Posted by Larry Hoover on November 18, 2005, at 10:35:29
In reply to Re: Very debatable » mama141, posted by alexandra_k on November 17, 2005, at 22:34:21
> I wish AA / NA wouldn't say that their way is the ONLY way because sometimes people struggle on with AA / NA when they would fare better with some of the alternative programs that are out there.
They don't say that. They say "if you want what we've got" then this is how we did it.
"You're a member if you say you are."
> And sometimes... People leave AA / NA because they figure it is not for them...
Doors work both ways. But the doors of AA/NA are always open.
> And they relapse really very badly because they think that that will be INEVITABLE (just like that AA / NA people predicted). And so...
Or anyone else with knowledge of addiction might have predicted...
And I think that the ability to provide a prognosis is part of what makes it a disease. Untreated, you can expect.....
> I wish they would acknowledge there are other ways. And wish people luck to explore those.It is implicit in all that they say. "Not affiliated with any outside organisation."
> As part of their party line, I mean. As part of the charter stuff they read at the opening of every meeting. If they would officially acknowledge that. Becuase... It might save a lot of people out there from despairing if they find they aren't doing so well with the AA / NA approach.
I bet you, that if you spoke to individual members, you'd have found different ways of dealing with addiction. There is no one AA/NA way. You personalize it, to make it work. An atheist of many years' sobriety claimed the coffee pot as his higher power. He knew the coffee pot would never let him down. For me, I put another o into god. I believed in good. I still do.
I have never been to two AA/NA meetings that were the same as any other. Similar, but never the same.
AA/NA does not cast people out, to have them suffer. To hit a new bottom, so maybe you'll get it next time.
If I may be so bold, I would ask if you are blaming them fairly for what became of you.
As to alternatives, the phone book is full of them. The internet is crammed with them.
I think the AA and derivative organizations make clear what they're about, right up front. But I never went to a meeting for the readings. I went for the people. I went because I wanted what they had. And I went because there might be someone who wanted what I had.
I won't ever forget that at the heart of any of the Anonymous groups, it was a bunch of very sick people, who got together and created wellness. Kind of like alchemy. Wealth where there had once been poverty.
My brain shut down. Mental disease active. Addiction disease in remission, 8 years, 4 months, 8 days (or something like that).
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:575263
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/subs/20051106/msgs/580012.html