Debtors Anonymous
Debtors Anonymous is a twelve-step program for people who want to stop incurring unsecured debt. Collectively they attend more than 500 weekly meetings in fifteen countries, according to data released in 2011. Those who compulsively incur unsecured debt are said to be engaged in compulsive borrowing and are known as compulsive debtors.
DA encourages careful record keeping and monitoring of finances—including purchases, income, and debt payments—to get a clear picture of spending habits. This information is used to develop healthier spending practices, supporting one in keeping a reasonable quality of life while still repaying debt. Similarly, DA recommends developing plans for the future to increase income.
DA's program is intended to facilitate a progressive personality change in its members, ultimately transforming their world views and changing their behaviors.
In the mid-1990s, sociologist Terrell A. Hayes conducted in-depth interviews with a convenience and snowball sample of forty-six members of DA Hayes found many of the members interviewed only partially accept the ideology of the organization and that parts of DA's program, such as stigmatizing labels used to describe members, may actually hinder acceptance of DA's ideology.
Development
In 1968, members of Alcoholics Anonymous who believed that their financial difficulties were caused by an addictive disease not unlike alcoholism founded an organization named Penny Pinchers, which they later renamed Capital Builders. The founding members believed their financial problems stemmed from an inability to save money, and they practiced making daily deposits to their savings accounts. Later they recognized their problems were not caused by an inability to save but rather an inability to stay solvent.In early 1971, the group members came to believe that incurring unsecured debt was the threshold of their disease and committed to a rigorous twelve-step approach to prevent incurring further unsecured debt. The original group disbanded and meetings were not consistently held again until 1976, when a group of two or three people began meeting regularly on Wednesdays in the rectory of St. Stephen's Church in New York City. Within a year, a second group formed and Debtors Anonymous continued to grow. The first General Service Conference was held in 1987 in the auditorium at Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center in Manhattan., there were 512 groups meeting worldwide.
Literature
DA adapted AA's format, making only five changes to AA's Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions: "DA" and "Debtors Anonymous" replaces "AA" and "Alcoholics Anonymous", "debt" replaces "alcoholism", "compulsive debtors" replaces "alcoholics", "incurring unsecured debt" replaces "drinking", and "debtor" replaces "alcoholic." In 2002, DA published a list of 12 promises similar to the 12 promises appearing on pages 83–84 of Alcoholics Anonymous. DA's original literature also includes the Twelve Tools of Debtors Anonymous, a list of practices to recover from compulsive getting into debt.Official DA literature is either approved by the DA General Service Board or by vote at a DA annual World Service Conference, based on whether it is service literature or recovery literature. Such literature is "Conference-approved."
DA publications include the books, A Currency of Hope, The Twelve Steps, Twelve Traditions, and Twelve Concepts of Debtors Anonymous, and Debtors Anonymous Twelve Steps Study Guide for D.A. and B.D.A., as well as several pamphlets. A Currency of Hope includes DA's adaptations of the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, a description of compulsive getting into debt, a brief history of DA, and 38 stories written by DA members explaining how DA has affected their lives.
Membership
Debtors Anonymous is fundamentally an organization to facilitate recovery from "compulsive debting." "Compulsive debting" is a neologism described variously in DA literature as a disorder, progressive illness, and a disease. As such, "compulsive debting" cannot be cured, although it can be arrested. Compulsive debtors are those who cannot control their debt, as a consequence their debt causes growing and continuing problems in their lives. "Compulsive debting" is also an umbrella term encompassing many different types of behavior from "incurring unsecured debt to compulsive shopping, from grandiose thinking to deprivation mentality." Members must decide for themselves whether or not they are compulsive debtors. To help them with the decision, DA provides a 15-item questionnaire and a list of 12 signs of "compulsive debting". An ethnographic study of DA members found they attributed the causes of "compulsive debting" to family maladjustment and a culture that constantly pressures people to spend money.DA members may identify themselves additionally—or more specifically—as compulsive shoppers or spenders, codependent debtors or compulsive underearners. Compulsive spending is a symptom associated with "compulsive debting". Spending money to one's detriment is compulsive spending. Spending money on particular goods or services after making a decision not to, or having a desire not to, is also compulsive spending. Compulsive spending is often done to avoid uncomfortable feelings. DA provides a 30-item questionnaire to help people determine if they are spending compulsively, each item is a sign of compulsive spending. Answering yes to three or more of these questions indicates compulsive spending. Although compulsive spenders may not actually be in debt, if they have a desire to avoid incurring unsecured debt, they are welcome in DA. Codependent debtors incur unsecured debt to pay for another persons' compulsive spending.
Underearners are people with viable skills who are psychologically incapable of earning enough money to support themselves without incurring unsecured debt. DA provides a list of 12 signs that are symptomatic of compulsive underearning. Underearning can lead to become a "compulsive pauper," a term describing people who are consistently broke and in financial crisis. A related term, "financial anorexia," describes "someone who takes inordinate amounts of pride in having few financial needs and is more comfortable living in deprivation." Financial anorexics, while they may find it difficult to spend money on themselves, are not necessarily underearning. Although compulsive underearners may not actually be in debt, if they have a desire to avoid incurring unsecured debt, they are welcome in DA.
Psychiatric categorization
In the previous version of the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual and in the current version, indebtedness is not considered to be a disease. Neither version contains compulsive buying disorder, a condition similar to "compulsive debting", or any other spending-related issues as diagnostic categories. The DSM-IV-TR did contain a category for Impulse Control Disorders Not Otherwise Specified to diagnose impulse control problems that were not elsewhere in the manual.Terminology
The phrase "terminal vagueness" describes a characteristic of compulsive debtors, a systematic avoidance of monitoring finances–including avoiding communication with creditors–leading to an overestimation or underestimation of account balances. An overestimation may result in incurring unsecured debt. "Clarity" is the opposite of vagueness, requiring a clear picture of how much money one has and owes, at any given time. DA encourages "awareness" of the cultural pervasiveness of debt and overspending. DA suggests members stay aware of manipulative advertising tactics as well as thoughts and feelings that trigger their desire to spend money.Excessive preoccupation with indebtedness can lead to both "emotional indebtedness" and "self-debting." "Self-debting" is the inability to identify or fulfill personal needs because of such preoccupations, whereas emotional indebtedness is the accompanying stress, anxiety, feelings of hopelessness or despair, and even suicidal ideation. "Self-debting" manifests in various ways such as taking drastic measures to hide evidence of problems with money or debt, paying creditors to the detriment of one's needs, or even spending excessive amounts of time managing finances.
"Abstinence" in DA is abstaining from incurring any new unsecured debt, a strict definition that includes not paying bills when due, borrowing money from a family member or friend without collateral, credit card debt and other unsecured loans. If a member has abstained from incurring unsecured debt for a day, he or she is "solvent" for that day. Solvency, in this sense, is a neologism differing from the common definition of solvency.
A belief in an "abundant universe" underlies much of the DA program. Competition is learned from, but not feared, as there are enough resources for everyone. This perspective counters deprivation thinking that accompanies "compulsive debting", overspending, and underearning.
DA members may be vague or unfocused about their goals in life. For this reason, DA encourages members to develop "vision," the ability to form a clear and specific picture of what they want to do in life. Visions are discovered by abstaining from incurring unsecured debt, following the Twelve Steps and using the Twelve Tools. Ignoring one's vision is similar to "self-debting", it may result in physical or emotional distress, or preoccupation with other people's lives rather than focusing on oneself.
Self-help groups, including DA, urge members to change their world view. It is critically important for self-help groups to ease this process for their members as changes in world view are generally accompanied by significant behavioral changes. For example, the pamphlet Debtors Anonymous answers "How Does a Person Get Solvent Through the DA Program?" by explaining that DA brings about a "progressive personality change" within the member. This change is accomplished through faith in, and understanding of, DA's Twelve Steps.