Using Debtors Anonymous to Help You Manage Debt

Debtors Anonymous (DA) is a twelve-step program of recovery for persons who compulsively incur debt. It is a self help support group for those who desire to live free of all forms of unsecured debt. The program is modeled after the twelve-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). DA was started in 1968 when a core group of AAs met together to discuss their problems with money. Initially, they felt their problems originated from their inability to save money. Later, they came to believe that their problems did not stem from their inability to save money but from their seemingly constant compulsion to borrow money. They came to think of their condition as a disease, much like a chemical addiction, where the act of incurring debt is the threshold. The primary purpose of the DA program is to stay solvent and help others to achieve solvency.