Welcome to Recoveries Anonymous!
R.A. is a unique Twelve Step program of recovery! It welcomes and will work for everyone, regardless of their problems or behaviors, including yours. In R.A., we duplicate what the pioneers, the originators of the Twelve Step program, did. At our meetings, we only discuss the program's spiritual solution. We do not share about our problems or behaviors. This means your family and friends are also welcome to attend.
For years, R.A. has been helping people find a full recovery from their various problems and behaviors. Since R.A. is a Twelve Step program, we have no dues or fees.
As a newcomer to our Fellowship, R.A. has some vital information for you. We want to help you take full advantage of all that R.A.'s Twelve Step Program of Recovery offers.
Insanity is often defined as doing the same thing in exactly the same way, over and over again, and expecting a different result. The good news is that R.A. does things differently so that you can get a different result. This result is being restored to sanity in all areas of your life.
The Goal of R.A.'s Program
The goal of R.A.'s program is simple. It is to help you be restored to sanity in every area of your life. This goal comes from the pioneers of the Twelve Step program. They are the first hundred members who recovered. They wrote the Big Book. It contains their "clear-cut directions" for working the Twelve Steps. In the Second Step, they say that as a result of following their directions, they "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity."
If the pioneers had wanted the program to have a more limited goal, they could have written the Second Step differently. It could say, "restore us to sobriety," or "restore us to abstinence." Their original goal was to work all Twelve Steps so a Higher Power could restore them to "sanity."
In R.A., we will help you follow the pioneers' original "clear-cut directions" to work all Twelve Steps. In R.A.'s experience, working the Twelve Steps in this way will help you come to believe that God can restore you to sanity in every part of your life. With our help, you can find the full recovery you have been seeking.
The First Things for You to Read
Download a free copy of the blue R.A.'s Newcomer Guide from R.A.'s web site. We recommend that you read it after you finish reading this page. Consider starting to have the "Daily Quiet Time" it describes. Many of our members have found it to be an essential part of their recovery process.
We also have other guides and books that will help you find the recovery you are seeking. For example, you can download a free copy of the green R.A.'s Change In Perception Guide. It contains R.A.'s Highlighting Introduction. Please follow its suggestions to get started with R.A.'s program of recovery. We also suggest that you also do this after you finish reading this page.
In R.A., we distribute our literature as downloadable PDF files. We do this because we desire to keep our books and guides affordable. Printing, storing, and shipping physical copies would significantly increase costs, making them less accessible to many.
We now live in a digital age. Therefore, you can easily view R.A.'s Solution-Focused Literature on your phones, tablets, and computers. You can also download and print them using your own printer or take them to a print center for printing and binding. Most people appreciate this modern and convenient way to access our literature.
R.A.'s Solution Focused Literature has helped thousands of seemingly hopeless men and women. They have found the recovery they were looking for. Downloading our books and guides can help you, too!
R.A.'s Suggested Literature
The original Twelfth Step says you will have "a spiritual experience as the result of this course of action." You get this result after going through all Twelve Steps using the pioneers' original "clear-cut directions." R.A.'s experience is that these directions are easier to see in the Multilith Big Book. It is the pioneers' original group conscience approved manuscript for the Big Book. In it, the pioneers share vital information. They say, "To show other[s] PRECISELY HOW THEY CAN RECOVER is the main purpose of this book." You may already have a copy of A.A.'s Big Book. However, R.A.'s experience is that the changes made to its text make it hard to see the original "clear-cut directions."
Getting "The Original Way Out Revealed: R.A.’s Annotated Multilith Big Book" from R.A.'s website is easy. It is on a page that also has several other helpful R.A. books. We provide the passwords needed to open these books to thank those who make a small contribution to R.A.'s effort to help others.
While they are not required, you may also enjoy having some of the other books we use in R.A. available. These include DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, A.A. Comes of Age, and A.A.'s Twelve and Twelve. We also suggest a book the pioneers studied before writing the Big Book, The Sermon on the Mount by Emmet Fox. Additionally, you might enjoy having a copy of the current edition of A.A.'s Big Book.
Getting these books is simple: Use your favorite search engine or go to your favorite online bookseller and search for them. You can also find out more about these books by clicking here.
When you join our Fellowship, you will have exclusive free access to our R.A. members-only website. You will use this platform with your R.A. sponsor to work through the Twelve Steps.
Attend R.A. Meetings
If you are like most R.A. members, you have been talking about your problems and behaviors for years, perhaps even decades. You might have done this in other Twelve Step meetings or therapy. However, for most of us, sharing about our lives, our families, or our problems and behaviors did not bring about our recovery. Many of us even felt worse.
We found that the more we shared our problems, the deeper we progressed into them. People sometimes told us that we had a progressive disease. Therefore, it did not surprise us when the more we focused on the negative details of our lives, the deeper and deeper we sank into depression, self-pity, and resentment.
R.A. meetings are different—so different that we call them R.A. Discussions. In them, we focus on the pioneers' original spiritual solution instead of our problems and behaviors. We read about this solution in R.A. Solution-Focused Literature. We talk about this solution at our meetings. We start living in this solution and sharing it with those who are still suffering. When we consistently do this, we start to progress into this solution. We recover!
These are the kind of meetings the pioneers tell us they had in the program's early days. They share that they did not tell their histories back then. They say that only their sponsor and a few friends knew the details of their lives. They did not think this information was anybody's business. They state that they already knew how to hurt themselves. What they wanted to learn was how to get sane and stay sane.
In R.A., we recommend that you duplicate what the program pioneers did. We suggest you not go into the details of your problems, behaviors, or life. R.A.'s experience is that this produces a different result than you may have received elsewhere. The pioneers tell us they found permanent recoveries and contented, useful lives.
Not talking about our lives or our problems and behaviors at R.A. Discussions has an added benefit. R.A.'s focus on the solution allows us to welcome everyone to our Fellowship. Therefore, we can include our family and friends. While many of R.A.'s members are no longer in other programs, others are. In either case, at R.A.'s meetings, we suggest that you do not mention the names of any other organizations in your sharing.
Focusing on the solution instead of our problems and behaviors at an R.A. Discussion is simple. You can open the blue R.A.'s Newcomer Guide. Or use any of R.A.'s Solution-Focused Literature. Then, select a positive highlight. It can be a sentence or two, a paragraph or two, or even a short passage. Next, share why your chosen quote is interesting or important to you.
You can find more information about R.A.'s Discussions on our website. We suggest you download a free copy of our brown R.A.'s Meetings Guide. You can also find the locations and times of R.A.'s face-to-face and phone meetings. You can do this by clicking on the "R.A. Meetings" button on R.A.'s website.
Listen to a full length R.A. Solution Discussion meeting.
Sponsorship in Recoveries Anonymous
In R.A., our approach to working with newcomers is very different. The role of an R.A. Sponsor is not that of a counselor or therapist. Instead, they are guides. Their function is to lead newcomers through the process of working all Twelve Steps. They do this by following the "clear-cut directions" in The Original Way Out Revealed: R.A.'s Annotated Multilith Big Book, which we will now refer to as R.A.'s Multilith Big Book.
An R.A. Sponsor will do this by using R.A.'s Step Presentation. There is no cost for this service. During this presentation, the Sponsor and the newcomer will read and discuss every sentence of every paragraph in R.A.'s Multilith Big Book. After they discuss each step's directions, the newcomer will follow the pioneers' original instructions to take that step. Once they have fully worked all Twelve Steps, they will find what the pioneers found. The pioneers describe this as a permanent recovery and a contented, useful life. R.A.'s experience is that this is the simplest, most straightforward, and effective way to work with others.
The pioneers' original "clear-cut directions" are easier to see and follow in R.A.'s Multilith Big Book. Therefore, you should use it to go through R.A.'s Step Presentation. When the pioneers created the current Big Book, they made many edits, making it harder to see the original "clear-cut directions." So you cannot use it. R.A.'s Multilith Big Book is available on R.A.'s website at www.R-A.org
You will find highlights, questions, and sharing as you go through R.A.'s Step Presentation. They have all been chosen and edited by the Group Conscience of Recoveries Anonymous. R.A. is a Fellowship of men and women who have recovered from their problems and behaviors. Their sanity has returned due to thoroughly following the pioneers' path. They have used all the pioneers' original "clear-cut directions" to work all Twelve Steps.
In R.A., there is another distinctive aspect to how we work with others. We use a system of Primary and Secondary sponsors. An R.A. Primary Sponsor will lead each of their R.A. newcomers through R.A.'s Step Presentation. They will also arrange for each of their newcomers to contact everyone else their R.A. Sponsor is working with, including their own R.A. Sponsor. Then, these people will become the R.A. newcomers' Secondary Sponsors.
R.A. Sponsors all share the same information with their newcomers. They all guide their newcomers to follow the pioneers' original "clear-cut directions" from R.A.'s Multilith Big Book. This process makes working with others in R.A. very simple. It also means that an R.A. newcomer can go through R.A.'s Step Presentation as quickly or slowly as they desire. They can pause at any point. They can then continue from precisely the same place when they resume. This process is the same even if they resume with a different R.A. Sponsor.
Getting An R.A. Primary Sponsor
You can find an R.A. Primary Sponsor at your local or online R.A. meeting. You can also ask for one by contacting Recoveries Anonymous through our website at www.R-A.org
If an R.A. group is not available near you, we will be happy to work with you over the Internet and by phone. R.A. is an anonymous program. So, when requesting an R.A. Sponsor, please give us explicit permission to share your contact information with an available sponsor. We also need to know your time zone. In addition, please let us know if you have a preference regarding the gender of a sponsor. We will then have someone contact you.
However, we often only have the email address of an available R.A. Sponsor. Therefore, we do not always know their gender. If the person we have contact you does not work out, please let us know, and we will have someone else contact you.
Sometimes, an R.A. newcomer will be in a situation where they cannot find an R.A. Primary Sponsor to work with them. We do have alternatives available. Someone in this situation should contact R.A. by email through R.A.'s website. R.A. will then contact them with suggestions about how they can proceed.
More About R.A.'s Program
R.A. is a Solution-Focused Twelve-Step program. There are no dues or fees for membership. We are self-supporting through contributions. We are here for those who want a full recovery from their problems and behaviors but, despite their best efforts, have yet to find one. We are also here for their family and friends.
Recoveries Anonymous is a spiritual program. It is not a religious one. This is true even though our literature talks about God. It is also true even though some of the books we read from a historical perspective because the program's pioneers used to read them mention Christ.
It is important to note that the pioneers did not include the need to be religious or Christian to work the Twelve Steps. R.A. welcomes members of all religions as well as atheists and agnostics.
Within R.A., we echo the pioneers of the program. We look forward to you joining us "on the Broad Highway, walking hand in hand with the Spirit of the Universe" toward your recovery.
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