Here is AA's position on alternatives. If you haven't read it before it's available here:
http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-29_howAAmemCoopProf.pdf
2. A.A. is in competition with no one.
Our ability to help other alcoholics is
not
based on scientific or professional expertise.
As A.A.s,
we are limited to sharing our own firsthand
knowledge of the suffering of an alcoholic,
and of recovery.
A.A. members have one unique qualification
for helping problem drinkers, of course—our
personal experience. We have been there. But
in addition to our specific A.A. function of sharing
our experience, we can also cooperate with
others dealing with alcoholism as long as we
are guided by our Twelve Traditions.
The A.A. Traditions on being self-supporting,
on being nonprofessional, on avoiding controversy,
and on not affiliating also suggest that
A.A. members not criticize, obstruct, or hinder
any other efforts to help alcoholics.
We A.A. members can help best, not by
passing judgments, but again simply by sharing
our own personal experience.
3. Non-A.A. agencies and professionals are
under no obligation whatever to abide by A.A.’s
Traditions. The Traditions are strictly for the
guidance of A.A.
But it helps in more effective cooperation if
such agencies and professionals can be made
familiar with A.A.’s Traditions.
4. A.A. members who are professionals need to
make it very clear in which capacity they are acting
or speaking—at all times.
A.A. has among its members men and
women who are trained psychiatrists or physicians
of other disciplines, members of the clergy,
jurists, social workers, corrections officers,
nurses, educators, counselors, community
organizers, executives, administrators, labor
management consultants, or the like.
Many of these A.A.s—apart from their own
personal membership in A.A.—work in non-
A.A. programs concerned with alcohol problems.
Their professional or occupational skills
and services are in no way a part of their A.A.
membership. They are paid for their professional
or job performance,
not for what they do to
stay sober in A.A. This is not always understood
by their fellow A.A. members, or by their
non-A.A. co-workers.
So it is very important that such A.A.s
always clarify the difference between their
employment and what they do
as A.A.
members.
A.A. Guidelines for Members Employed in
the Alcoholism Field and the section on the
Eighth Tradition (especially pp. 169-171) in the
book
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions help
both these members and the rest of us think
straight about the differences between the professional
and the A.A. roles.
5. A.A.s can also be good volunteers in non-A.A.
programs—as long as it is clear that they do not
represent A.A.
Many A.A. members—lay people as well as
professionals—also help alcoholics in numerous
non-A.A. ways as volunteers in non-A.A.
activities in the alcoholism field. But we do so
as
private citizens concerned about the health
problem of alcoholism,
not as A.A. members
and
not as representatives of any A.A. body or
of A.A. as a whole.
For best results in cooperation with non-
A.A. community efforts, we need to stop short
of structurally or formally linking A.A. with
any other program or enterprise, no matter
how worthy.
6. We cannot discriminate against any prospective
A.A. member, even if he or she comes to us
under pressure from a court, an employer, or any
other agency.
Although the strength of our program lies in
the voluntary nature of membership in A.A.,
many of us
first attended meetings because we
were forced to, either by someone else or by our
inner discomfort. But continual exposure to A.A.
educated us to the true nature of our illness. We
then developed a desire for a happy, sober life
like that of other members we saw, and we
attended meetings willingly and with gratitude.
So we have no right to withhold the A.A.
message from
anyone—no matter who referred
that person to us, or what his or her attitude is
at first. Who made the referral to A.A. is
not
what A.A. is interested in. It is the problem
drinker who is our concern.
Regardless of our initial opinion of any newcomer,
we cannot predict who will recover, nor
have we the authority to decide how recovery
should be sought by any other alcoholic.
Some
of us need different kinds of help, and it may
come best from non-A.A. sources, as pointed
out in Alcoholics Anonymous (p. 74) and Twelve
Steps and Twelve Traditions (p. 61).
7. As we mature in A.A., we generally become
less fearful and rigid.
Those of us blessed with recovery in A.A.
need to remember that modesty will win more
friends for A.A. than smugness, arrogance, or a
know-it-all attitude. Saying “We know the
only
way to recovery” is an egotistical luxury we can
no more afford than we can afford resentments.
However, shortly after we come into A.A.
and begin to recover, we naturally feel great
relief. We may find ourselves praised; within
A.A., we begin to build a good reputation,
which gradually replaces the shame of our
drinking days.
This can easily turn into highly intense gratitude
and loyalty to A.A. Then, almost before
we know it, we may find ourselves sounding
possessive and sensitive about A.A.—as if it
were an exclusive society with a monopoly on
the truth.
As recovery continues, we recall that thousands
of us received aid from families and
friends, a hospital or a clinic, a physician or a
professional counselor. We realize that the
boss who fired us, the relatives who scolded
us, or the cop who warned us also helped
us—helped us see we had a drinking problem.
We begin to outgrow our defensive possessiveness.
With no less devotion to A.A., but
without our former fanaticism, we start to lose
our fear that some non-A.A. program or professional
will usurp A.A.’s role, or take away our
newly found pride, gratitude, and other good
feelings. The longer we A.A. members stay
sober, the more likely it is that we will say,
“Anything that works toward recovery for the
alcoholic is good, and this includes hospitals,
rehabilitation centers, state or provincial alcoholism
centers, religion, and psychiatry—as
well as A.A.”
Perhaps we become more “attractive” examples
of what A.A. can do, in line with our
Tradition Eleven.
