General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Alcoholics Anonymous has a terrible success rate, addiction expert finds [View all]TlalocW
(15,379 posts)I've had alcohol once in my life - when I was 3 and wanted a sip of my dad's pop (Pepsi and Old Milwaukee had the same color scheme). I'm 42 now. I don't even like to eat food that has been prepared in alcohol. I won't bore you with the reasons, and I'm fine with whatever a person wants to put into his or her own body. If you don't have control of that, I don't see how you can call yourself free.
But the things that always bothered me about AA is that they claim alcoholism is a disease - which we can argue both ways for - yet they eschew any modern methods of dealing with disease, including medication, of which there are some meds that can help you with the addiction, and the "methods" in the "Big Book" have not changed since it was first published. That's not how medicine - or anything scientific - works.
The whole admitting you're helpless. Bullshit. I'm Tlaloc Goddamn W, and I'm not helpless. Sure, there are times I need support from others, and I give support to others when they need it, but I'm never helpless. That's just a method of getting people to become more receptive to the religious message that was part of AA when it first started and is still prevalent in it today - and I'm not saying that's good or bad either way. I'm just saying it was there and still is.
TlalocW