For those in 12 steps programs, how do you handle no politics in program?

[JayhawkSD]

4. Think about the purpose of the program.

My first sponsor said something to me that changed my perception of what the program was all about. He said, "I don't want you to learn how to handle your drinking problem. I want you to become a person who doesn't have a drinking problem."

In addition to becoming a person who doesn't have a drinking problem, a big part of the reason for being in the program is to help you become a person who isn't "triggered by current events." You are not going to become that person by engaging in mutual rants about current events. You are going to become that person by sharing the experience of recovery.

For whatever it's worth I have, in the course of 35 years, become a person who doesn't have a drinking problem, and I have become a person who can be engaged in current events without being "triggered" by them. It's a good life. It takes time and a rigorous practice of the discipline represented by the 12 steps to get there.