The intake creed: hopelessness as qualification, the dog-test, favorites, AA over splinters

texture · STANDING (YDAU)

• When: STANDING doctrine and practice through YDAU
• What: Pat's admissions doctrine is that grim honesty and hopelessness are the only things you need to start recovering — desperation helping also — and that belief is beside the point: all that matters is what you do, and if you do the right things long enough, what you think and believe will change on its own. Her willingness-test is literal: Staff are directed to tip applicants off to pet her scabby, seizure-prone dogs during interviews, it being a proved fact that if Pat's dogs like you, you're in. She admits to having favorites and nonfavorites among residents — probably unavoidable, since the counselors and House Manager all have theirs too. And she and the Staff steer residents toward mainstream AA or NA rather than Substance-specific splinter fellowships, which have too few meetings to survive on.