I HAVE PITIFUL INCOMPREHENSIBLE DEMORALIZATION CAUSED by AA MEETING ATTENDANCE.?
Question by Hindusufi: I HAVE PITIFUL INCOMPREHENSIBLE DEMORALIZATION CAUSED BY AA MEETING ATTENDANCE.?
I’ve stayed sober for a year. Things is the aa memebers won’t leave me alone about this higher power thing. I’m an atheist, I just don’t believe that higher power stuff. Wether they call it higher power or god makes no difference to me. There still telling me I have to believe in an imaginary friend to stay sober.
I’m going to leave this irrational organization. Any suggestions on staying sober without AA – I certainly hope so as I will never go back to this crazy AA. Not with the experience I’ve had with them.
Best answer:
Answer by Dee K. Downfall
First of all, the easiest way to handle your alcoholic cravings is to just have a drink… Moderation is the word here… If you have cravings for alcohol, its only going to be hard on you if you dont drink at all, and there is nothing wrong with having a drink now and again. Your not going to suffer any health problems or anything, in fact there are more benefits to moderate drinking. Of course moderate drinking does not mean taking shots of hard liquor and getting too drunk to walk. Having a couple refreshing beers on a summer day or a nice glass of wine with your dinner on a saturday night should help you maintain and keep your mind off the alcohol.
I used to be a very heavy drinker myself and at one point I would drink 7 days a week, hard liquor. Usually a fifth of jager would only last me one night. So I decided stop drinking so much. Now I drink one or two days a week and just enough to settle my nerves and help me sleep.
However, if your dead set on not drinking period, then my advice is to stay active in the gym, and find another thing to get addicted to. I went a year with absolutely no alcohol and I stayed in the gym pumping iron and keeping my heart going. Adrenaline is just as addictive as any drug and you will start praising yourself and being happy. Its just like getting high pretty much.
Anyways hope this helped a little
Answer by raysny
Been there, done that. AA is fear based and offers God as the only solution. I wasn’t able to stay sober until I turned my back on AA, got help for the depression that fueled my drinking, and took responsibility for my addiction so that I could take responsibility for my recovery.
That was 10 years ago. I now work in mental health, primarily with those who have coexisting substance abuse issues. I’m co-owner of the Yahoo group “without_aa”:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/without_aa/
AA makes a lot of claims, but all it is is a religious sect; some would say a cult.
I just posted this elsewhere:
lingering memes from A.A.
1. Nobody can do it alone. You need a “support group”.
2. Support groups really work to get people over addictions, so every addict “needs a meeting”.
3. People are “powerless” over drugs, alcohol, addictions, and temptations.
4. The individual people are too stupid to manage their own lives, and need a führer, leader, sponsor, or a “higher power” to supervise them.
5. There is something wrong with you if you have a resentment or get angry.
6. Criticizing people who do wrong things is also wrong. “Whenever you point a finger at someone else, there are three pointed back at you.”
7. Bad habits are “diseases”.
8. Nobody ever really fully recovers.
9. People who suffer from mental illnesses or addictions have “spiritual diseases”.
10. Confessing your sins to a group of people will fix addictions and other mental problems.
11. For every problem, there is a simplistic slogan that gives the answer.
12. The practices of Dr. Frank Nathan Daniel Buchman’s cult religion have saved millions of lives.
13. The same God that let you sit in a bar and blabber mindless drivel to other drunks for 20 years will immediately make you stop drinking when you go to A.A. meetings and blabber mindless drivel to other drunks.
http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-letters249.html#Bob_O
That’s what they teach and it’s hard to deprogram from.
The NIAAA’s 2001–2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions interviewed over 43,000 people. Using the criteria for alcohol dependence found in the DSM-IV, they found:
“About 75 percent of persons who recover from alcohol dependence do so without seeking any kind of help, including specialty alcohol (rehab) programs and AA. Only 13 percent of people with alcohol dependence ever receive specialty alcohol treatment.”