Alcoholics Anonymous Old Timers

Newcomers are often surprised to find people still attending AA decades after they became sober. Critics say, "they have replaced alcoholism with addiction to AA". The fact is, AA is a spiritual program. Alcoholism and addiction are diseases of narcissism. When newcomers arrive at AA they are commonly self absorbed. Addiction is often increasingly about isolation and alienation. Spirituality, developmentally, is essentially a movement from narcissism to altruism. The old timers simply say, "when I first came into the rooms of AA someone was there to greet me, I want to do my part to make sure there's always someone there to greet the newcomer."