Ep 22 How AA Sponsors Block Us From Understanding Ourselves

AA told me I had “alcoholic thinking," and "untreated alcoholism" amongst other terms Bill made up.

But it turns out… I’m autistic. And ADHD.

Not broken, not diseased, not spiritually bankrupt—just wired differently.

In today’s Daily Dogma Detox episode, I’m unpacking how Alcoholics Anonymous blocked me from discovering who I really am. I was misdiagnosed inside the rooms—told that my neurodivergent traits were “character defects,” my sensory overwhelm was “untreated alcoholism,” and my entire internal world was a spiritual sickness.

But it wasn’t.

Inside the AA framework, I couldn’t see clearly.

Outside of it, I could finally meet myself.

We talk about:

Why AA’s language and ideology delay accurate diagnoses
How autism and ADHD often get mislabeled as “alcoholism”
What it feels like to pray away your traits (and fail)
The difference between self-medication and addiction
And how modern tools can actually help us thrive

If you’ve ever wondered whether there’s more to your story than “alcoholism”… there probably is. And it’s safe to get curious.

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