My current girlfriend dragged me to an AA meeting tonight. To be honest, I've never heard so much BS in my entire life. Alcoholism a disease? *Scoff* In my opinion, it's very simple - don't drink and you won't become a drunken ***h***e. More specifically, ever heard of the "steering wheel" concept? Keep your hands on the wheel and don't turn into those convenience store parking lots. It's that simple.
Furthermore, these people (cult members - from my perspective) say that if you don't work the 12 steps, you will either die, go to jail or a mental institution. Guess what? I left AA in a huff over 20 years ago and still am alive, happy and free. Furthermore, all my old AA "friends" are either dead (most of them are dead - young or old at the time I knew them), in prison or in mental hospitals. I have News: AA does not work and is nothing more than a cult! And I'm living proof of that, being that I'm still around :lol: - if my niece or another family member ever has any problems with alcohol/drugs, the last thing I'm doing is sending them to AA.
AA - what a waste of time. I spent two or three years going to them stupid meetings, working the steps, serving on committees, sponsoring others - I found AA at 19 and left at 23 in disgust (haven't been back since until tonight).
I couldn't take it any longer: When it came my turn to share in the meeting, I said just about everything I just posted. You should have seen the looks on their faces. :lol::lol::lol:
AA - A Big thumbs down and screw those people.
I agree 100%. As my brother told me when I was trying to quit crack cocaine back in 2000...'you will quit it when you want to badly enough'. He was dead right (though that is a simplistic viewpoint I finally did in 2002, btw...on my own).
People throw that title on it to try and wrap it up in a neat little package. It's a disease...which means it is curable...which means the rest of the masses do not have to worry about it.
It's like drug rehab places. The success rate of those places is incredibly low (how many times do you hear a celeb going to one and then quickly getting caught doing it again? Lots I imagine).
But the masses love them because they just tell themselves that if Joe just goes to one, they will clean him up...all nice and tidy and simple. Nonsense.
Joe's problems started long before he did drugs. And rehab cannot change the fact his parents abused him or ignored him or whatever the demon/pain that Joe is trying to escape from is. Joe has to deal with that one. And only Joe can fix that problem.
Btw, IMO, rehab works for only two types of people...1) the type that love to be told what to do - but most addicts are not that type. They are, in my experience, usually the opposite. And 2) the type that are binging like mad and are completely out of control and just need somewhere to stop them for a while.
I have found almost everyone else does not find long term help from rehab places...which is probably most addicts.
When people think of disease, they think of something that can be cured by drugs or treatments.
Addictions are almost always NOT that way. These are people (for the most part - I cannot speak for you) who want/need to escape their pain. And the fastest/easiest/only way they know is their drug of choice...be it booze, drugs, gambling, sex, work, food, pornography, etc..
They are complicated issues that almost always cannot be fixed by a drug or a treatment 'program'.
Alcoholism is NOT a disease...it is (usually) a symptom of an underlying problem.