Swingin in the Swamp." Today is the day we examine our annual look at the latest stats from General Service Office about AA's membership. And just for fun we look at how science might be having the same struggle with dogma that religion gets blamed for. One things for sure, this is Rebellion Dogs Radio - always less dogma, more bite.

Because failing to understand our history damns us to repeat it, Episode 23 of Rebellion Dogs Radio is delighted to invite, to our show, two recovery writers/historians. Both have researched AA history; both have found a creative and entertaining way of bringing the past alive.

Jackie B. is a playwright. Glenn Chesnut, author/historian/professor says, “Jackie B is one of the best recovery historians of the new generation and a master storyteller.” Jackie's most resent Recovery Works production is Our Experience Has Taught Us: A Sensational History of the Twelve Traditions. What a crafty idea; while many of us feel it is worth every AA's while to learn about history, sitting through a Tradition Study meeting is not on the bucket-list of many of us. So why not entertain people? This play entertains and educates.

If William G. Borchert isn’t a half-way household name, his works sure are. William wrote the screenplays to My Name is Bill W. (1989), staring James Woods as Bill W. and James Garner as Dr. Bob and When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story (2010) staring Winona Ryder. Having written 1000 Years of Sobriety (Hazelden), the stories of twenty members with fifty or more years of sobriety each, William Borchert's latest book is more personal. This story is about how families are impacted by both addiction and recovery and it's called, How I Became My Father: A Drunk. 

So we are delighted to share these conversations with these historical writers to share about their own recovery journey and life as writers.

Links to William G. Borchert CLICK HERE

Link to Jackie B's Recovery Works Theater CLICK HERE