Your Medication Is None of AA’s Business
AA has a clear position on medication: it’s between you and your doctor. Full stop.
The AA General Service Conference has stated more than once that members should not, under any circumstances, interfere in the relationship between a patient and their doctor: especially when it comes to treatment and medication. AA’s job is to carry the message to the alcoholic who still suffers. That’s it. Diagnosing depression, advising on prescriptions, or deciding whether someone’s medication is compatible with their recovery is not AA’s job, and never has been.
Most AA members know this. Most groups respect it. But not all of them do.
What Sometimes Happens
Some members, usually well-meaning but occasionally not, take it upon themselves to tell newcomers that medication is a crutch, that it means you’re not really sober, or that you’ll need to come off it before they’ll sponsor you. None of that has any basis in AA policy. It also has no basis in medicine.
The assumption behind it is that anyone on prescribed medication is replacing one addiction with another, or avoiding the real issue. What that ignores is that AA has no expertise in mental health, no medical training, and no business making that call. A sponsor is not a psychiatrist. An AA group is not a clinical service.
Depression is not self-pity. Anxiety is not a character defect. If your doctor has prescribed you medication, that decision was made by someone qualified to make it.
Why This Matters
In thirty years around AA, I’ve seen this advice cause real harm, including a case where someone came off prescribed medication on a member’s say-so and later took their own life. I can’t point you to a study for this. I don’t need to. I’ve watched it happen.
If anyone in AA, whether a sponsor, a group member or anyone else, tells you to stop taking prescribed medication, or makes it a condition of working with them, that is not AA. That is one person overstepping badly, and you are entitled to ignore them.
What to Do
Talk to your doctor. If you have concerns about how your medication interacts with your recovery, that’s a conversation for a medical professional, not a meeting. There are also doctors who specialise in addiction medicine and can give you properly informed advice.
Your recovery is yours. Don’t let anyone make decisions about your health on your behalf.