News, Cold Turkey Isn’t the Only Route.

[Pawporri]

Originally Posted by McGowdog

Because I could pretty much never drink sensibly, dating back to when I was 10 years old. Complete abstinence for me. I've proved this fact over and over and over again. I drink insanely and quickly blackout, then continue to drink until I somehow crash into a wall. I'm lucky to be alive many times over.

Good question. Being drunk is attempting to achieve a higher state of consciousness. Many folks can drink and pretty much remain sober. They don't even seek to get drunk and they can pull that off, time after time after time. They do get drunk once in a while and they suffer and recover. Must be nice.

Good for you on staying sober. I'm not really interested in how exactly you got sober so long as that worked for you. Neither am I going to preach to you my method but my method is most important to me. If you are curious how I got and stayed sober, we'll rap about it.


Yeah, I did google that and found what I expected. A gal named Monica Richardson was there, another A.A. hater. I can direct you to a site by one "Massive" who is a lady who was in A.A. for about 30 years, met boy in A.A., he got sober and was moved to leave her. She got extremely mad at A.A. and joined forces with one Agent Orange, an anti Christian who set out to lie about A.A. by telling a series of half-truths, thus lies. To say A.A. would allow and/or condone sexual preditors and bad conduct is not true in any way. Could you be sitting next to a sex offender? It's surely possible. What can A.A. do about it? Tell the courts to stop sending violent criminals to meetings? A.A. will not fight with the courts about it but cooperate with the courts to try and sort out the folks who truly are alcoholic and can benefit being there. Some folks go out of their way in being nice to folks who need a hand and need reform. I have family who works for law enforcement and the courts with regards to criminals including sex offenders. The reality is that some of these folks are dangerous preditors who manipulate, groom, and con their way into situations where they can perpetrate on young innocent victims. Part of the problem is the woman or man who would take these sick and twisted folks into their home. Sometimes these sick and twisted and dangerous perpetrators come from within the family themselves and it takes other sick folks to turn a blind eye to it.

But so what? To pin these goings on to A.A. is irresponsible. Let's blame A.A. for D.U.I.s and murder too. One Stanton Peele came up in that article too. He makes money off of drunks and it's easy to see why he would be opposed to A.A. But at one time, he had backed one Audrey Kishline who was the founder of Moderation Management, right up to the day she decided to get a little too Moderate by drinking herself to the point of a 0.26, and then drove her car drunk and killed a man and his 12 year old daughter. Their spin on the ordeal? She had been a bad girl, got sentenced to A.A. (another half-truth type lie too because what actually happened was the judge said, "A.A. or jail, guess what she chose?), so it's A.A.s fault that she drank alcoholically again.

No, these folks have an axe to grind with A.A. I think it's mainly because A.A. is a big headache to big pharma which all comes down to money.

Good. A.A. is not running a membership drive. If you can get and stay sober without A.A., do it. But it is my firm belief that real alcoholics like me should get sober and abstain from booze no matter what. Drinking is unacceptable behavior for an alcoholic period. If you see an alcoholic drinking alcoholically, don't marry them.

EXCELLENT POST, DOG. AND TRUE.

Can you imagine being in a cult that gets people sober for life so they can
return to their community as productive citizens who don't go out and
kill people in drunk driving accidents or other convoluted schemes ?

AA is accused of brainwashing its members. When I came into AA
I was in desperate need of a good "brain wash" since my brain
surely did not work very well when I arrived.

[McGowdog]

You head-nodding drooler you.

Thank you btw.

[georgia dem]

Originally Posted by Jerseyt719

I'm not a fan of AA. I think it fosters just a different codependency.

I haven't seen one mentally healthy person go through AA.

I apologize if I offend anyone trying the program. If it helps, all the best to you.

I have been sober 15 years in AA
granted there are a whole lot of sick folks in there not remotely working the AA program from the big book
AA is not for everyone does not claim to be it is for folks who want it
frankly I could care less if no one likes AA
it has worked quite well for me
so I will keep doing what works
by the way I am a double winner
I also have Al anon for the co dependency
that program works too for the ones like me who work it
feel free to stay out of AA
trust me we are not out beating the bushes looking for drunks LOL
and if some one wants to drink a little or a lot that is their business not mine
I was a sober bartender and met real social drinkers you can not get them drunk LOL
their ice melts their beer gets hot they have to think if they want another drink
I find them bazaar!!!
today being sober is as natural as it can be

[georgia dem]

Originally Posted by PatrickMd

AA didn't work for me - that was after 6 years in the program, 2 sponsors and going through the 12 steps twice.

I concluded that it was all a pile of crap and way too religious (nothing remotely spiritual about it). And, ultimately, I didn't believe in a higher power.

These days I choose to drink socially, (and very moderately) haven't got drunk in 5 years, the last time was when I was in AA.

sounds like you did yourself a favor not going to AA
why mess up a good thing, right
do you think folks in AA give a rats ass because you left?? trust me you are not that important LOL

[McGowdog]

No axe to grind with that fellow. He wasted 6 long years in A.A. Isn't there a courtesy counter somewhere that you can get your misery refunded?