Any alcoholics in the crowd?

[tripperfunster]

I have an AA question.

When you get your 'coin' for sobriety, what denominations are they? 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, etc?

And how are they given out? During the meeting? Quietly afterwards?

Asking for a friend …. :D For a fic, actually.

Thanks in advance. Clearly, anon comments are more than welcome!

Comments

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Sorry, no idea! Everything I know on the subject comes from fiction. Have you tried AA's website?

[tripperfunster.livejournal.com]

I haven't, but I doubt they'll say "Oh, we give out our sobriety tokens at the end of the sessions!"

although ,… maybe they do! I'll have a look. :D

[sneaqui.livejournal.com]

They give out various types of chips (I've always heard them referred to as 'chips') for each milestone: 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 2 months, 3 months... They're different colors depending on the milestone. The year sober one is the biggest deal for a lot of people. When my dad got his (back in the 80s) it was an actual gold coin and he carried it with him every day. It's all very public and they hand them out at the end of meetings and everyone claps and the person makes a speech if they want to.
Here's some more info about contemporary AA coin design: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobriety_coin#Coin_design

Source: Lots of recovering addicts in my life XD

Let me know if you have any other questions!

[tripperfunster.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much!

So, at the end of the meeting, the person would be called up to accept their chip?

In my Avengers body-swap pic, Steve (as Tony) is going to get drunk, and then get shuffled off to 'Tony's' AA meeting, where hungover, he is called up to accept Tony's one year chip. Cue feeling like a giant ass!

Thanks for the info!

I have addicts in my family, but none of them are/were recovering, iywim.

[sneaqui.livejournal.com]

Yes yes! Usually people in recovery go to the same meeting every week or so, so whoever is leading the meeting would know who has an anniversary. So if anyone has an anniversary, at the end of the meeting, they'd be like "let's congratulate so and so on one month sober etc." And they'd get their chip and say a little something if they want to.

So the situation you're describing for Tony/Steve sounds exactly right. :)