A.A. and psychiatry address different needs
A.A. meets alcoholics in a world where mental health conditions, psychiatric evaluation, therapy, medication, and professional treatment are present while keeping its own primary purpose. This is how membership, sponsorship, nonprofessional status, medical decisions, and cooperation without affiliation define A.A.’s relationship to psychiatry.
A.A. members share experience with recovery from alcoholism. Mental health professionals diagnose and treat mental health conditions. The official A.A.W.S. material shows that these responsibilities can exist together without confusing one for the other.
A.A.’s responsibility begins with alcoholism
Tradition Five gives every A.A. group one primary purpose
: carrying its message to the alcoholic who still suffers. (The Twelve Traditions)
A.A. offers its program of recovery from alcoholism. Its primary purpose does not expand into diagnosing or treating bipolar disorder, depression, schizophrenia, or another mental health condition.
A mental health condition does not add a membership test
Tradition Three identifies the requirement for A.A. membership as a desire to stop drinking.
(The Twelve Traditions)
A diagnosis, psychiatric treatment, therapy, or prescribed medication is not an additional condition of membership. An alcoholic with mental health issues enters A.A. on the same stated basis as any other alcoholic.
Alcoholism and serious mental health issues can be present in the same life
A.A.W.S. presents twelve alcoholics with serious mental health issues who found recovery in Alcoholics Anonymous.
(A.A. for Alcoholics with Mental Health Issues – and Their Sponsors)
Their stories are experience, strength, and hope from people coping with both alcoholism and mental health conditions. They show that the presence of a mental health issue does not make the person ineligible for A.A. or make treatment of alcoholism unnecessary.
A.A. does not diagnose mental health conditions
A.A.W.S. says A.A. does not make medical or psychological diagnoses or prognoses.
(If You Are a Professional)
Psychiatric evaluation, diagnosis, counseling, medication management, hospitalization, and other mental health treatment belong to qualified professionals. A.A. remains a Fellowship centered on recovery from alcoholism.
Sponsorship provides A.A. experience, not clinical care
A.A.W.S. explains that Members share their experiences in recovery from alcoholism on a one-to-one basis.
(If You Are a Professional)
A sponsor helps another alcoholic use the A.A. program and shares experience with staying sober. Sponsorship does not confer psychiatric training, authority to diagnose, or authority to manage another member’s mental health treatment.
The sponsor carries the A.A. message and leaves treatment to professionals
A sponsor in the Conference-approved pamphlet describes the boundary as carrying the A.A. message, not acting as doctors or therapists.
(A.A. for Alcoholics with Mental Health Issues – and Their Sponsors)
The sponsor can listen, work the Steps, share A.A. principles, and encourage the sponsee to use the mental health care they have engaged. The psychiatrist or therapist remains responsible for professional evaluation and treatment.
Mental health treatment and A.A. can continue together
One sponsorship account describes no conflict between mental health treatment and A.A.
(A.A. for Alcoholics with Mental Health Issues – and Their Sponsors)
In that account, the mental health professional addressed mental health issues while the sponsor helped with the Big Book and Twelve Steps. The roles remained separate, and the member could continue both psychiatric care and active A.A. membership.
Prescribed medication remains a medical decision
A.A.W.S. states that some A.A. members must take prescribed medications.
(The A.A. Member – Medications and Other Drugs)
The official guidance directs medical advice and treatment to qualified physicians. A sponsor, group, or individual member does not replace the psychiatrist who evaluates the condition, prescribes medication, monitors its effects, and decides whether treatment should change.
A.A. members do not direct another member’s psychiatric care
A sponsor’s account states that A.A. members, as such, have no business commenting on another A.A. member’s medical care.
(A.A. for Alcoholics with Mental Health Issues – and Their Sponsors)
Telling another member to stop medication or stop seeing a therapist crosses the nonprofessional boundary. The A.A. role is to share recovery experience and support sobriety while the member and qualified professionals handle medical care.
A.A. and mental health professionals cooperate without affiliation
A.A.W.S. names its relationship with the professional community as cooperation but not affiliation.
(If You Are a Professional)
A mental health professional can refer a person with a drinking problem to A.A., and A.A. can provide access to meetings and members’ experience with sobriety. The professional retains responsibility for mental health care; A.A. retains responsibility for carrying its message. Neither directs or becomes part of the other.