The above Minnesota Recovery Page is primarily focused on 12-step programs. So for a little balance, I am listing some non-12-step organizations, and that don't seem to be listed in any of the above directories.

• First, A Word About A.A. (Alcoholics Anonymous) and Narcotics Anonymous

  Often people find A.A. to be annoyingly dogmatic and / or too religious. Though A.A.'s literature and Traditions (particularly the long forms of the Traditions) and the "Twelve Steps And Twelve Traditions" are clear about there being no "musts" in A.A., other than a desire to stop drinking, many (probably most) groups have evolved a lot of musts or strong shoulds, such as you must have a sponsor, you must work the steps in a certain way, you must go to several meetings a week (even 90 meetings in your first 90 days), you are powerless over everything without our help and guidance, etc. However, there are many A.A. groups that are less dogmatic and can be a great resource for recovery for even the very independent-minded. Try these suggestions:
  
  

  • Groups labelled Topic, Discussion, and Big Book often are a relief from what some find to be the constant hammering away on the Steps (many people think they are religious despite what some may try to tell you about substituting a light bulb or "the group" for God and Higher Power), as no non-deity concept of "God" makes sense in many of the steps. Step Eleven ("Sought through prayer and mediation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out" is the most obvious example of a step where no non-deity concept can replace "God" and still make any sense.
        The Steps and Tradition Two apparently describe a favor-dispensity deity -- one who will restore us to sanity, manage our lives, care for us, love us, remove our shortcomings, listen to our prayers, give us power, and guide our groups.
        Three Federal Courts of Appeals (Second, Seventh, and Ninth circuits) and Two State Supreme Courts (New York and Tennessee) have ruled that Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are religious and that nobody can be coerced by government authority into attending these organizations (as that would violate the First Amendment's prohibition against the state establishment of religion). No Federal Court of Appeals and no State Supreme Court has ruled otherwise. To date, the United States Supreme Court has declined to consider any of these rulings, thus letting these rulings stand. For more on these court rulings: Court rulings other than the 9th Circuit and 9th Circuit Court Of Appeals Ruling (Inouye v. Kemna)
  • Avoid groups that meet at the larger Alano Clubs -- they tend to be more dogmatic and try to enforce conformity.
  • Be patient, keep trying different groups until you find some that fit. There are all kinds of groups out there.

  Click Here For links to Agnostic A.A. and regular A.A. and Narcotics Anonymous and Other 12-Step Organizations

• Whatever Works - (Alternatives to AA) Tamara Gram's Home Page http://www.angelfire.com/alt/whateverworks/ lists an AA Alternatives Support Group Meeting In Downtown St. Paul Wednesday evenings

  It has a number of links to AA Alternatives like Secular Organizations for Sobriety, Rational Recovery and so on. Also a few links to Minnesota chemical health and mental health organizations. In particular, check out the EASE link (http://www.easenonprofit.org/) for a number of Minnesota alcohol/addiction resources

• SOS - Secular Organizations For Sobriety As of 8/2007 There are supposedly 2 established meetings in the Twin Cities (Minnetonka and Anoka) and one in St. Cloud. Try these links: http://sossobriety.org/meetings/states.htm#Minnesota -or- http://cfiwest.org/sos/find.htm Also about 10 people, each in different zip codes (3 metro area and 7 non-metro) are trying to start meetings in their areas (for what areas / zip codes see the above link) -- it said to call the National clearinghouse number - (323) 666-4295 or email or sos@cfiwest.org for how to get in contact with those people.

  The below is one that was found to be meeting 8/2008, along with detailed instructions on how to get there. You should check the above sossobriety.org link for the latest information, but on 8/2008 the contact phone number below is more accurate than what is on the sossobriety.org web site.

  Minnetonka Westside Group - Friday 730 p.m.
  River Ridge Treatment Center
  Highwood Office Building, Suite 150
  15612 Highway 7,
  Contact Eric 612-720-4683
     (Note: the following number is no longer valid: 612-720-6991 )

  Directions: Coming from 494 and Hiway 7: Go west on Hiway 7 and past the first set of stop lights (which is Williston Road). The Highwood Office Building is about 1/4 mile west of Williston Road. It is on the right side of Hiway 7 (i.e. the north side of Hiway 7) and just to the west of Christo's Restaurant (Christo's Restaurant is just to the west of Davani's). The entrance to the Riverwood Treatment Center is on the north side of the Highwood Office Building. The phone number for the River Ridge Treatment Center is 952-936-0304 (though whoever was there answering that phone was not aware of the S.O.S. meeting).

• SMART Recovery (Self Management and Recovery Training) - a cognitive approach based on Albert Ellis's Rational Emotive Therapy 8/18/07: Meetings in Edina (Muscala Chemical Health Clinic), Mankato, and Fergus Falls. I have my doubts that there are any meetings at the Muscala Chemical Health Clinic - I couldn't get my phone message returned after leaving calls on 2 different occasions. www.smartrecovery.org/meetings_db/view/

• 16-Step Sobriety Support July 2009 Note: Try Lake Harriet Spiritual Center Calendar (Meetup.com). Look for "16-Step Sobriety Support" on Monday in the Calendar and click on it for the Monday you are thinking of attending. Lake Harriet Spiritual Community (LHSC), 4401 Upton Ave South, Minneapolis, MN 55410 612-922-4272 Meet in Drum Room. Note: don't worry if nobody has "RSVP'd" at the above meetup.com link - nobody bothers to do so, but just shows up as they wish -- the one I attended in July 2009 had no RSVP's but 8 people. 7/20/09 Update - this group is active, "a good group" per someone I know who has been attending recently. It was in the Council Room (the top floor)

  8/16/07 note: Another number to try is 612-866-4550 -- that is the number listed in the Aug 2007 Phoenix Newspaper for this organization, and also separately for one group (Lake Harriet Community Church Monday 7-8 pm). For more on 16-step empowerment, in www.google.com, search for "16-step empowerment" (include the quotes). There might be more 16-Step groups in the Twin Cities, although in July 2009, the long-time facilitator of the Lake Harriet Spiritual Center 16-Step group said this is the only one.

• Chemical Health Concepts / AA Alternatives The Muscala Chemical Health Clinic/AA Alternatives has a variety of meetings on Thursday, beginning at 6:00pm. Depending on the interest of the attendees, there may one or more of the following: Rational Recovery, S.M.A.R.T. Recovery, and Moderation Management. The clinic is at 4010 West 65th Street (a couple of blocks west of France Ave.), Suite 102, in Edina, Minnesota. For more information, Call 952-922-3392. 8/18/07 update: - I'm not sure they are still holding meetings that non-clients can attend, I left a voice message 8/16 ... let me know what you find or don't find

• Moderation Management, Minnesota (for people who wish to reduce their drinking, as well as for those who decide to abstain) As of 8/18/07 there is one weekly meeting in the Twin Cities (and apparently none in greater Minnesota) www.moderation.org/natlf2f.shtml#Minnesota. If that link doesn't work, try www.moderation.org and look at the Live Meetings section.
  For online groups (e.g. e-mail mailing lists), see www.moderation.org and look at the Online Support section.

  Best Moderation Management book, "Responsible Drinking - A Moderation Management Approach For Problem Drinkers", Rotgers, Kern, Hoeltzel, 2002. Excellent and very practical on the various ways people make a moderation plan and what they do if they don't meet their goals. It also has Moderation Management's guidelines on drinking (a good plan in itself). Many suggestions for alternative activities. Also good suggestions and support for abstinence (which by the way many moderators choose to do for one or more 30 day periods a year). The extensive Blood Alcohol Charts in the back of the book are the most credible ones I've seen.

• Non-conventional A.A. (Non-conventional Alcoholics Anonynomous) Ones that really emphasize the freedom to choose ones own concept of a higher power(s) or to have none at all

  • We Agnostics, Alcoholics Anonymous, Minnesota (Atheists, Agnostics, and secularists who find AA to be too religious (and not just merely "spiritual")
    We Agnostics of Uptown (Uptown in Minneapolis)
    Sunday 6:00 p.m. (Open to Men and Women)
    Men's Center in Minneapolis, 3249 Hennepin Ave S.,
    Room 55 (in the basement)
    Contact: tcAgnostic (at) gmail.com
    This group is also listed at the Minneapolis A.A. Intergroup (www.aaminneapolis.org) - its listed under "Minneapolis, Southwest"
    (This group was formerly known as Atheist/Agnostic AA)
    
    Other We Agnostics groups (U.S. and worldwide)
    
    • THE Agnostic Alcoholics Anonymous website (www.agnosticAA.org). Note that it morphs into agnosticAAnyc.org. It has meetings throughout the world (all but a few in the U.S. as of this 10/27/07 writing)
      
      
    Links to A.A. in Minnesota and worldwide, as well as other 12-step "anonymous" organizations such as Narcotics Anonymous, Al Anon etc. - Normally on this web page I don't list resources that are very well-known and/or covered by the Minnesota Recovery Page (MRP) ( http://www.minnesotarecovery.info ) -- the Minnesota Recovery Page (MRP) is an excellent listing of all of the 12-step "Anonymous" groups that have meetings anywhere in Minnesota, and some that don't. As well as some non-12-step groups). But I will make an exception to my non-listing policy here for A.A. and Narcotics Anonymous since people who are reading this section might be keenly interested:
    
    • AA in Minneapolis and suburban cities in the following counties: Hennepin, Anoka, Carver, Western Dakota, Scott and Wright (www.aaminneapolis.org) - You can reach a recovering alcoholic any minute of any day by calling (952) 922-0880
      
    • AA in St. Paul and suburban cities in the following counties: Ramsey, Washington, Chisago, and Eastern Dakota (www.aastpaul.org). You can reach a recovering alcoholic any minute of any day by calling (651) 227-5502
      
    • A.A. in Northern Minnesota (www.area35.org)
      
    • A.A. in Southern Minnesota (www.area36.org)
      
    • THE Alcoholics Anonymous website (www.aa.org)
      
      

    • Narcotics Anonymous Minnesota (www.naminnesota.org)

  • Pagan-Friendly A.A. This group probably has more non-pagans than pagans. Its main claim to a special listing is that they doubly-emphasize that everyone really is free to choose their concept of a higher power(s) (or none at all), and don't try to pressure you into believing in a prayer-answering favor-dispensing deity. Currently (8/2008) they are listed at the Minneapolis A.A. website in the "Minneapolis, Southwest" section as the "Equinox" and "Solstice" groups, meeting at the Eye of Horus bookstore 2717 Lyndale Avenue S. But check the Minneapolis A.A. website (aaminneapolis.org) for the latest information