Debtors Anonymous -
Me and Yet Another 12 Step Program
DA may turn out to be my bottom line
Next month, God
willing, I'll celebrate another birthday clean and sober. The last
thing in the world I would have expected was that, after all this
time, I'd join yet another 12 Step program. But that's exactly
what's happened.
Toward the end of
last May, I had created yet another financial crisis and my son
asked, "Mom, isn't there a 12 Step group for people like
you?"
Under earner in
denial
I explained how I
had tried debtors anonymous years ago and everyone there was dealing
only with credit card debt, which wasn't, and isn't my problem. When
I got home, however, I felt moved to Google debtors anonymous.
Low and behold, not only were their listings, but many of the site
and pages mentioned Under Earning! I was graced with the moment of
understanding - that's me!
The following Sunday off I went
to my first DA meeting in years and year, kicking off a brand new
adventure in the 12 Steps.
Yes, Debtors Anonymous
uses the same 12 Steps, substituting debt and debting for the other
addictions. But the meetings and the DA program are not just about
debting, but about our whole way of being with this thing we call money
and earning and spending.
First, for me, came the
feeling of relief and of being home. Once again I had discovered I was not
alone, only instead of my insanity around drugs and alcohol I was hearing
about insanity around money. I was not the only one who had been given
talents and failed often to earn enough to support myself. I wasn't the
only one who consistently took jobs beneath my skill level to hold body
and soul, and
the rent together. I wasn't
the only one who was terribly vague about how much money I actually earned
and how I spent it, or the only one with a totally unbalanced check book
and huge fear of looking at my balances. I wasn't the only one... the list
goes on, but you get the picture.
Not
alone
Of course, the real news
is that DA has a program of recovery. It starts with the 12 Steps but they
offer additional tools as well, tools aimed specifically at getting a
handle on money and on the attitudes about money, debting and earning that
have caused so many of us so many problems.
DA is, of course, a
spiritual program just as any 12 Step organization is. The key is trust in
God - total trust, with our earning, debting, and spending as well as
everything else in life. Like all 12 Step programs, it's a simple program,
which doesn't mean it's easy. I'm plumbing depths of myself that I've
never explored before. My faith has deepened, and is deepening more; I'm
starting to learn where I've blocked my own abundance and how to let go of
those blocks.
Is DA a Program you might
need to add? I don't know. It couldn't hurt to glance at the
Signs of Compulsive Debting.
Love, peace and
abundance,
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