And a. . .Anonymous

I am an alcoholic anda. . . ." I hear it at every meeting, and I go to between four and six meetings a week. Someone at each AA meeting is always an "anda." I understand that the AA program is based on the identification of one alcoholic with another. All of us have other issues. All of us! However, I have never heard anyone say "I am an alcoholic 'anda' coin collector." I am sure we have coin collectors in AA and probably some of them are obsessed with collecting coins. I could be an alcoholic "anda" Baptist, former Catholic, Native Texan, Indian, German, Irish, fisherman, guitar player, song writer, singer, husband, and father. There are probably twelve-step programs for some of these things, but my original sponsor said I couldn't go to any other twelve-step programs until I finished this one.