What Is DA-HOW? |
Tools of Recovery |
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DA-HOW is DA. It is not a separate program or fellowship. It simply offers a specific way of following the DA program. Those of us who follow the HOW Concept use the Twelve Steps, Twelve Traditions and Twelve Tools of Debtors Anonymous.
The HOW Concept states that abstinence is the only means to freedom from compulsive debting, spending and underearning and the beginning of a spiritual life. It is based on the belief that our disease is absolute and therefore only absolute acceptance of the DA program will offer any sustained abstinence to those of us whose compulsion has reached a critical level. Therefore, the concepts of a spending plan, steps, traditions, and tools of recovery are not suggestions: rather we accept them as requirements for our recovery. Those of us who work the HOW Concept in Debtors Anonymous have consciously chosen to follow the program in this fashion. For some of us, it is because the "take what you like and leave the rest" suggestion did not work for us and we were unable to get or stay abstinent. We found that we needed more structure and accountability (we like to joke that we "flunked Debtors Anonymous"). For some of us, it is because we have seen the recovery experienced by others who follow the HOW Concept and we "want what [they] have and are willing to go to any lengths to get it." (Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 58) Some of us just like the structure and discipline the HOW Concept provides. In no case do we feel Debtors Anonymous to be lacking as a program: we follow the Debtors Anonymous program. We understand the Third Tradition to mean that individual ways of working ones' program should not exclude anyone from attendance and participation at meetings. Everyone is welcome at a HOW meeting. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop debting. There are, however, additional requirements for sponsorship in HOW. We recognize that, as sponsors, we cannot give to others what we do not experience ourselves. Therefore, in order to qualify as a HOW sponsor, we must be abstinent using the HOW Concept for at least 30 consecutive days. Abstinence using the HOW Concept is constituted by the use of each of the tools as described in the links on the sidebar (right). The original DA HOW meeting, established in 2004, which meets on Monday night 8:00 PM EST, requires an individual to be abstinent using the HOW Concept for at least 70 consecutive days, in order to qualify as a HOW sponsor. |
For an explanation of how we use each of the tools of DA, click on the tool below.
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