For many recovering alcoholics, rigsy, AA is like a lifejacket after a shipwreck - especially in the initial stages. Anything that helps you stay dry is worth it. If this includes a certain monomania and dogmatism about the 12 steps, so be it, it's still a hell of a lot better than the alternative.
My experience - including my own personal history - is that most dry alcoholics/clean addicts lighten up with time. The need for self-help groups and the urge to tell one's story and hear the stories of others over and over again usually diminishes. But self-help has proved itself as being very useful for most trying to claw their way out of the hell of addiction. Personally, the subtle Christian/theistic flavour of AA has always irritated me and during my initial recovery period I was lucky enough to find a specifically non-religious self-help group in the town in which I lived. But if AA had been the only game in town, I'd have gone there and been glad to have them. For anyone starting into recovery, whatever can help you stay dry is positive; even if that entails painting yourself blue and singing falsetto outside Starbucks! Francis On 6 Sep., 17:15, rigsy03 <[email protected]> wrote: > Also, people use therapy and AA like a religion- in fact, they "use" a > lot of things in lieu of religion. What about jingoism? > > On Sep 5, 12:51 pm, Slip Disc <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > >http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/08/muslim-relief-organizations-discrim... > > > Questions: > > > What is inhibiting the growth of civilization? > > > What is the problem with people helping people in a disaster? > > > What is the main wedge driving people apart in the world today? > > > What is an obstacle in lending a hand to another human being? > > > What is the basis of a holy war that is killing people? > > > Why are people being denied humanitarian aid? > > > Why is it that.........(fill in the blank)..........? > > > Answer: > > > Religion, here there and everywhere. > > > "I've heard the call. I believe God wants me to run for > > President."...... > > > Quote from GW Bush before he caused the slaughter of innocent people > > in Iraq. > > >http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/04/06/iraq > > Excerpt: > > A major reason there are hundreds of thousands of dead innocent > > civilians in Iraq, and thousands more in Afghanistan, is because this > > is what we do. > > > This is what we do in the name of god? > > > In god we trust? > > > Let's Pray..... "god help us".
