This not that

The AA programme is:

- Spiritual not religious

- Spiritual not medical

- Spiritual not psychiatric

- Spiritual not psychotherapeutic

There is nothing wrong with religion, medicine, psychiatry, and psychotherapy.

I'm at liberty to seek religious, medical, psychiatric, and psychotherapeutic help if I wish.

I'm also at liberty not to.

Others are at liberty to seek such help.

They're also at liberty not to.

Within AA, these are outside issues, to be decided on by the individual, who is responsible for the choices they make.

AA is also an outside issue to these domains.

Reconciling two or more systems, with their own understanding of 'what is going on', with their own solutions, and with their own jargon, is hard.

It can also be confusing, and can result in applying none of the systems systematically.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that can can produce a draughty patchwork in the place of a holistic solution.

The AA programme is also not the programme of any other fellowship.

Reconciling two or more twelve-step programmes, with their own understanding of 'what is going on', with their own solutions, and with their own jargon, is also hard.

Out of necessity, I do attend Al-Anon and gain a lot from certain of its writings, but the approach in most Al-Anon groups I've attended appears to me to be fundamentally different from that in AA, at least the parts of AA that cleave to the book Alcoholics Anonymous.

My home is AA, and I cherry-pick from other fellowships.

This has been sufficient for me and works for me.

You do what works for you.