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Is what I say at a meeting kept private?

In short:

  • A.A.'s literature asks members to keep each other's confidences, but it describes a principle and a custom, not an enforceable rule. Today's group pamphlet: "We repeat no one's personal sharing made in A.A. meetings." (P-16, 2018). It calls the word "anonymous" in A.A.'s name "a promise of privacy" (P-16, 2018).
  • The 1939 text's version is about the family of A.A.: "we do not relate intimate experiences of another person unless we are sure he would approve" (p. 125).
  • In 1946 Bill W. wrote that a newcomer's wish for privacy should be respected, even to the point of not discussing his case with other A.A. members (P-17, "Anonymity", 1946).
  • The Traditions speak of anonymity at the public level (press, radio, films) and as a spiritual principle (pp. 562, 565–566); they don't address what is said inside a meeting. No A.A. text in our sources claims any legal protection for what is said at a meeting, and A.A. has no way to compel anyone.

The 1939 text

The Big Book has no chapter on meeting confidentiality; it describes no meeting format at all. What it says about other people's stories is in Chapter 9, "The Family Afterward": - "We families of Alcoholics Anonymous keep few skeletons in the closet." (p. 125). Everyone knew about each other's alcoholic troubles. The book admits this would cause gossip in ordinary life; among them, it says, such things are rare, and talk is tempered "by a spirit of love and tolerance" (p. 125). - "Another principle we observe carefully is that we do not relate intimate experiences of another person unless we are sure he would approve." (p. 125). "We find it better, when possible, to stick to our own stories." (p. 125).

Two other passages bear on keeping confidences: - The Fifth Step should be taken with someone "close-mouthed" (p. 74), and "It is important that he be able to keep a confidence" (p. 74). - An employer helping an alcoholic employee is asked to treat it as "a strictly personal matter" that will "never be discussed without his consent" (p. 143).

The 1939 Foreword's reasons for anonymity were practical: too few members to handle a flood of appeals, and business people who couldn't carry on their jobs if known (p. xiii).

The 1946 Long Form and Bill's essay

The Long Form's anonymity Traditions deal with the public: "Our names and pictures as A.A. members ought not be broadcast, filmed, or publicly printed." (p. 565). Tradition Twelve calls anonymity a spiritual principle that reminds members "to place principles before personalities" (p. 566). Neither speaks of what is said inside a meeting.

Bill's 1946 essay "Anonymity" goes further on the personal level: - "It should be the privilege of each A.A. to cloak himself with as much personal anonymity as he desires." (P-17, "Anonymity", 1946). His fellow members should respect that. - Anonymity encourages alcoholics and their families to come for help, because they regard it "as an assurance their problems will be kept confidential" (P-17, "Anonymity", 1946). - "We ought, of course, to preserve a new member's anonymity so long as he wishes it preserved" (P-17, "Anonymity", 1946). "If he wishes us to refrain from discussing his case with anyone, even other A.A. members, we ought to respect that wish too." (P-17, "Anonymity", 1946).

He was also clear that anonymity isn't secrecy about oneself. Few members are anonymous in their daily contacts, he wrote in 1946, and in 1955: "Of course no A.A. need be anonymous to family, friends, or neighbors." (P-17, "Why Alcoholics Anonymous Is Anonymous", 1955). See Tradition Twelve: does anonymity mean keeping A.A. secret?

Today (2018)

The A.A. Group (P-16): - At the personal level, anonymity "assures privacy for all members" (P-16, 2018), which matters especially to newcomers who fear their alcoholism may be exposed. - "We repeat no one's personal sharing made in A.A. meetings." (P-16, 2018). Members respect others' right to keep their anonymity "however they wish, and as closely as they wish" (P-16, 2018). - A chair may remind those present to "leave any confidences you hear in these rooms behind when you go" (P-16, 2018). A group inventory question asks whether members "leave what they share at meetings behind" (P-16, 2018).

Where the books set no rule

  • No enforcement. A.A. has no authority over its members. In 1947 Bill wrote that there is "no one set in personal authority over anyone else" (P-17, "Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?", 1947). The request to keep confidences rests on members honoring it.
  • Open meetings. Open meetings may include nonalcoholics as observers (P-16, 2018), who are not members.
  • Legal matters. No text in our sources say anything about the legal status of what is said at a meeting. This page doesn't either.

So the honest answer from the literature is that members are asked, from 1939 on, not to repeat what others share; the literature offers that as a principle and a promise, not a guarantee.

Read it yourself

Sources

Source Pages First published
Alcoholics Anonymous, Foreword to the First Edition; Chapters 6, 9, 10 xiii, 74, 125, 143 1939
Alcoholics Anonymous, Appendix I, Traditions Eleven and Twelve (short and Long Form) 562, 565–566 Long Form 1946; short form by 1950
P-17, "Anonymity" — 1946
P-17, "Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?" — 1947
P-17, "Why Alcoholics Anonymous Is Anonymous" — 1955
P-16, The A.A. Group 8–9, 13, 15, 29 2018

Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001).

Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book and P-16 are © A.A. World Services, Inc.; the P-17 articles are © AA Grapevine, Inc.

These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.