2005
What is Debtors Anonymous?
My name is Hope, and I am a
debtor, free of incurring unsecured debt for ten years, one day at a time,
through working the Twelve Steps of D.A. I have a question for the Fellowship to
consider: What is Debtors Anonymous?
Does that sound like a silly
question? According to its Preamble, Debtors Anonymous claims to be a
fellowship of men and women who come together to solve their common problem and
recover from the disease of compulsive debting. Over the ten years I’ve been in
D.A., it seems to me that D.A.’s primary purpose has evolved to encompass other
behaviors in addition to compulsive debting.
For example, members identify as
shopaholics, paupers, deprivation addicts, or chronic underearners. Other
members identify as time debtors or self-debtors. (All these labels confused me
greatly when I was a newcomer.) Some members even say they don’t have a problem
with credit cards or aren’t in debt, and even though they don’t consider
themselves compulsive debtors, they still keep coming back to D.A. Why? I have
to wonder what they are getting from this program.
D.A.’s library of pamphlets
addresses this evolution away from D.A.’s primary purpose. (Or has it contributed
to it?) On my meeting’s literature table, I see a pamphlet for underearning and one for recovery from compulsive shopping. There is a pamphlet called Visions for paupers and deprivation
addicts. These pamphlets are among the top sellers at my meeting. However, the
issues of time debting and self-debting still seem “out of bounds” for some
reason. Why? It’s impossible for a newcomer (or long-timer) to identify an
“outside issue” in D.A.
If D.A.’s primary purpose is to
stop debting and to help other compulsive debtors to stop debting, then
anything that doesn’t focus on that primary purpose is, by definition, an
outside issue. Using that guideline, compulsive shopping would be considered an
outside issue. Underearning would be considered an outside issue.
Members with some time in the
program understand all too well that either of these behaviors can lead to
debting. But so do many other behaviors that are not addressed in the D.A. program, such as codependency and overeating. Do we need literature for the
multitude of situations that can trigger debting behavior? Where should the
line be drawn? And who decides?
So I ask you my question again:
What is Debtors Anonymous? What do we stand for? Is D.A. trying to be all things
to all people by not taking a stand on its current primary purpose (as some in
D.A. have suggested)? Or is D.A. gradually (and unconsciously and unintentionally)
creating a place where anyone who “has a problem with money” can find a common
solution?
The first Tradition of Debtors
Anonymous states, “Our common welfare comes first; personal recovery depends
upon D.A. unity.” As it stands now, it seems to me that D.A.’s primary purpose is
being diluted if not blatantly ignored, even in our Conference-approved
literature. How unified is that?
I suppose there is a spiritual
solution. What if D.A. as a whole came together to define itself under the
guidance of the ultimate authority: god expressed in the group
conscience of our World Service Conference?
Some obvious possibilities come
to mind: D.A. could expand it primary purpose to encompass more than just
compulsive debting. Or here’s another idea: D.A. could affirm its primary purpose
as being only about compulsive debting. Or it could do nothing and just
let it unfold as it will, which is pretty much what I see happening now.
If D.A. does nothing, what is
happening now will probably continue: slow or stagnant growth; the exodus of
burned out long-timers; the ebb and flow of confused newcomers who latch onto
the Tools then leave without working the Steps; the lack of sponsors; the lack
of members willing to do service; the tug-of-war between the terms “abstinence”
and “solvency”; the general feeling that D.A. doesn’t deliver on the “promise” of
prosperity.
I think D.A. needs a clear
definition of debting, guided by the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. This
is not a decision that can be made by individual groups, or Intergroups, or by
the Trustees. The Fellowship must define its primary purpose. What do you
think Debtors Anonymous should stand for?
Ask your General Service
Representative to carry your opinion to the next World Service Conference. Your
personal recovery, my personal recovery—and the survival of the next newcomer
who walks in the door—may depend on it. And in the end, isn’t that all the same
thing?
Thanks for listening.
Hope
2005
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