The Real Reason Alcoholics Anonymous Fails at Stopping Cravings | And What Actually Stops Cravings

Does a never-ending want and cravings for alcohol have to be a part of the rest of your life once you give it up? In this video, I explain how my methods keep those cravings at a very minimal and transient level, contrasting it with the approach of Alcoholics Anonymous. For anyone navigating alcohol addiction recovery and the challenges of alcohol withdrawal in the short and long term to rid oneself of alcoholic addiction.
BOOKS FOR RECOVERY AND REINVENTION

THE SMALL BOOK: HOW I BEAT ALCOHOLISM AND WHY ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS DOESN'T WORK.

THE SHEPHERD AND THE RUNNINGWOLF: A PATH TO FORGIVENESS ON THE PACIFIC CREST TRAIL

REINVENTION OF SELF: HOW TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE AND BEING FOREVER

John Barleycorn taken from Jack London's book John Barleycorn. First published 1913

Transcript

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Does a never-ending want and cravings for alcohol have to be a part of your permanent life once you give it up? My methods keep those cravings at a very minimal and transient level. But continuing to go to Alcoholics Anonymous, that strategy will keep the cravings with you for life. Stay tuned and I'll explain why. Anyone who has been through the initial, as well as a long protracted alcoholic withdrawal, which lasts up to the two-year mark, is well familiar with alcohol cravings. As a matter of fact, it's the craving that causes most to be unsuccessful in their attempt to rid themselves of the addiction forever. After all, it was the constant crave for the addicted substance that kept them in its grips for many years. During the initial acute withdrawal phase, I remember very clearly not being able to comprehend being without alcohol for a week, let alone the rest of my life. I had been in the chronic phase of alcoholism for 13 years. During the last five of those addicted years, there wasn't a time when I wasn't working that I wasn't drinking. All physical fitness had ceased as my boxing gloves had gathered about an inch of dust. Because like every addict, I'd become addicted to alcohol to the point where if the supply was disrupted more than a day, the cravings would ensure the route to resupply be re-established quickly. And I don't think the last couple of years, those liquid lines were ever disrupted. Then suddenly, out of the blue, you end the friendship with John Barleycorn. Unfortunately, the cravings don't end with him. The first five days they are secondary to the physiological sickness that follows the cessation of alcohol in the acute withdrawal phase. No one forgets that walk through the lower level of the inferno. Acute alcoholic withdrawal was probably the worst thing I've ever been through in my life. It wasn't as much the craving as a want to just stop the tsunami of sickness that had encompassed me. I walked through the fire alone, which I don't recommend, yet managed to make it through to the other side. Many will be in rehab of some sort, during this acute phase, where it's ensured they complete this god-awful first phase of recovery. But it is after the acute withdrawal that the cravings drive their stakes in, and it is the craving which will cause most to be unsuccessful in staying sober, especially in the second phase, to 30 to 45 days, in the third phase to six months. But even after the two-year protracted withdrawal phase is completed, the point where I say you can claim cure, cravings will at times raise their horns. For even though I claim you can be cured, Johnny B always wants you to return to his leopard's camp of disease. And I thoroughly believe that the methods of Alcoholics Anonymous will lead you right back to that very terrain. My methods to cure will keep you walking on the trail of holistic health far away from his established land. Most fail in their attempt at recovery in the early phases of alcoholic withdrawal, what I call phase one and two. The five-day acute withdrawal is phase one. Phase two concludes somewhere between that 30 and 45 days as said, and the next phase concludes at the 6 month mark. They say that you have a good chance to stay sober if you can make six months. They're probably right. But many fall off the wagon of sobriety even after six months, because of those cravings. The former alcoholic believes he isn't strong enough to battle Johnny Scent minions for the rest of his life. What he doesn't realize, because the AA recovery isn't properly orchestrated, is that with a healthy holistic recovery program that I offer, he won't be battling cravings for the rest of his life. The recovery program I propagate will eventually minimize cravings to almost non-existence if he can make it past those first few months. AA's program actually induces these symptoms of wanting your old friend back. First and foremost, there is no easy way to get through the first six months, whether you're in the rooms or following my program. If you've been addicted to a substance for years, you can't just expect to feel fantastic a few weeks after you give up that substance. And when people are three months sober and realize they don't feel fantastic, is when the urge to return to that familiar friendship surfaces. If people knew that there were mileposts where the cravings would lessen as they passed them, they would be more inclined to just continue stepping forward. But AA's methods don't reveal this to them. Their protocol keeps them in a cycle where its members are walking in a continuous circle of physical and emotional negativity instead of progressing their way forward to a better and cured life. By understanding the phases of cravings, one can not only see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, but can learn how to handle these symptoms in the interim. Because like the recovery, which is a phase-by-phase process in my method, so is the decrease of these symptoms of want. And unlike the AA program, my protocol minimizes these symptoms, not increases their frequency and intensity. The initial cravings in the second phase, from the end of the five-day acute withdrawal to approximately 30 to 45 days, the intensity and frequency are at the very worst. The frequency is almost continuous and the intensity is at high levels most of the time. Your mouth will water for the prior offending substance, most of your waking hours. At this point, you are fighting for your life. Literally. I don't even tell people to start a physical fitness program at this point, meditative program, or structured diet. At this time of initial recovery, you create a short time or calendar to day 45 and you do whatever you have to do to mark these days completed toward the end of this second milepost. Whatever additives you need to fight off these demons, you use. For you have the rest of your life to transform to healthy lifestyle after this phase. But you must get through this second tier of recovery first. Most people fail here because of the intensity of these cravings. This is the point where I would actually recommend hiding in AA's rooms as a temporary measure. I don't recommend adopting their methods, getting a sponsor, or starting their steps, all of which will lead to your lifelong imprisonment in their rooms. But one doesn't realize how surrounded by alcohol one is until he suddenly quits it. Every bar sign, neon light, advertisement, and billboard sends that shockwave of want into your system in this phase. The best place you could be is in a rehab center for 30 days, in which some will reside, but most simply can't afford that or can't afford to be off work. So you work in the day and hang out in the rooms at night until the second phase passes. Holistic recovery isn't your goal in this phase. Checking off the days until you reach day 45 is the one and only focus. And you have to put in your mind that these symptoms are temporary if you follow my program long term. It will not be like this forever. 30 to 45 days is the worst of it before the tide slowly recedes. You have your contract with yourself from the first day you put the bottle down for good, and you have to put in your mind that you're going to resolutely follow it. As I've said in other episodes, you have to develop the willpower to follow through. If you're a weak person, there's nothing that says you can't become a strong one. But there isn't a soft solution during this second phase. Either you develop the willpower to follow through, or you go back to being an addict. That's it, and that's all. After the second phase concludes, holistic recovery begins. The cravings will still be there, but you'll notice the frequency and intensity is decreasing. And you should celebrate this fact. For if you just defeated 30 plus days of continuous symptoms with maximal intensity, you can defeat intermittent symptoms with less intensity. You begin to see your power over alcoholic cravings not the other way around. And this is the point where Alcoholics Anonymous completely drops the ball. After one would complete the second phase, they continue to smoke at the breaks in the rooms, continue to guzzle caffeine, and ingest those endless sugar cookies. They do this to ward off the cravings. Ironically, the makeup of their meetings will induce the frequency and intensity of those very symptoms of want. Sugar, caffeine, and nicotine will, by an alter effect, make you crave alcohol. Read any medical journal if you don't believe me. And the negative reinforcement in those meetings will lead to a negative mindset, which also induces cravings as your neurochemistry is programmed to deal with the negative with alcohol in the recent past. AA is literally setting themselves up for failure in the battle to defeat these cravings. And the majority who lose that battle end up returning to being addicts of alcohol. This is why, in my guess, they fail so much. And this is why I state that after the second phase ends, at approximately 45 days, the former addicts should begin the holistic recovery program. This is where I would start decreasing the sessions of the rooms in lieu of going to the gym. Physical fitness activity alone will decrease the frequency and intensity of cravings. AA protocol increases the frequency and intensity of cravings and endorses poor lifestyle, physically and emotionally. Adding an emotional program of yoga and other meditative activities to your physical fitness program also decreases the frequency and intensity of cravings. Telling your story every night in the rooms will have the opposite effect. By six months, if you are using AA's rooms to hide, you should be completely out of their grasp by now. By now you should be physically fit on an emotional meditative program, engaged in a healthy diet, and smoking should be a thing of the past. You will find that the intensity and frequency of cravings will now be reaching the minimal states toward the end of that six months. But if you ask an AA member at six months how he's doing, he will tell you he's still smoking, still fighting off cravings, and still sitting in the room six nights a week. That would be the minority who haven't gone back to John Barley Corn. After six months is when, if you're engaging in the healthy lifestyle described above, the cravings will really begin to abate. At times you may have an intense one that may last for hours. But you now have been through this so many times that you write it like a surfboard which goes over an approaching wave. And those intense episodes will begin to be few and far in between. That won't be so for the AA member who is still inducing cravings every night with those additives of sugar, caffeine, and nicotine. Not to mention they're destroying their health and not exercising while sitting in those rooms every night. Is it any wonder so many from AA don't remain sober? Because they reside in an environment whose methods literally push the want for drink in every meeting. But the question is, will you have cravings after my proclaimed mark of cure at two years? Short answer is yes, but infrequently now. There are certain triggers that will, at these infrequent times, induce intense, hours lasting cravings. Once I was working in the corner of a Thai boxing event in Thailand, after the fight, I had a craving that matched one of my first 30 days in recovery, that mouth watering type. I think the event ignited my old neuroprogramming of my own Thai boxing fighting days, where I drank heavily. It lasted for about four or five hours. But I knew it would fade as I had had so many cravings by then I defeated since the day I made the contract. And it did. Every once in a while, I will have a trigger that induces this type of response. But most of the time, I don't. The huge majority of the time, like in the 99 percentile frame, I don't think about alcohol at all. What about events and get-togethers where alcohol is abundant? I usually drink a soda water with two limes at these outings. Most times today, I don't even have cravings at these occurrences. Initially, after the protracted two-year mark, sometimes I would, but they would be minimal to moderate in intensity and the duration would be about the same, an hour or two at most. But the more years that pass, the less these symptoms occur. The holistic lifestyle I keep mentioning in my episodes are responsible for these very transient and minimal symptoms today. Progression of self also keeps cravings at bay. Simply put, when you place yourself in these states of positivity and progression, the mind doesn't need an escape from life. And that escape is why we all began drinking to begin with in our earlier days. Most of the time today, at around 17 years sober, the cravings are incredibly infrequent and transient. And when I say transient, I mean the symptoms last a minute or two, and maybe once every one or two weeks. I haven't had an intense one due to a trigger for well over a decade. And I attribute these minimal symptoms today to my physical and emotional program of recovery, and the fact that I continue to engage in activities to progress my life in all planes. I'm not thinking about alcohol when I'm thinking about my next stock pick or my next episode. There are no thoughts of a renewed friendship with John Barleycorn when I'm engaged in my 15 minute zen meditation routine or when I'm on a trek to Machu Picchu. My overall point is that this holistic program will defeat these cravings. Going to AA will induce them. Their meanings will induce them physically and mentally. This is why their program needs to be reconstructed from the ground up from the methods that Bill and Bob introduced long ago. It isn't a healthy existence to engage in unhealthy practices that bring the very cravings they wish to avoid. If they would adopt my methods and use the rooms as more of a temporary measure, their members would have much less of these cravings, which by axiom would lead to higher success rates in sobriety. But they won't. They have become too much of a cult to listen to reason. And as long as they avoid reason and refuse to consider a return to holistically healthy life, they will continue to have abysmal success rates. I'm offering a way out, a way to cure, a way to healthy living and progression of self, a chance to become a better being than you were even before you picked up that bottle long ago. And if you follow my method, you won't have to worry about the relapse, which they state is part of recovery, for the cravings will eventually lie down next to that long-dead corpse of John Barleycorn. Now, if you want some other reasons why AA is destructive for you, check out my playlist card at the end of the video. And check out my own detailed book on the matter, The Small Book How I Beat Alcoholism and Why Alcoholics Anonymous Doesn't Work. Link is on the video description as well as the channel page banner. And remember, keep your contract. Be sober at sundown, and I will see you at the next sunrise.