Welcome to Recoveries Anonymous!
R.A. is a universal Twelve Step program that works for all problems, behaviors, or symptoms. We follow the original, clear-cut directions given by the program's creators, the pioneers, to fully work all Twelve Steps. We then find the same lasting recovery and contented, useful life they found.
At R.A. meetings, we follow the pioneers' example by focusing on sharing about their original Twelve Step program rather than discussing our lives or personal issues. As a result, your family and friends are welcome to attend.
For years, R.A. has helped thousands recover. As a Twelve Step program, R.A. does not require any dues or fees.
As a newcomer to our Fellowship, you will find important information regarding your recovery in R.A. We want to support you in experiencing everything our Twelve-Step Program of Recovery has to offer.
Insanity is often defined as doing the same thing in exactly the same way, over and over again, and expecting a different result. R.A. does things differently, so that you can get a different result. This process helps restore us to sanity in every area of our lives.
The Goal of R.A.'s Program
R.A.'s goal is to help you be restored to sanity in all areas of your life, as intended by the program's creators, the pioneer. They were the first 100 to recover. They wrote the Big Book. It contains their "clear-cut directions" for working the Twelve Steps. In the Second Step, they say that by following their directions, they "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity."
If the pioneers wanted a more limited goal, they would have written the Second Step differently. It would say, "restore us to sobriety" or "restore us to abstinence." Instead, their original goal was to work all Twelve Steps so a Higher Power could restore them to sanity in every part of their lives.
In R.A., we will help you follow the pioneers' original directions to work all Twelve Steps. This approach will help you come to believe that a Higher Power can restore you to sanity in every part of your life. You find the full recovery you seek.
The First Things for You to Read
Download the free blue R.A.'s Newcomer Guide from our website to learn more about our program. Read it after you finish this page, then begin having the "Daily Quiet Time it describes. Many members consider this to be essential to recovery.
Next, download the free brown R.A.'s Meetings Guide. It explains why our meetings focus on the Twelve Steps rather than on lives or issues. The pioneers tell us they already knew how to hurt themselves. They wanted to learn how to get and stay sane in every part of their lives.
Also, download the free green R.A.'s Change In Perception Guide. It includes a copy of R.A.'s Highlighting Introduction. Follow its suggestions to begin your recovery with R.A. Do this after you finish reading this page.
R.A. literature is provided as downloadable PDFs to keep costs low and make books and guides accessible to all. Printing, storing, and hiring people to pack and ship physical copies would significantly increase costs, making them less accessible to many.
You can read R.A.'s Solution Focused Literature on any device. Print them yourself, or have them printed at a print center. Many appreciate this easy way to access our literature.
R.A.'s Solution Focused Literature has helped many achieve recovery. Downloading our books and guides can help you too!
R.A.'s Suggested Literature
The original Twelfth Step promises that you will have "a spiritual experience as the result of this course of action," meaning that you will have a spiritual experience after working all Twelve Steps as the pioneers directed. These directions are clearer in the Multilith Big Book, the original group-conscience-approved manuscript for the Big Book. It says, "To show other[s] PRECISELY HOW THEY CAN RECOVER is the main purpose of this book." R.A. finds that some of the updates can obscure the pioneers' original directions.
You can easily get "The Original Way Out Revealed: R.A.’s Annotated Multilith Big Book" from our website, along with other helpful books. The passwords needed to open these books are provided to those who make a small contribution to support R.A.'s efforts to help others.
You may also find it helpful to have books such as DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, A.A. Comes of Age, A.A.'s Twelve and Twelve, The Sermon on the Mount by Emmet Fox, and the current edition of A.A.'s Big Book. These resources are optional but may help your recovery.
To obtain these books, use your preferred search engine or visit your favorite online bookseller. Learn more about them by clicking here.
When you join our Fellowship, you will have access to our R.A. members-only website. There, you will go through R.A.'s Step Presentation. You will follow the pioneer's original clear-cut directions to fully work all Twelve Steps.
For best results, we suggest completing this process with an R.A. Sponsor. Since R.A. has no dues or fees, R.A.'s Step Presentation is provided as a free service.
Attend R.A. Meetings
If you are like most R.A. members, you have shared your problems, behaviors, and symptoms for years, perhaps even decades, in therapy, support groups, or other Twelve Step meetings. For many, sharing these details did not bring recovery. It often made us feel worse. We found that the more we discussed our problems, behaviors, and symptoms, the deeper we fell into them. This often resulted in depression, self-pity, and resentment. R.A. meetings are different. They are so different that we call them R.A. Discussions.
During R.A. Discussions, we read about the pioneers' original Twelve Step program of recovery. We share their spiritual solution, as detailed in R.A. Solution Focused Literature. We start living in this solution and sharing it with those who are still suffering. When we consistently do this, we begin to progress into this solution. We recover!
These meetings are similar to the ones the pioneers tell us they had in the program's early days. They did not share their histories back then. 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. They wanted to learn how to get and stay sane.
In R.A., we follow the pioneers' approach. We ask that you not share details of your issues or your life at meetings. Not talking about our lives, problems, behaviors, and symptoms at R.A. Discussions has an added benefit.
It allows us to welcome everyone, including family and friends, to our Fellowship. While many of R.A.'s members are no longer attending other organizations, others are. At R.A.'s meetings, we suggest you avoid mentioning any other organizations by name in your sharing.
R.A.'s experience is that this produces a different result than you may have received elsewhere. We get the same results the pioneers found: a lasting recovery and a contented, useful life
To focus on the solution in an R.A. Discussion, open the blue R.A.'s Newcomer Guide or any of R.A.'s Solution Focused Literature, read a positive quote. It can be a sentence or two, a paragraph or two, or even a short passage. Next, share why you find it meaningful.
Find more information about R.A.'s Discussions on our website. Download R.A.’s free "How to Begin Guides". You can also find the locations and times of R.A.'s face-to-face and phone meetings by clicking on the "R.A. Meetings" button on R.A.'s website.
Listen to a complete R.A. Solution Discussion meeting.
Sponsorship in Recoveries Anonymous
R.A. takes a distinctive approach to working with newcomers. An R.A. Sponsor is a guide, not a counselor or therapist. Their role 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 use R.A.'s Step Presentation. This service is provided at no cost. During this presentation, the Sponsor and 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. After fully working all Twelve Steps, they will find what the pioneers found. They describe this as a permanent recovery and a contented, useful life. R.A.'s experience is that this is the simplest and most effective way to work with others.
The pioneers' original "clear-cut directions" are easier to follow in R.A.'s Multilith Big Book. Therefore, you should use it for R.A.'s Step Presentation. When the pioneers edited the current Big Book, they made many changes that make it harder to see the original directions, so it is recommended you use R.A.'s Multilith Big Book, available at www.R-A.org.
You will find highlights, questions, and passages to share 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. It does not matter if they are "the newest of newcomers" or a veteran with decades of experience. 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 resume from precisely the same place. 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. 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 had get in touch with 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, behaviors, and symptoms, 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 discusses God, and we suggest reading some of the books the pioneers read that mention Christ. We read these books from a purely historical perspective.
It is important to note that the pioneers did not include the need to be religious to benefit from the Twelve Steps. R.A. welcomes people from all faiths, as well as atheists and agnostics.
Within R.A., we echo the program's pioneers. We look forward to you joining us "on the Broad Highway, walking hand in hand with the Spirit of the Universe" toward your recovery.
Testimonials
“Working the R.A. program, attending R.A.'s face-to-face meetings, and R.A.'s phone meetings, has shown me how to focus on the solution, instead of my problems. Going through the Twelve Steps in R.A. has restored me to sanity in every area of my life.” H. Commack NY
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