Why is it called Alcoholics Anonymous when the first thing you do is stand up and say, ‘My name is Bob and I am an alcoholic’?
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Why is it called Alcoholics Anonymous when the first thing you do is stand up and say?
August 22, 2010 By 6 Comments
Because you don’t ever give your last name, and you don’t have to share any other details about your life (like where you live or work) unless you want to.
There could be a hundred people there with the name ‘Bob’, but they remain anonymous by not using their last name.
You DO NOT have to give your Name!
He may have said “Bob” but, is it!?!
Alcoholics Anonymous truly is anonymous. The main anonymity of it is that there is a trust in the room of people that no one will repeat what you say. You can feel free to stand up and tell your life struggles and stories and know that others in the room have gone through much of the same thing and will never repeat what is said in the room.
Why do you keep asking this silly question over and over and over again?
All right . . . I’ll tell you.
It is a fellowship named after a book titled, “Alcoholics Anonymous” – or “The Big Book”. The co-authors of that book had very definite thoughts about why this concept of anonymity should be incorporated into their Society.
They were afraid that once the Big book got distributed and word got out that they had discovered a solution to alcoholism that actually worked, they would be over-run with requests for help and unable to carry out their normal lives.
” It is important that we remain anonymous because
we are too few, at present to handle the
overwhelming number of personal appeals which
may result from this publication. Being mostly
business or professional folk, we could not well
carry on our occupations in such an event. We
would like it understood that our alcoholic work
is an avocation. ”
– Forward – First Edition
Many of the early members were professionals and wanted to get on with their careers.
‘Anonymity’ was NOT a protective device from exposure, from a perspective of shame or guilt – as many people such as yourself who are no very familiar with AA – and think they are – would suppose. Secrecy for the sake of “hiding” like a guilty child is not what anonymity was supposed to ever be about.
Bill is characterizing anonymity in Tradition Twelve as having: “immense spiritual significance”. It is significant that he does this not in his essay about the Tradition, but in the Tradition itself. Yet this aspect was absolutely impossible for me to understand for the first several years of sobriety.
I was very fortunate in that I took to heart the old Fellowship axiom of “Sticking with the winners” Those, in my view at the time, were some of the old-timers, and those with significant terms of sobriety. They also tended to be more active in service and serving than others. So the emphasis on the spirituality of anonymity was brought to the forefront. I still did not get it, but I believe a see was planted. And for this reason I like to encourage those I sponsored to get into Service early. They do not. But maybe like I n me a seed will be planted.
As a newcomer I was stuck on the “Secrecy” aspect of anonymity; the protection of ones identity so no one in mainstream society could finger, judge or harm me financially and socially because I was some sort of social defective.
This is a very self-centered view of anonymity, I must admit. Being only a year or two without booze and avoiding the more introspective aspects of our Program, how could I have been anything but? I was willing to serve, as long as there was some sort of recognition in it, no matter how small.
As I matured in recovery however, anonymity became more tied to humility. As my life as a recovered alky began to take shape, my own deflation saw to it that God was taking more and more the lead in more and more of my affairs. That humility of course necessarily spilled over into the things I did to be helpful and to serve my group, other drunks and onward.
In “The Doctor’s Opinion” while prefacing Silkworth’s letter, Bill notes, “we work out our solution on the spiritual as well as an altruistic plane”
Peace,
Danny S
http://recoveredalcoholic.blogspot.com/‘
There could be a hundred people there with the name ‘Bob’, but they remain anonymous by not using their last name.