AA Blog part 2: the colored text is my responses to comments about AA

The following is my interpretation of the AA program as experienced by doing the work out of the book from page 164 and prior. I do not speak for AA, due to its own traditions.

I postulate that it's NOT a disease because if someone comes from a family of alcoholics and does not drink, they don't become an alcoholic. You MUST START DRINKING to become an alcoholic. Last time I checked, consuming alcohol was a voluntary act. Teetotalers or potential hard drinkers! I'm a potential cancer patient so I choose to not smoke cigarettes! Do I get a cookie?!
Nope. I think it's stupid to get trashed, and idiotic to get trashed to the point of blackout. I don't do it, never did, never will. Well good for you! I choose to not get AIDS, Cancer, Diabetes, Obesity, Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimers, MS, etc. I don't do it, never did, never will! Shame on you sick people!
I'm sorry, but you have direct personal control over whether or not you put the bottle or the cigarette to your lips. It may take lots of willpower to overcome the urge to indulge in the addictive chemical, but the truth is that addictive chemicals do not go into your body by themselves. You have to put them in. You have direct personal control over this. I don't know about this. It goes contrary to my experience; maybe not yours, but mine. Oh, I know! The Devil made me do it! Shame on me!
We've known about the addictive properties of alcohol for who knows how long... over a century, I'd imagine. This is not even in the ball park. When ever you start a sentence with "We've known about..., it should contain fact.
It's a matter of using one's brain in a wise fashion. Oh, I love this one. So no smart or wise people suffer alcoholism or addiction. There's never been a architect or an airline pilot or a Big Corporation CEO or a Scientist or an etc. that been afflicted? That's a brilliant deduction. How about moral and richeous people? No priests or ministers or rabbis or Born-Agains have lost control of their booze or cocaine? Hmmm!
Not everything. For example, I caught chicken pox at age 9 and I didn't want that at all. However, nobody ever consumes alcohol as a result of anything else but their own free will. When was the last time you ever heard of an unwilling person getting alcohol shoved down his/her throat? More brilliant logic! I'd like to challenge you to a game of Sudoku.
What they DO do is ignore everyone's warnings about how usage of these addictive chemicals can lead to such lifestyles. Nobody who never took drugs ever became addicted to drugs. As far as being a prostitute... I know there is sex slavery in this country but most prostitutes are prostitutes out of their own free will. That is the way in which they choose to make their money. And if they do so because it's the only way they can feed their drug habits, see what I wrote above about how nobody who never took drugs got addicted to them. This is like the perfect continuous loop of brilliance here! This is good stuff!
If a person NEVER drinks, there is absolutely zero chance of that person becoming an alcoholic. The dangers of alcohol consumption are known to kids from a very early age. Good grief, they teach you about that stuff starting from like 2nd grade with "just say no" programs! If people would "just say no", there'd be no drug/alcohol/tobacco addicts!
So what you're saying is that if they had known that it WOULD happen to them, rather than adopting the traditional teenager attitude of "awwww, that'll never happen to ME", they wouldn't have started drinking? What would've been so bad about TRUSTING the people who told them "it could happen to you too"? My main problem with trying to "think through the drink" is that you're trying to fix a damaged mind with a damaged mind. It's something that is physical... allergy coupled with mental... obsession-I can handle it now, just watch me!
No teenager takes that first puff or that first drink TOTALLY unaware of the ills that those things can cause. They all just believe that "it'll never happen to them", and they'll be able to smoke only when they choose to or drink only when they choose to... so they'll never get addicted... right. What?
I was going to fully respond, but your reply is so loaded with irrational emotion, twisting of my words, personal attacks and general gibberish that you've made it clear attempting any discussion with you about this is pointless. Thanks for saving me the keystrokes. Oh, well I'm not the only one calling for more order in here!
the truth is that addictive chemicals do not go into your body by themselves. This one just gives me heartburn.
It sounds like the question we're all skirting around is whether alcoholism is a failure of the will or a physical disease. Sorry but a half-truth is not the truth or a lie. Alcoholism IS a physical craving coupled with a mental obsession. It's always both.
But I have a hard time getting around this: going to groups won't keep you from dying of cancer. It can, however, keep you from dying of alcohol. Nobody picks up a bottle and drinks up a dose of lupus. But lots of people cheerfully choose to drink alcohol. How do you know going to groups doesn't keep you from dying of cancer? It's worth a try, at least for the quality of life and getting out of your own head and helping another, which in turn my help you recover and/or receive a miracle. It can, however keep you from dying of alcohol. No guarantee there! If you're not an alky, sure! If you are, you'd better do steps too. But lots of people cheerfully choose to drink alcohol; yes, like non-alkies. Most alkies are baffled, especially in later stages of the ... allergy.
I agree with you. Do any of us enjoy being enslaved/addicted to our cars? Physically, we're too lazy to substitute that addiction for a healthier addicition to a bicycle, walking to the nearest bus stop, or merely walking to where we're going. I don't even know what to say about this; addicted to cars? Do you write George W. Bush speeches or something?
Some people turn to alcohol because of stress, depression, or anxiety. Maybe true. But it ain't alcoholics.
No one is forcing you to drink, smoke, eat, steal that. Do you want to go back and talk about Absolutes? There is a time to steal! There is a time to Kill! There is a time to beg! Show me the person without sin, then we'll talk about absolutes!
I am not an alcoholic myself, but I'd imagine that it's very easy to get sucked into alcoholism when life simply isn't going your way. Well I thank you for the compassion, but no. You CAN'T imagine. I can't imagine what an AIDS patient thinks/does.
People abuse it because it's there and because it's cheap. Be honest now; not just alkies abuse alcohol, right? Bums are NOT alcoholics, they're bums! They are bums because there are benefits to it. Any good alcoholic has a gift or a knack for rebuilding their live up, just to tear it down! A bum never rebuilds anything because they don't have to! Anybody can be a bum! Only an alky can be an alky!
I use my bike whenever it's possible to do so... except for now, since it's in the shop for the first time in the 16 years that I've had it.

The reason why people don't use their bikes is because on a bike, if you're in reasonable shape, you can average 15 miles per hour. "Going really fast" is like 25 mph and up. At 15 mph, you can cover 15 miles in one hour. Even if you're doing mostly stop-and-go driving, you can surely average at least 30 mph in a car and then you cover the 15 miles in a half hour. That leaves you with an extra 30 minutes to do whatever. Also, there's the issue of how you can sometimes only use certain roads to get from place to place. Where I live, there's one road going from my town to the town west of me because it crosses through a military base. To avoid the base, you have to go WAY THE HECK OUT OF YOUR WAY. So, naturally, everyone going from one town to the other uses the major highway... which is presently a construction zone where cars can still go 60 (read: they actually go faster than that). To ride a bicycle on such a road would be suicide.

When gas goes up to ten bucks a gallon, you can bet your boots that there will be many more bikes on the road. Off topic or wrong thread Alcoholism is a family affair. Drunks drink for the effect. Drunks do not care about anything or anyone except the next drink. Drunks donot care if the bills area paid, or if the family has enough food. They only care about the next drink. Drunks do not understand what they do to their children when they are drunk. The do not understand the embarassment and emotional pain they inflict on their families. They do not care. They want that fix, that next drink.. Genetics are only part of it, otherwise whole races would have died off by now. Alcoholics DO care. They rise remorseful and baffled. Some even kill themselves instead of drink! Who ever said an alcoholic has to drink alcohol to die an alcoholic death!???