Inspired by the alcoholism thread in the Pit. It is MHO that if someone wants to quit drinking, they should start with 90 AA meetings in 90 days. From what I’ve read and heard, that is the method most likely to be effective.
But, like everything else, AA has its detractors. So what d’yall think of AA, based on your own experiences or those of people close to you (not people you sorta knew, years after they quit or years after they tried AA and gave up on it)?
My dad quit drinking without any help. IMO, he really could have used it. He was a “dry” alcoholic and a troubled one at that. My sister, on the other hand, was great while she was in AA. Unfortunately, she had too many detractors to keep her going for long and “fell off the wagon.” But, years later, she got sober again and as far as I know, is now.
Both AA and NA really work, as long as the person actually wants them to. I have seen them turn around the lives of many people close to me, as long as they kept going to the meetings.
Based on MY experience, NA works very well. I’ve been clean for 15 years, my SO’s been clean for 16 years.
It is my opinion that it works for all those who are willing to follow the program (i.e. those who want it).
Saved my life. It works if you work it.
It’s too bad that there are no statistics to show that AA works better than any other method.
There is also an alternative called Moderation Management that is for those of us who aren’t quite at the AA levels, but still need to make alcohol less of an influence in their lives. Dinsdale turned me onto this and I am currently in the 30-day abstinence period. I like what I have read about it and it seems to me to be an easy thing to follow, but that might just fit in with my personality. They do mention that not everything works for everyone, so YMMV with it.
I do hear complaints against AA because it is fairly religious. MM is not, which might suit other people more.
Take care-
-Tcat
It worked while I went, stopped working when I quit going.
And Tomcat, they get around the religeous aspect by using words like “Higher Power”, whatever that means.
AA is not religious in and of itself. There is a spiritual component, but it’s not a requirement to stay sober. I’m spiritually an atheist, and I’ve only found a few who absolutely insist that I believe in God to stay sober.
Over the years, I’ve found some good meetings and some bad meetings. The good meetings, IMHO, are smaller groups who take the time to really listen to what you have to say, and who are made up of people who are there to stay sober by working the Steps. The members genuinely care about you as a person, and aren’t interested in value judgment.
The bad meetings tend to be larger, and the members are more interested in following their counselors or the latest self-help guru, and who tend to go to please someone else; usually a spouse, an aftercare counselor, or the courts.
This is, of course, MHO, and YMMV, and the usual disclaimers apply.
Robin
It helped me get sober, back in the day, and I don’t think it would have happened any other way. I’ve been clean and sober for over 17 years, and am no longer active in AA as an organization, but I continue to try to live by the steps.
Moderation Management has lost credibility in recent years, since a couple of years ago its founder ended up arrested for drunk driving and had to go to AA to get sober, and admitted MM didn’t work. Oops. 
The problem with MM, many alcoholics believe, is that if you drink to excess, you’re dealing with a physical problem in how your body processes alcohol, so all the moderation in the world won’t work when a physical craving sets in based on a physiological response. I’m just reporting the position, not verifying its authenticity.
AA works for those who are willing to accept that they don’t know how to stay sober and that maybe someone else knows more than they do. It does involve some work in the arenas of self-examination and interpersonal relations, and requires a lot of internal changes in order to be ultimately effective. But I’ve known many people who’ve been sober successfully for 30, 40, or even 50+ years in AA, so clearly it’s a life-changing process when successful.
The “religious” component often is a problem in areas such as the U.S. Bible Belt, where people think that conservative protestantism is the only acceptable form of religion and want to convert everyone to it. But there are many, many atheists in AA, whose higher power, for example, is the AA program or the power of the AA group – all you have to believe is that something other than yourself can change your life. The AA program certainly can do that.
I’ve seen it save lots of lives, and change a bunch of people from folks you wouldn’t want to be caught with on a well-lighted street let alone a dark alley to someone you’d trust your life with. A good recommendation, in my book!
FTR, i was a member of Al-Anon, not AA, for several years. having said that, i’d like to help with the misconception of AA being a religious program.
AA is a spiritual program, not a religious one. because the program refers to a Higher Power, and people who belong to a religion automatically equate Higher Power with their God, this confusion tends to generate.
but the programs themselves are quite explicit. your Higher Power is whatever you believe can help you in dealing with your situation. it could be God, Allah, Yahweh, Odin, Gaia, a tree, the group that you belong to, a song that inspires you…
the exact words of the step are (memory, don’t fail me now!):
“Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”
lachesis
In my very humble opinion both NA and AA can be valuable tools to change the direction one is traveling. In my experience the support that I received in NA allowed me to stop using so that I could finally start feeling the emotions that I was using to avoid. I believe that the twelve steps provide a road map that a great many people can use to sort out the emotional flood that occurs after prolonged substance abuse. I decided that the best thing for my wellbeing was therapy however this just my experience. The important thing in this is not so much the tool that you use but that you find a tool to use.
I am sorry that I have gotten off the original subject. IMHO the answer to the question AA good or bad is both and neither. It is like everything else in life what you make of it.
Good.
Of all the cures, clinics, groups and the like, AA has had the most success with helping people get sober. Beyond that, the twelve steps are a pretty good basis for a personal path to spirituality. Honestly, there have been times when I’ve been jealous of my recovering friends for their belonging in AA/NA ( :rolleyes: go figure.)
AA good. Hey, it’s free, it’s a mutual-help group, and you can take what you can use and leave the rest. Of course, if what you take doesn’t help you get sober, you should consider taking more.
As has been said, there are good AA meetings and less good AA meetings. One can always look around until one finds the right one.
In the end, the drinker has to want what AA has to offer. I’m not big on the court-ordered meeting attendance concept. But I admit some people who are ordered to go end up liking what they hear, and getting better.
One of the most important aspects of the change process is the belief that one can change.
AA has done a great job of creating an organized system, a wealth of knowledge and wisdom.
It may not be for everyone, but then again, nothing really is. AA works for people who really need to quit drinking, and not ever drink at all. There are alot of people for whom this is reality. There are others who are able to tone down their drinking or work on “harm reduction” and are able to function well in this way.
Its all about what fits for the person.
AA can work. AA has worked. That is no guarantee that AA will always work. That AA members repeatedly and invariably blame the individual when it doesn’t work smacks of cultism. My father, for example, got nothing from AA. He did gain sobriety when treated by a professional therapist who specialized in alcohol addiction (and was a physician) and maintains it to this day–without resorting to medication.
So, was it my father’s fault that AA’s one-size-fits-all approach didn’t fit him? Idunno? Is it the fault of somebody with overeating habits coupled with a metabolic disorder that Weight Watchers doesn’t work but treatment by a physician and professional dietician does?
Automatically assigning moral inferiority as the only reason that AA doesn’t work isn’t a rational response, it’s the response of a cult. It is beneath AA.
I went through treatment/AA in my early 20’s. It was completely voluntary. Stayed “clean and sober” for five years. The program of AA was more of the same self-flagellating crap I learned from a religious (well, my parents brand of religion anyway) upbringing. I learned a lot more by going out for a smoke during a meeting and going out for coffee after.
Quit going to meetings. I now drink moderately and hardly ever smoke pot. Here’s the kicker: I am now doing something effective to treat my depression. In a way, AA helped. I heard so much at meetings and read so much in the book, “Alcoholics Anonymous,” that struck me as disingenuous (the one about “spiritual, not religious” always tickles me) that I developed a skeptical attitude to all extraordinary claims. It’s served me well.
Short answer: AA can be good for some. It’s not for everybody, even everybody that has a drinking/drug problem.
Six of one, half-dozen of the other in virtually all cases. About a decade ago, an atheist in jail was ordered to attend AA meetings, and sued the state. Some of his evidence included part of the AA program that called upon participants to “turn our will and our lives over the care of God,” and recognize an omniscient “higher power.”
The New York State Supreme Court ruled in 1996 that AA “engages in religious activity and religious proselytization,” and “A fair reading of the fundamental AA doctrinal writings discloses that their dominant theme is unequivocally religious.” The US Supreme Court let this ruling stand in 1999.
I read a recent New Yorker piece (their website isn’t helping me out with a link) that discussed AA and mentioned some interesting facts, like the high rate of people quitting or relapsing. The story chalked that up to their insistence that people follow the program, including the spiritual content. Certainly people have been helped by AA, but it’s not the only way to sober up and it’s not for everyone.
Sorry, I should add that I don’t have experience with this personally. But I did want to respond to the issue regarding religion and AA because it does matter for some people.