in recovery

I'm not sure what you mean by "AA/NA/et al are amaaaaaaazing for a very select group of people, but they also completely miss a wide swath of people who are struggling with addictions & need help just as badly." One thing you should know is that those programs are based on attraction not by promotion. You'll never see those meetings advertising addiction recovery. Until you're willing to go to any length you won't find the doors of AA et al.....

Just A Guy In my opinion my statements were helpful. I've been to both kinds of meetings and have found the most help outside of ARP meetings. The ARP and AA meetings are drastically different. The ARP meetings do not promote sponsorship, true surrender, and simply reading from the AA approved literature. The Church is on the right track in looking for solutions to these horrific problems, but in some ways it is failing it's members. The meetings are not run how the founders of AA ran them. And again it doesn't promote sponsorship, surrender, and working the steps. At least the ones that I've been too. I've been to several in AZ, and now UT. It is a watered down version of a AA meeting and members are not getting the help that they need. Sponsorship is a huge part of recovery. You choose a sponsor that has worked the steps all the way through as is willing to take you through them. The steps should not be worked by yourself. Do you know why? Because YOU got yourself into the addiction in the first place. You cannot trust in the arm of flesh when it comes to addiction. You will fail yourself every time. You won't get recovery just by going to church and being a good boy or girl. You have to work the Steps. That means you come to the realization that you are powerless of your drug and your life has become unmanageable. A sponsor will help you and teach you how to surrender your lust, resentments, dishonesty, selfishness and all other deception. And if the ARP manual is based on the AA book (I was aware of that) my thought was "why not go straight to the source"? AA and others are open to any religion.

The best thing you can do for these people is to have them work the Steps. Since you're not in recovery or an addict it will be difficult to for them to relate to you. Addicts and Normies (normal people don't think the same). And addictions are centered in the mind not the drug of choice. They will not get sober going to church and being the best Mormon they can be. IT JUST DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY. They need work the Steps. And yes visiting several open AA, NA, SA, OA meetings will be crucial in you relating to the people in the rooms. I'd also suggest picking up the AA Big book and SA white book and read them cover to cover. Just do a good search for those two books and you will find a place to purchase them. You'll see that the LDS recovery manual is based off of the AA big book and other AA material. I'm serious. Do yourselves a favor and pick up these books and promote them within the meetings. The LDS manual is in my opinion pretty weak and could draw up resentments that the people in the meetings have about the The Church. There is a fine line in where the church can help and where The Steps will help. This is a Spiritual Disease. We have lost the ability to connect with God and therefore look for God in other things like sex, drugs, eating, and alcohol. Good luck and ask if you have questions.