All of the steps but particularly 10, 11, and 12 are a lifelong practice. It is very difficult to practice step 12 without going to meetings. It reads, "... We carried the message to other alcoholics...". This basically means you will always be going to meetings and sponsorsing people. Quitting your DOC is the tip of the iceberg. If that is the only thing you get out of recovery then you have really short changed yourself.
I am and always have been spiritual and I was raised religious. Going to AA meetings and getting sober was not spiritually revelatory for me and my life did change but not spiritually or in a religious way.
I am against AA/NA and 12 step programs since to me they are like a cult or substitute addiction based on groupthink, caffeine, and sugar. Ever notice how they serve coffee and sugary junk food at pretty much every AA/NA meeting? Or how in literature like the book "Living Sober" they tell you to eat sugary things when you have cravings for alcohol or your drugs of choice, or as a reward. People who have totally swallowed the AA flavorade/Kool-Aid will tell you that if you do not go to AA then you are not really sober, that you are a "dry drunk", headed for a relapse, and I have had some AA people tell me when I stopped going to meetings that I was going to die.
Is AA a cult?:
Here's something I wrote for a similar question:
When they told me that if I left I would die, I had my first doubts about the program.
I call it cult-like or cult-lite, mainly because if I call it a cult, people stop listening and there's no chance of dialog.
AA historian Dick B calls it a beneficial cult. Harvard professor, researcher, and former member of AA's Board of Trustees, George Vaillant said:
"In a balanced review Nace 1992 has examined some facets of AA that attracts criticism. First because of its idealogical nature members are not encouraged to take a scientific or dissionate approach to the study of its effiacy. Personally based loyalty to the ideology of AA comes into conflict with the empiricism of the research community.
Second AA does not hold opinions, individual members like any partisan group can be extremely and erreonously opinionated.
Third , AA certainly functions as a cult and indoctrinates its members in ways common to cults the world over."
"The Natural History of Alcoholism Revisited", pages p. 266
AA critic Orange suggests that it is a cult:
Alcoholics Anonymous as a Cult & The Cult Test:
http://www.orange-papers.org/
Whether it is a cult or not is irrelevant. Is it a destructive cult? It does seem to meet the criteria set by Lipton for a a destructive cult:
Milieu Control
Mystical Manipulation
Demand for Purity
The Cult of Confession
The "Sacred Science"
Loading the Language
Doctrine Over Person
Dispensing of Existence
http://www.csudh.edu/dearhabermas/aacultbk01.htm
Also:
http://www.positiveatheism.org/rw/ofcourse.htm
Other methods or groups besides AA that are not 12 steps?:
SOS:
http://www.sossobriety.org/
SMART:
http://www.smartrecovery.org/
LifeRing:
http://www.unhooked.com/index.htm
WFS:
http://www.womenforsobriety.org/
RR:
http://www.rational.org/
Harm Reduction for alcohol:
http://hamsnetwork.org/
And with all those options, the majority of people, 80%, quit on their own.
"Another estimate is that at least 50% of alcoholics eventually free themselves although only 10% are ever treated. One recent study found that 80% of all alcoholics who recover for a year or more do so on their own, some after being unsuccessfully treated. When a group of these self-treated alcoholics was interviewed, 57% said they simply decided that alcohol was bad for them. Twenty-nine percent said health problems, frightening experiences, accidents, or blackouts persuaded them to quit. Others used such phrases as "Things were building up" or "I was sick and tired of it." Support from a husband or wife was important in sustaining the resolution."
Treatment of Drug Abuse and Addiction — Part III, The Harvard Mental Health Letter, October 1995.
Personally, I feel that all those groups are great for those who have been through AA and have had it pounded into their heads that they NEED a group in order to quit. That's wrong, but AA has been very successful in getting people to believe that piece of misinformation.
Being around others for support can be a good thing, but ultimately, it is up to the individual to use or not.
Relevant experiences?:
I bounced in and out of AA for almost 20 years, never achieving more than a few months of sobriety trying to do it their way. AA taught me that I was powerless, that I couldn't stay sober without them, that it wasn't my fault, I had a life-long disease.
It wasn't until I turned my back on AA, took responsibility for my addiction that I could take responsibility for my recovery and I got sober.
. I just didn't think it was helpful to make the assumption that "Most people who rip on the program are just close minded and have problems with they're egos". You wouldn't like it if someone said something like that about "Most people who promote the program" right? Thanks for explaining your views more. It's nice to have civil discussion about these kinds of things.
