I have read the Wikipedia page for AA, so I'm not really looking for statistics. I'm not really sure how to explain my question other than I see AA in TV shows and in Movies constantly. However for all the Americans I've ever met, it never comes up in conversation. Do people just not talk about it (I guess that would be part of the name, maybe it is kind of like Fight Club)? Is it regional?
Jellinek, E. M., "Phases in the Drinking History of Alcoholics: Analysis of a Survey Conducted by the Official Organ of Alcoholics Anonymous", Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Vol.7, (1946), pp. 1–88. Seems to me it is a great help to talk of what I lived and remember how my sickness develop and contrast with others to realize what I been through. What you think about it
Wilson, a soldier, and Smith, a physician, jointly wrote "The Big Book," in 1939, thus founding the alcoholics anonymous organization which subsequently spread to include 12-step meetings addressing all manner of disorders. I have attended several meetings in various categories.
What these men accomplished was to wrench the treatment of substance abuse and addiction away from the medical community (great Atlantic article) and toward the spiritual community. They were both complete amateurs when it came to dealing with substance abuse, and their writings show it glaringly. They were spiritualists who believed that addiction could be cured through prayer to Christ.
Had they remained fringe figures this would be fine. But through decades of propaganda their dangerously ignorant and prayer-heavy approach has become the go-to recovery method employed by top-notch doctors, treatment facilities, and community organizations. If you go to a fancy, Lohan-caliber rehab, you'll get the 12-step treatment.
Instead of recommending medical treatment methods, many contemporary doctors have been trained to hand off patients to 12-step-based groups without realizing that the success rates of such groups only rank about 8%-10% (which is on par with the success rate of an addict quitting on their own), despite the fact that AA, for example, falsely boasts a success rate of 25%.
The reason I'm writing this is because a number of my friends are hooked on heroin and alcohol, and it devastates me that their physicians and psychiatrists suggest group conversations as a cure when such conversations produce negligible results. Sure, you know someone whose life was saved by AA. Fantastic! They were the exception.
If you have a substance abuse problem and ask your doctor for help, and the doctor suggests that you join a 12-step group, please ask your doctor for a medical solution instead of a spiritual one. The predominance of 12-step in the medical community is NOT the result of success. It's the result of decades of propaganda, false data, miseducation and religion/spirituality creeping into the medical world. You deserve better! Please demand it. If you are hooked on heroin or meth, PLEASE seek a chemical cure, not a series of hopeful conversations.
I want you (and myself) to get better. Avoid spiritual remedies for chemical problems. We can beat this, but not by attending AA
... keep reading on reddit ➡I quit drinking alcohol and smoking pot on Dec. 7th. Rough rough rough! It's been like a month and sometimes I still think that I'm dealing with physical detox, not sure how that works medically. Overall, I'm feeling better but part of me still want to smoke pot but I think if I do, I might drink again. So, no.
So, I go to some local AA meetings. I cried at my first three meetings. I thought, optimistically, I guess, that it would be really spiritual and I'd get a warm welcome. I hate it. I hate sitting at a table and ten different people who don't even know me or my story sit there and criticize me and give me advice that doesn't even work for my life. I HATE being the center of attention. These people don't even say Hello or Hi to me before or after meetings. But two different men open up their big books and sit there and read things from it at me. Maybe this is some real wisdom they are laying on me but they sure seem like pompous assholes. This is WORSE THAN CHURCH.
Okay, here's another thing. I've been to different meetings (a total of 17 meetings but at different locations). They all send around a schedule and put their phone numbers on it and told me to call them. I actually called people. What a fucking joke. Not one person returned my calls. A couple of times people did answer and .........yuck. They were not interactive conversations. One-long term member talked, literally, nonstop about their weird problems for 47 minutes straight. I would never call that person again.
I go to AA meetings and the long-term members are sitting outside and gossiping about other people in a pretty nasty way. And of course chain smoking.
Well, I'm the problem, right? I went to a different meeting, new neighborhood. Seemed like a halfway decent meeting. The person, (secretary or chair?) went around the room, calling on person by person, going in a line. But they skipped over me. I even kinda gestured when they skipped over me, saying like, "Hi, I'm here- I wanna share." No. And there was no legit reason. There were people there who only had a couple of days sober, so it's not like I wasn't allowed to talk because I wasn't a long-term member. It's because this was a clique, and they didn't know me so I wasn't worthy of being allowed to share like literally everyone else in the room.
I went to an Alano building for a meeting. Drove 50 minutes to get there. Not a church hosting an AA meeting. There's a huge banner on the wall that says, "JESUS IS LORD!"
Unfortunately, asking for a family friend.
A AA battery
A local pastor seems to be (falsely) equating LGBTQ people as those struggling with addiction. Essentially saying their sexual orientation is fixed but they need to stop giving in to it to please god and live a healthy & fulfilling life. He refers clients to Celebrate Recovery.
IMHO: If this is being taught to minors it could be labeled illegal gay conversion therapy and he is just masking it as addiction counseling.
Just curious if anyone knows of a meeting is secular or isn’t heavily focused on religion? I am not a religious person & do not want to feel uncomfortable as a newbie. I understand they start with a prayer which is absolutely fine, I just do not want to meet in a church. I am wanting to go this week some time but there isn’t a lot of information on the internet aside from location & meeting times. Almost all of them seem to be at a church. If anyone has any information that is helpful, please let me know. Thank you!
I recently started trying to shake my drinking habits and sought recovery from something more than my own means. I googled around and found my first AA meeting at a church nearby. Nice people good group and all. Now, mind you, the extent of my knowledge of AA meetings was solely limited to the movie Fight Club. I had absolutely no idea what to expect or what I was walking into. I was given materials and a pocket "Big Book". I had no idea how super religious this organization was. I'm almost embarrassed at how blindsided I was coming out of that meeting.
I try two weeks and two meetings at this venue trying to do the mental gymnastics of editing out all the "God" talk until finally I heard something to the effect of "If you don't believe in God there is NO WAY you're going to beat alcoholism". Now to an atheist like myself, all I can hear is "You're doomed". I took that as my cue and stopped attending. I made it about 3 weeks until I relapsed hard and found myself in a month long inpatient rehabilitation center.
So there I am at Rehab. Every night we have optional Narcotics Anonymous meetings, which for those that don't know covers all substance abuse addictions. These meetings were optional until the staff decided low attendance was cause enough for them to make these meetings mandatory. Now I wasn't the only atheist at this facility, and those that were atheists naturally gravitated to each other. Personally I try to go more with the flow and I attended the meetings anyway, but several atheists understandably took great offense to these mandated meetings. This event got me thinking, one of these gentleman was court ordered to complete this rehab program, and is now subjected to mandatory God centric meetings. The first night of this, several of the other atheists left the facility.
So I asked the staff "I don't mean to stir the pot here, but isn't this against first amendment liberties to require someone that is here under court order to submit to a religious indoctrination under threat of discharge and in turn incarceration?" to which they simply responded "It's not religious, it's Spiritual".
I've been out for a few months now, and still trying to make these super "Spiritual" programs work for me. And it wears on me more and more every day. So about those numbers I mentioned. I did some personal investigation into analyzing the Bible and the Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book. Out of the 783,137 words in the Bible, "God" is referred to 4,473 t
... keep reading on reddit ➡First post on sub. They think Theyre truly helping you when they try ti convert you. They want you to go out and do the same and recruit others. Just like a pyramid scheme, except instead of money its the "spiritual" feeling of spreading the gospel.
Except its worse than a regular pyramid scheme because those at the top get ALL the money as well as brainwashing people into fearing the god that makes them all their precious $$.
I had to go to rehab many times and they do the sane shit regarding AA. They might pretend they arent a religious organization but they do this exactly the same way and sincerely feel good from it and think youre doomed to hell/addiction if they cant get you to worship god and the big AA book..
Anyone else see what I'm saying or am I just talking out of my ass?
AA and r/leaves (a weed quitting group) are both not about controlling other people. I’ve seen way too many people here say that porn should be banned everywhere for everyone, or some draconian restrictions should be set in place.
I really feel at the core of my being that that is a really toxic mindset. I think that all we can say is that porn is not for us, and leave it at that.
For me personally, especially after being exposed to the book Dopamine Nation, and some stuff my ex girlfriend told me, made me think it’s time to eliminate porn from my life. I wasn’t a helpless case per se, but I also wasn’t living in the real world as much as I should have been. I’m excited for my new chapter.
But I don’t think just because I want to make this change for myself, that I need to start making laws to control other people. I think it’s okay if other people want to consume porn. I can only hope they have the right information about what they’re getting themselves into and know they have other options too.
I’m happy I had porn when I was younger. It helped me discover my sexuality (I’m bisexual, took me until age 23 to find that out), and helped me learn what I find attractive in a partner. Yes there were other ways I could have leaned the same info, but that was my path. As a recluse due to an anxiety disorder, maybe this was the best I could have at the time.
And now that I’m 30 and trying to enter a new phase of life, I can say goodbye to it.
I just turned 30(m) last August. I’ve had issues with several substances but seeing as alcohol is the easiest to obtain it is my go to vice. I’ve been a chef for the past 10 years. Somehow I’ve managed to fake it till I made it and have worked for several prestigious 5 star resorts and a notable country club.
I was fired from my job four weeks ago for drinking while on the clock. I was a Chef de Cuisine at a luxury resort in Hawaii. I deserved to be fired. During this time I was also cheating on my girlfriend. The rabbit hole of all of my lies had gotten so deep I started to believe all of the utter bullshit I was spitting out to literally everyone in my life.
I have hurt so many people. And for no reason at all. None of them deserved to be caught up in my deception. Yet when I was making these choices I felt nothing at all. No guilt, no regret, nothing. I believe these are the things that make someone a psychopath.
I don’t even know what I’m trying to accomplish by posting here. My mom urged me to go AA meetings but I haven’t been brave enough to. I have been told by several people, both family and friends to take responsibility for my actions, forgive myself, and move on. Even I type “forgive myself”, it sounds so fucking ridiculous. I don’t deserve it in the least.
My family has expressed concern over me hurting myself. I’ll never do it because I’m not brave enough to actually put them through that kind of pain. But at the same time I don’t think I can overcome the urge to keep constantly drinking myself numb to the reality of my actions. I don’t feel like I’m worth their love and support.
If anyone out there could share how they were able to climb out of the hole in which they hit rock bottom, I’m begging advice.
Hi everyone, I'm planning on forming an informal AA meeting over Zoom that meets once a week for an hour. This is meant for college students who are recovering from alcohol or for those who may still be suffering from the disease of addiction, who may not feel comfortable talking to an older crowd. If interested, please fill out the google form with the provided link to give me a time and day that works best for you. Providing your email in the form will give access to the meeting ID and password (I will send it out in an email before each meeting). It would definitely help me in my own recovery from alcohol and other substances and may be beneficial for you as well. Thanks!
I really liked their workshop from 1998, and recently purchased a workbook from them that lays out a 19 week workshop. I was thinking about doing it and taking a group through it with my sponsor. But i asked an old timer that i look up to what he thought of joe and charlie and he just said- “i dont fuck with joe and charlie”. He went on to say they made millions off of aa with their for pay workshops. I cant find any truth to this from a quick google search so i was wondering if anybody here has any info if this is true or false.
I am finally going back for the first time in forever (okay it was 2019 but thats an eternity) but this time sober from alcohol!
I go in December, which will put me at 3 months sober, and still in that tricky stage to manage my sobriety. Is there a meeting nearby, or maybe even a club like the one I have near me where if I have a crisis I can go? I know that on cruise ships and airplanes I can just say I am a friend of Bill W and they can organize one, Is there something like that at disney?
Hey,
I am in rehab for alcoholism. I am in Huntington Beach, California from out of state and away from friends and family. I'd love to know if there was a meeting on Thanksgiving that does some sort of pot luck. I love to cook and was planning on putting together like a 10 course meal. Honestly, I'm not too sure if it'll end up that much but I've been cooking Thanksgiving dinner for awhile now. If you're reading this, it'll probably disappoint you that it's vegan. But the food usually comes out vegan and non-vegan friendly.
I was kind of thinking it'd be nice to do some sort of potluck on the beach. The women at the rehab don't have any plans but most of them don't cook and it's been a struggle for the staff to get organized, never mind the girls. I would like to celebrate whatever Thanksgiving is and share the happiness that comes from putting together a good meal!
I'm in a house with a bunch of strangers with no real particular shared plans for Thanksgiving and I'd love to get together with spirited A.A. members that maybe don't have other plans or are in similar situations, in treatment centers or just a bit isolated. Being alone for the holiday's sucks especially if you don't connect with the people in your house. I'm looking for a sponsor, too! And I know some of the other girls at the rehab are as well. So it might be a good place to connect with people in southern California.
Let's get the ball rolling!
The meal is happening with or without anyone around me so please reach out and get together!!
I'd be cooking:
Buttered yams with brown sugar
Tostones
Cranberry sauce
Mushroom gravy
Steamed veggies
Gnocchi with creamed kale
Savory mushroom leek bread pudding
Something along the lines of miso
Steamed veggies
Green tea match bars, lots of caffeine, similar to lemon bars!
A little bit about myself:
I am a 25 year old female in a rehab. I'm serious about recovery and the big book, the rest of the stuff not so much. In terms of my sobriety, I'm at a point where I just need sober and like minded people, a good community and one alcoholic helping another alcoholic. I really want to meet people that have the same mindset and that maybe have a bit of sobriety under their belt, around the same age as me. 10 years sober, great! 30 years old, perfect! Although, I appreciate everyone's stories, too. Staying out of gangs, off of drugs, and off the streets. I guess that's what I'm looking for in a sponsor.
You're a shitty "friend".
But no, really. It's totally fine that you dropped off the face of the earth and started ignoring me the minute you got some regularly accessible p*ssy. Sure, things got sexual between us but I thought we were ACTUALLY friends. Maybe because you told me that, multiple times and I didn't assume you were lying. Damn, looks like assuming DOESN'T always make an ass of u & me after all.
You blame a lot of things on your having been drinking when you said or did them. Oh the irony. I'm realizing you're going for girls a decade younger than you because you still behave that way. And I'm really not interested in being friends with the same person you were nine years ago. As you might recall... that didn't always go so well back then for similar reasons.
Still, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me so thoroughly twice? Shame on us both.
Goodbye.
I went to a meeting and knew everybody there!
