anyone here in alcoholics anonymous?

Question

hi, i've been going to aa for a couple of years ago and someone said to me recently that it's just a sect. also, that i had alcohol problems due to probs with my parents when i was young. and that all i need is therapy to resolve this issue then i'll no longer have a problem. can anyone provide a counter argument to this?

Answer 1

I went to AA and even sponsored someone. but when the creepy people stalked me I discovered how cowardly and immature all my fair weather friends were.
AA is a DIS honesty program...there is no genuine honesty in the rooms just a lot of Hot Air...pompus blow hards and nutters.

AA almost killed me.

Answer 2

I am amazed at all the people who know absolutly nothing about AA supporting AA like Geek the first answer. He even claims to have a degree in theology or clergy. Well, AA is a cult and I speak from experience. Here is my aa Experience in a nut shell.

My sponsor forced me to flush my psych medication for bi polar disorder down the toilet because if I took medication, I was not sober. I was threatened with death everyday. I was told if I did not do as my sponsor and the group said do I would die drunk.


Second My sponsor made me deny Christ and Christianity and pledge allagience to AA and their "Higher Power"

At every angle I was told I was no good and just a no good drunk and if I was ever to have any hope at all, I must give my whole life to AA and the program or die drunk.

AA has gurus called "Old Timer" who control and run the group.

I was working AA successefully as a secular support group and they kept telling me I must work the spiritual side or die drunk. I heard that AA is the only way and if I do not submit to AA I will die.
I did decide to use spirituality I told mey sponsor that I would go back to church once a week along with the 9 AA meetings a week I was making and he threw a fit and cusssed and told me to hit the door and not come back until I was ready to stuff the church and do everything he said and if I did not I was destined to die drunk. He told me 9 meetings a week was not enough and I had to attend more. 9 hours a week was not enough?

I left and never went back and I did drink a little after just to see if I could control my drinking and I could not, but I quit drinking Feb29,1992 and have not drank since without AA. That is nearly 15 years sober without AA and I am happier without the controlling cult.

Any group that tells members they will die if they do not beleive as they are told and have Old Timers controlling people and forcing people to throw medication away is a cult pure and simple. Any group that claims to be the only truth and way and you will die if you leave is a cult.


I will also add my opinion based on scripture any preacher, minister, priest etc that upholds AA and is pro AA is flirting with anti bible principles here. The bible says Jesus is the way and AA says Higher Power can be a door knob. Think about it preachers. Are you really for God and the Bible or too brainwashed by AA proaganda? A admits to being successful because it is a copy of Christianity without the commitment to Christ.

Answer 3

If someone called AA a sect, they were being polite.

AA IS A CULT!

When a religious group tells me that if I leave, I will die, there is no other word for it.

AA works for 5% of the people who try quitting using AA. People who try quitting on their own also has a success rate of 5%. Seems to me 5% are determined. AA split from the Oxford group, a splinter group from Protestantism. They have some peculiar beliefs not found in any mainstream religion, such as: God can't cure alcoholism, only grant a person a daily reprieve. The God I was brought up with could raise the dead, I don't think a little thing like alcoholism would give Him problems. They negate the concept of the Gift of Free Will by claiming that alcoholics cannot get sober on their own (they do it every day), but must ask God to remove their desire for one day (sounds like miracles on demand to me).

Of the 95% who fail using AA, there are 4 times as many who engage in binge drinking as those with no program (Brandsma study) and a MORTALITY rate that is 4-5 times higher (studies done by George Vaillant, Harvard researcher and member of AA's Board of Trustees). So AA has a negative impact compared to people quitting on their own. And considering the mortality rate, I would call it not only a cult, but a dangerous one.

There are many methods that produce better results than AA. What Works?:
http://www.behaviortherapy.com/whatworks.htm

Answer 4

Looks like your just looking for an excuse to pack it in? (the AA not the booze)!
I honestly don't know enough about the AA to judge, I drink far too much, but I don't give a sh*te so I don't need the AA.
If the AA are a bunch of folk trying to force God down your neck instead of booze, I would prefer to stick with the booze!
I also have no faith in these 'councillors' who are they where did they come from, what use are they???
They put me in mind of of 'consultants' a consultant is one who borrows your watch to tell you what the time is!! Then charges you!!
Try and sort out your own problems without the use of these tossers!! You must have some friends that arent all boozed up 24/7?? Talk to them, try and keep away from religious nuts, get into that and its as bad as being a junky!!

Answer 5

I spent a lot of time thumping the book and getting right with God in a 12 step fellowship. What a waste of time.

The bottom line is that if you want to be sober, you will stay sober. The learned helplessness and powerlessness that they teach you is detrimental to your well being.

Oh, you wanted an argument to counter someone saying that AA was a sect. No help here. I personally consider it a cult, but that's just me.

Just curious, if you are a member of AA, why would you need to argue about whether it is a sect or not?

Answer 6

AA is most definitely a religious organization and most likely a cult. Most people stop their substance problems without the help of AA. In fact, the AA "success rate" is slightly lower than the success rate without any treatment at all.

If you're determined not to have any more problems with alcohol, you can certainly do it yourself without sitting in miserable meetings and spouting mind-numbing slogans. You do not HAVE to be "sentenced" to a life of dismal church basements and rambling drunkalogs. You don't need a "counter argument" to determine this for yourself. Contrary to what you've been told, non-participation in 12-step programs is healthy and safe...it will not lead to jails, institutions, or death, as is evidenced by the thousands of people who quit drinking without 12-step "help" every day.

Drinking and other substance problems are not spiritual problems and they are not diseases. Drinking is a BEHAVIOR, nothing else.

That is not to say that it's easy to change this behavior or that something isn't driving you to engage in it. Only that you deserve appropriate, sensible, and ACTUAL help dealing with it. And that doesn't need to be an hour a day of listening to people complain and make excuses.

Answer 7

Is AA a cult? Probably; it certainly has similar characteristics to many cults, or sects, and I believe it is. There is a lot of debate covering this subject on the net, but as someone who speaks out for alternatives to AA, I think this question is ultimately a red herring. What I believe is a far more urgent question that needs to be posed, and thus answered, is the question of whether AA works or not. As someone else has pointed out, the evidence would suggest that AA’s efficacy rate stands at 5% - is that a strong enough argument to ‘sell’ AA as a program that works?

The issue I have with AA membership is that as part of the process of attending meetings, alcoholics start to believe that AA is the only way in which to recover, and that is a dangerous message to give people. Not only does it effectively remove choice from the individual, but it is also a subtle way of making it very difficult for them to leave. Bill Wilson, in his book The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, writes the following:

“Unless each A.A. member follows to the best of his ability our suggested Twelve Steps to recovery, he almost certainly signs his own death warrant. His drunkenness and dissolution are not penalties inflicted by people in authority; they result from his personal disobedience to spiritual principles.” (Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, Bill Wilson, page 174.)

I think that one extract gives you an example of what I mean above. In other words, AA and Bill Wilson are saying, do the steps or die. Quite often this message becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, which does indeed often end in death as the person believes they have to do the steps in order to deal with their drinking.

I am intrigued by the people on here that make positive comments about AA having never attended their meetings, or done their steps. I have spent over 9 years in AA. The public perception of AA is very good simply because when people are “working” the program, the 12th Step encourages them to carry the message. However if it does not work for you, the most you can do is just leave – and often those people blame themselves, and as such nobody hears anything negative about AA.

What’s more, AA has not changed or evolved its program since its conception in the 1930’s, despite new evidence and research. If AA works for you, then that is great; but this, in my opinion, is not a one size fits all problem, and thus there is not a one size fits all solution.

If AA is not working for you may I suggest you research alternatives such as SMART and Rational Recovery. Only the individual knows what is best for them. If you believe you have some control over your life, and you believe in yourself, then there are alternatives. Your drinking problem does not have to define you; you do not have to label yourself an alcoholic for the rest of your life.

J a m e s G
Founder of Blamedenial.co.uk

Answer 8

I'm not a Friend of Bill W's... but I can answer those questions.

1. I've got a clergy degree (M.Div) and I can say, without reservation, that AA does NOT meet any definition of a "cult" or "sect" that I've ever encountered.

Of course, AA people tend to do things "all or nothing" sometimes, and some do get a bit carried away, but you could say that about the local model airplane club too.

2. Therapy to resolve issues is always good. And, in many cases, people do "self-medicate" to dull emotional pain. While there are obvious physiological aspects to alcohol and drug abuse, we also know that many people just abuse those things (along with food, work, sex, etc) to cover up their emotional pain. To the extent that this reflects your situation, you'll find that it does help the alcoholism.

And... for the record... we're proud of you for being sober. Even if it's only been 2 hours....

Answer 9

you love alcahol, for the simple reason, its great.
its too easy to blame something else. Booze makes everything seem better, worries less important, we're more philosophical, talkative, and feel like we could take on the world, like with any drug.
Being p i s s e d is a nice feeling, and done to extreme, a real experience.
Its not healthy though, and once done, to extreme, we get a "thirst" for being extremely p i s s e d ...so its difficult to drink slowly, and responsibly, as we know we can get so much "more" from it.
Most groups are culty, and its people sharing problems with people, in a hippy way. Good or bad, it works for some, not others.
Keeping you from killing yourself on booze, having now got a "problem" with it, is your priority.
By problem, i mean that, having drunk a lot myself over the years, in phases, i know, when i drink, i will get drunk, and not stop till i am, therefore i drink a couple of times a week, so am not addicted, but realise that when i do drink, i will carry on, and plan accordingly, for a lie in etc...so this actually is a problem, to a different degree.

Answer 10

Try subliminal music if you would like to quit drinking and have an alcoholic dependancy. The subliminakl music programs are only a few dollars each and you dont have to start smoking ciggarettes to quit drinking as AA suggests through their programs. Reference is below in source...