SOS Offers a Secular Alternative to Alcoholics Anonymo

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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/valley/la-me-sos27aug27,1,6477858.story?coll=la-editions-valley
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Fighting Addiction, SOS Offers a Secular Alternative to AA

# Operating without prayers or a spiritual agenda, the group celebrates its 20th anniversary with a conference today.

By Patricia Ward Biederman, Times Staff Writer

Eighteen years ago, Larry B. was newly sober when he got up at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and said he was troubled by the 12-step program's emphasis on God.

Shortly afterward, someone slipped the San Fernando Valley man a note: "Have you tried SOS?"

Larry took the stranger's advice and sought out SOS, now called Save Our Selves or Secular Organizations for Sobriety. When Larry discovered it in the late 1980s, SOS was one of the few support groups for those trying to overcome addiction without the steps or references to the higher power that are central to the AA tradition.

Because he is a nonbeliever, Larry was relieved that SOS didn't expect him to turn his will and life "over to the care of God as we understand Him," as described in the third of AA's 12 steps.

In contrast, Larry, now in his late 50s, said SOS offered "the type of sobriety I could wear right off the rack, with no alterations in my lifestyle except not drinking."