I am dual diagnosis and got and stayed sober in AA. I love the philosophy and program. I have been told by people in my home group I was not sober because of psyche meds or have heard people openly share it. My opinion is those people are ignorant and should keep their opinions about things they know nothing about to themselves and I ignored them.

After a couple of years sober I decided I would start sharing about my depression and about meds. I can not tell you how many people came up to me after and thanked me and said they also suffered and were on meds but were afraid to talk about it. It may be an outside issue but I didn't care.

There are many many people in AA who also suffer from mental illness. I have no statistics but I swear it is 25 or 30%. I found that we formed a support group outside of meetings. I had other people I could call who I knew where on meds and had depression. I refused to let the ignorant people run me out of the rooms when I needed it so much. I was very fortunate in that I got sober in a town with about 30 very active AA groups. Most people would drown out the A hole that said something stupid about mental illness. It does say in the book to seek outside help if needed.