Neurotics Anonymous

Domain V · Systemic, relational, group & community · Grover Boydston · 1964 · Washington, D.C., USA

What it is

N/A is a peer-run twelve-step mutual-aid fellowship for people who see themselves as having "mental and emotional illness". It is not a therapy, and a clinician does not run it. This guide is for a psychotherapist who refers clients to N/A, works alongside it, or draws on its principles. Boydston…

Format

• N/A has no clinical phases, session counts or graduation criteria. Members attend open-endedly and decide for themselves when they are better. Many keep attending after that. The structure below combines what the fellowship does, as reported in the sources, with a clinician's referral pathway that…
• Attendance. Length: sessions run about 90 minutes in Mexico and about two hours in Porto Alegre.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Self-identification. Newcomers are given a booklet with a 26-item yes/no self-test about emotional difficulties: mood swings, fears, compulsions, sleep and somatic complaints, feeling disliked, and so on. Answering yes to more than ten items is read as a sign that the person should accept powerlessness over their emotions. Membership rests on recognising oneself as "neurotic". The group's own definition of a…
• What it is. N/A is a peer-run twelve-step mutual-aid fellowship for people who see themselves as having "mental and emotional illness". It is not a therapy, and a clinician does not run it. This guide is for a psychotherapist who refers clients to N/A, works alongside it, or draws on its principles. Boydston was a recovering alcoholic in AA who also had psychology training. He adapted AA's Twelve Steps and Twelve…

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• Founding details, checked. Place: the evidence points to Washington, D.C. Wikipedia gives 3 February 1964 in Washington, D.C. It cites Boydston's own 1974 history of the fellowship and Sagarin (1969), and N/A's early books were published by NAIL in Washington, D.C. A Brazilian member interview also…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Stopping medication abruptly.
• Suicidal crises handled only by peers.
• Unsafe amends, and over-responsibility.
• Labelling that becomes global self-condemnation.
• Emotional suppression, and shame after an outburst.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.