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This article first appeared in the High and Dry, newsletter of Seattle A.A., in June 2011

Ric B. is a newcomer to Alcoholics Anonymous, and he brought with him to this story a whole new problem for the fellowship.

Facebook, Ric said, has become a wide open field for the breakdown of anonymity. "Anonymity is our foundation. People disclosing on Facebook that they´re in A.A. raises the specter of our losing our focus, as happened with organizations like the Oxford Group.

"I know of 6000 anonymity breaks, and that´s just on Facebook. All kinds of social media are creating the same problem. We need to teach everybody who wants to talk about this program to use code words like ´I´m celebrating my birthday today,´ or ´My birthday´s such and such a date…"

On another front, though, Ric takes a more tolerant attitude. That´s the eternal question of discussing drugs other than alcohol in A.A. meetings. Ric himself had a heavy career in cocaine, so that may have something to do with how he feels.

"I go to meetings that are tolerant of people talking about drugs," he said. "The area I live in (Renton), drinking and drugging go hand in hand. Everybody can relate to the addiction problem that they both are. If somebody´s using A.A. to get off other drugs, it´s O.K. with me."

That´s his story, in fact. "I went to A.A. to get off cocaine. This program showed me that if I went back to drinking, I´d go back to drugs. A.A. taught me that I´m an alcoholic and an addict."

Question: Which was the toughest addiction to kick?Answer: "All of it. I was really strung out on cocaine. It was so terrible I wanted out. I thought I could handle the booze better then."

Ric´s sobriety date is Sept. 14, 2008, so on May 14 ,he had two years and eight months of sobriety. He had been helping that number grow with four meetings a week, but recently he´s had to cut back to two because of the time demands of his job. His first meeting was Courage to Change, and then A New Purpose, which became his home group.

Two-plus years of sobriety isn´t a lot. Does he still feel vulnerable? "I could get in trouble if I stopped working my program," Ric said, " but I do not want to return to that way of life. This is a cunning, baffling, powerful disease, but I have been made aware of my spiritual defects. I´m armed with a Higher Power now. No, I don´t feel vulnerable at this point."

Ric was a California kid, though he was born in Mexico City, where his father was a university professor. His mother, who now lives in Ventura, California, was a Chicagoan who met her husband in Mexico. His father is deceased.

When he was seven, he, his mother and five brothers moved to Simi Valley, a little Ventura County town which he remembers with the greatest affection. "It was a wonderful, wonderful place for a boy to grow up," Ric said. "There were fossils everywhere. We hiked, built forts and played in the orange, walnut and avocado groves."

For awhile, he was a drummer in a three-piece band of teenagers named Final Notice. "I wrote the songs. It was sex, drugs and rock and roll, but we never made much money. In the end, we all went our own ways. I was 20."

As a little kid, he had a stepfather who believed in corporal punishment by way of a tool the boys called The Board, "And yeah, it was really a board. He hurt some of us kids." His mother and stepfather split up when he was nine, but she continued to use The Board. But there are no hard feelings. His relationship with his mother, he says, is "very good. She raised us to be hard workers, respectable, and God-fearing."

Booze entered his life when he was 16. California had then, and still does, much easier access to liquor than Washington does. Every sort of retail establishment sells hard liquor, sometimes until 2 a.m. And in Simi Valley, there was a dealer who delivered. The 16-year-old Ric ordered a case of beer delivered, and that´s when he "got hammered" for the first time.

When he went to work for his brother, a drywall contractor, drinking was a way of life for the work crews. "I didn´t like it, but I had to get used to it." At 17, he quit high school in the 11th grade and apprenticed himself to his brother in the drywall business.

He learned the trade very well, but decided to move up here in 1989 because housing was more affordable, and work was plentiful. Ric led crews that installed the drywall in many Microsoft buildings. By now, he had a wife and two children. "It was a good life. I coached the kids in baseball, soccer and gymnastics, and in Brownies for my daughter. This is home, though I could definitely use some sunshine. I really appreciate all that we have here-the beautiful environment, the people, even the economy."

It was far from all peaches and cream, though. He was a violent drunk who wrecked more cars than he can remember, did some county jail time for petty theft and minor assaults, "and of course, I was arrested for DUI."

He drank his way out of the drywall business. He tried A.A. after that, and got a job in a print shop. That ended when he had a slip. With sobriety and a lot of hard work, he has now become the asset manager for a large furniture warehouse. He puts in a lot of unpaid hours to keep up with the work and to train his employees.

As newcomers sometimes do, Ric has really thrown himself into the A.A. program, studying the literature and working hard to carry the message. He has been CPC, zone rep for Zone 118, Intergroup rep for his home group, and chairs the Newcomers meeting in downtown Renton.

"And all is peaceful at home." He is no longer married.

A.A. today, says Ric, "means I can hope I´ll recover from this disease. A.A has helped me grow up. There are no police, no one regulating. I have to work the program as it´s best for me. It has given me hope that I can be sober for the rest of my life."

Interviewing and writing by Dick S.