HOW TO RECOVER IN
DEBTORS ANONYMOUS
(WHETHER YOU’RE IN
THAT PROGRAM OR NOT)
A PRIMER
______
BY
JERRY M.
Copyright © 2010 by Jerrold Mundis
Published on Smashwords
* * *
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Smashwords Edition License Notes
This e-book is licensed for your personal use only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.
[ Note: Permission is granted for any member of Debtors Anonymous to share this Primer or any part of it with any other member of Debtors Anonymous, with any Debtors Anonymous group, or with any online Debtors Anonymous list provided it is not modified in any way or combined with any other material. - Jerry M.]
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. What Is DA?
2. Recovery: What Does that Mean / What Is Possible in DA?
3. Singleness of Purpose
4. Debt Has to Do with Money, Not Anything Else
5. It's Pretty Easy to Recognize
6. Abstinence and Solvency Mean the Same Thing
7. When Does the Recovery Begin?
8. The Analog to DA Is AA
9. The Only Requirement for Membership.
10. Membership Is Not Recovery. It Is Membership.
11. The Two DAs
12. “If You Want What We [Solvent Debtors] Have . . .”
13. First Things to Do
14. What Does “Progress, Not Perfection” Actually Mean?
15. Who to Listen to in DA?
16. The Literature
17. What a Sponsor Is
18. What the Steps Are
19. God / a Higher Power / a Power Greater than Ourselves
20. Eighteen Ways to Avoid Debt
21. Go Now and Prosper
Introduction
This is a primer, a very simple basic guide on how to recover in DA—whether you’re in that program or not.
If you follow it, you will indeed recover in the program or in the manner of those who do and go on to live a life that is happy, joyous, and free. You will come to live at peace with money.
Why should you believe that, why should you listen to me?
You shouldn't listen to me any more than you should listen to anyone else in DA who is solvent and has been for some time.
But you should listen to those people. They know how to do something you don't at this moment—how to recover in DA. And they would like to help you do that.
My name is Jerry, and I'm a debtor. I have been solvent in DA for a cumulative 26 years at this writing.
(Why “cumulative”? After 17 years of solvency, I became careless with a business account and a couple of bills went unpaid by their due dates as a result. To remain in integrity, and for my own well-being, I reset the date of my continuous solvency. That was 9 years ago.)
Before DA, I incurred unsecured debt over my long history of debting in just about every form you can think of: from taking signature loans out from my bank to charging goods on credit cards and department store accounts; from not paying my quarterly income taxes (I'm self-employed and have to do that) to not paying my phone bill or electric bill by their due dates; from borrowing money from family and friends to taking services from my dentist or local tradesmen and failing to pay them in full for those services when I received them and instead making extended payment arrangements with the providers; from not paying my property taxes to taking advances from my agent—again in nearly every way imaginable.
I owed a great deal of money in unsecured debt when I entered DA. I was also earning very little then.
I have since paid off all that unsecured debt. I also earn a great deal more today than I did back then. I have made three complete, deep trips through the Steps. I live in quiet peace with money, and for the most part happily.
I am also, at this writing, sober in AA for 27 years.
That in brief is who I am, where I was when I came into DA, and where I am now in the program.
Part 1 – What is DA?
DA is the shorthand name for the Twelve Step program Debtors Anonymous.
This is how Debtors Anonymous officially defines itself. It is the program's Preamble, which is read at the beginning of all DA meetings:
“Debtors Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from compulsive debting.
“The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop incurring unsecured debt. There are no dues or fees for D.A. membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions.
“D.A. is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy; neither endorses nor opposes any causes.
“Our primary purpose is to stop debting one day at a time and to help other compulsive debtors to stop incurring unsecured debt.”
At meetings, the Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions of DA are hung on the wall so they can be easily seen.
DA is nothing more than this, and nothing less than this.
Part 2 – Recovery: What Does That Mean / What Is Possible in DA?
In its most elemental sense, recovery in DA means to cease incurring unsecured debt, to do that one day at a time.
In its largest sense, it means the rich, full inner and outer life we can go on to lead as a result of having ceased to debt and of having worked the Twelve Steps.
If you stop debting, your life won't get any worse.
If you stop debting and work the Steps, your life will almost certainly get better, most often considerably better, sometimes spectacularly so.
If you stop debting and work the Steps, who you can be, what you can have, and what you can do is then limited only by the extent of your own imagination, character, abilities, and determination.
You won't simply have placed yourself on a level playing field with the rest of the world. By virtue of the personal transformation and spiritual awakening (however you define that) you will have experienced as the result of having neutralized an addiction (compulsion, mindset, chronic behavior), gained a daily reprieve from it, and of having worked the Steps, you will actually be clearer, stronger and better able to exercise those elements of your being than most people.