The Dark Side of AA? Responding to a Fierce Defense. This Commenter Shows What is Wrong With AA.

This episode directly addresses comments from a long-time member of AA, responding to their perceived facts about the program. The AA member vs. reality of their poor outcomes.
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

Content opinion of creator only not to be substituted as medical advice  

Transcript

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Periodically, I will get comments from the longtime proponents of Alcoholics Anonymous. And there was one recently from one who spent almost four decades in the rooms. He not only states I'm wrong on all fronts, but he goes forth to present what he perceives as facts to prove it. So I'm gonna respond to his rather lengthy comment with a full episode and show you why when Alcoholics Anonymous members give you what they perceive as facts, they're not only not facts but complete untruths. And here we go. A week ago, I received a comment from my article titled Alcoholics Anonymous is Broken. Here's the cure. The real reason AA doesn't work. It was from a one Charles Strome, if I'm pronouncing that right, who is an active member of Alcoholics Anonymous. He states he has been sober for 38 years as a member of AA. I'll just post his comment and thanks for the article idea as I'm gonna respond to his key points, which are the same points every proponent of AA gives. And here it is. How unconvincingly arrogant. Be like me. Or in your own words, this is the program I created for myself, and now I have a holistically healthy life as I follow that program today. Everyone, former alcoholic or not, should follow this program to gain the best version of themselves as possible. But that's not the way life works, is it? Telling others to just change and be like you and hoping for the best. It's harder than that to quit an addiction. Mine was to alcohol. I couldn't stop drinking. I didn't know there was anyone else as bad off as I was until I was taken to my first AA meeting. That was over 38 years ago. AAs were millions of alcoholics all over the world go to learn how to live a sober life, not just to quit drinking. We all did that hundreds of times, only to quit again the next night. But that is just the first part of the solution. You called it a cure? Okay, fine. I'm cured for today, and if I don't drink again, I'll probably be cured for tomorrow, if I get there. That's why we call it one day at a time. Trashing AA is going to bring in clicks for you, I don't doubt it. But at what cost? At delaying treatment for those addicted to alcohol? Nah, not for me. I read somewhere that AA doesn't work. Some of those people may die of this disease just because the anti-AA concept said that AA didn't work for him. In the unlikely event that some desperate alcoholic has read this so far, please remember that Charles Strom sees this in an entirely different way. AA works. Please contact me if you need help finding a meeting in person or online. And then he states that he'll even go pick him up, which is nice of him. And he ends it with, I think I'll convert this to my next post. As he is a writer for the concept of Alcoholics Anonymous. And that concludes his comment. Okay, Strome isn't a fan of the anti-AA concept. And what is sad about this is he is a Vietnam vet. I'm also a vet, but I don't compare a few grains of sand and Kuwait for a short period anywhere near to what those veterans went through. So let's not go to his blog and trash him. He doesn't deserve that. But brother Charles, you are on the wrong side of the fence here. Coming from not only a fellow veteran, but former alcoholic. First, he states in his comment that my title is clickbait. Well, Charles, we aren't writing articles not trying to get people to read them, are we? We use the best titles we can to draw attention to our subject. Real clickbait is just putting a title or picture out there to draw people in that may not have anything to do with our content. I formulate the best titles I can to get people to read my stuff. Every writer does. And second, you posted your own writing on my article, and that's fine, I'm not that petty and we'll keep the comment. And he's probably already written his response article, which he said would follow his comment. Way to use someone else to try to funnel people to your own work. But not a big deal, I'll let it stand. Now we decipher if what he is actually stating in the comment is true. I equate die hard AA members to fundamentalist Christians. It is the same snarl in responses once challenged about why the world is only 4 to 6,000 years old and that Noah's Ark was real. Those responses are cult-based in those churches and never based on actual facts. Just like the senior members who sit in their rooms night after night. And I'll show you one by one in his response why what he is saying simply isn't true. Okay, he calls me arrogant for a program that I created for myself in which I was cured from alcoholism. I have stated that every person, whether alcoholic or not, should exercise. Every person should have a clean diet. Everyone should work to calm their mind. Strome would like to portray me as if I'm just putting out some wild buy my programs feel. My information is free, I've stated that. I have stated that yes, I have several books, one on alcoholism and one on how to reinvent your life, as well as a few others. Those links are in my articles and on my YouTube. But I also say that one can get all the same information for free if he collects enough articles or video episodes. But who else agrees in my proclamation that every person should engage in a healthy holistic program? Every medical doctor. Every doctor in the mental health field, too. I didn't create this brainstorm idea that exercise and proper diet with meditative work is good for you. It is a well-known medical fact these activities in clean diet are good for you. I'm just promoting that fact to also help recovery from alcoholism. Your AA does not, Charles. Your members sit in the circle, smoke at the breaks, and ingest caffeine and sugar through the meetings. Did you know, Charles, this actually induces cravings? Do you ever wonder why most members in the rooms fight the want for friendship with John Barleycorn even after years of abstinence, and I don't? It's because I follow this holistic program. You better believe I'm telling others about it. Then he propagates another standard untruth coming from the rooms. The AA helps millions with alcohol addiction. Sure, you can get a millions number if you take every person who walked through their doors since the 1930s when AA was founded, but neither he nor anyone else in the rooms account for the tens and tens of millions who fail to stay sober in AA. Because the rooms have a two-thirds to 90% failure rate depending on who you read, outside of one very flawed data collection study from Stanford years ago. Your program doesn't work for most Charles, and that's it, and that's all. Telling me why it doesn't work is irrelevant as well. Because I know the rebuttal, Charles. You'll say it works 100% of the time for those who work the program. That's like saying the NFL coach whose team is losing every game is doing so because they won't follow his playbook. The problem is the coach isn't reaching his players, and AA is not reaching the majority of the members. You might have a given cause if it was the minority using AA that wasn't staying sober, not when it's the vast majority who fail with AA tenants. Then he further cements why AA fails so much. The one day at a time remark. The idea that I know I am sober today and that's all. That is total nonsense. We were both former alcoholics, Charles. How come I know I'll be sober until my death and you're advocating this one day at a time nonsense? Because it goes back to my program that holds such disdain for you. I recreated my life and you spend it sitting in the rooms, living in a disease that you don't have because someone brainwashed you with that doctrine decades ago. Then he accuses me of someone possibly being responsible for someone else dying because of his addiction to alcohol. Charles, no one can cause another person to drink. No one else can stop them from drinking either. Not AA, not Smart Recovery, not the church, nor other family members. There is one person who is responsible for his or her death from alcoholism, and that is the person who kept putting the bottle to his or her lips. It is a choice, not a disease. There was a 10-year-old nephew of a friend of mine in the Philippines who just died from cancer last week. He had a disease. He didn't have a choice. The alcoholic has the choice every day to not put that bottle to his lips. He has the choice to drink a club soda with two limes at the party when everyone else is drinking alcohol. He has the choice to not walk into the liquor store. But in terms of odds, well we do know that 80% or so chance of not staying sober exists, if one chooses the AA method. It could be argued that AA is indirectly killing people right now by telling them the method to stop drinking is a method that has been proven to be a failure since the program began. AA doesn't just not work for some Charles, it fails the vast majority. I have yet to hear a proponent of the rooms be honest with this fact, and it is a fact, not my opinion. But the sure sign of a cult member is ignorance of facts over the agenda of the cult. Charles Strome proves my point in the cult-like manner in which Alcoholics Anonymous operates. We were both alcoholics. The difference is Strome still thinks he is one. He is almost four decades sober and still living in the rooms. He thinks he's living with a disease. Me? I haven't had more than mild and transient cravings that last more than a few minutes since two years clean. I had one large one that lasted hours at year five, and that was the only significant one. Those cravings were even greatly reduced by six months sober. Because I reinvented my life, Charles. I don't think about alcohol, I know I'll be sober until the end. The AA proponents react to my life with a snarl because they don't have it. They don't have it because they never recovered. They think their recovery is ongoing forever. This commenter was brainwashed in a program that largely doesn't work because there were no other alternatives at the time. I bet Charles doesn't even know that Bill Wilson actively participated in seances and believed he channeled spirits to advise him in his created Alcoholics Anonymous. Who stated that? His own wife, Charles. This program was created by a cult leader and remains a cult today. That is why it largely doesn't work and keeps those in a prison the few who actually do stay sober. I would like to see a side-by-side study of those who gave up drinking. One group engages in holistic recovery. They begin fitness, clean diet, and meditative activities. They solve their usually traumatic past with counseling or self-study. They advance every aspect of their being continuously. The other group, they go to Alcoholics Anonymous. I don't know what the results would be for the holistic group because we have never engaged in such a study to my knowledge. Most are immediately sent to AA. I would like to see how many would stay sober if they reinvented every aspect of their beings. But we know what the results of the AA group would be. We have witnessed these outcomes for almost a hundred years. And those results are a catastrophic failure. Now if you found this content helpful, go ahead and follow along and subscribe. And for my condensed version on how I beat alcoholism without the rooms, check out the small book How I Beat Alcoholism and Why Alcoholics Anonymous Doesn't Work. Link is in the description, usually free on KDP. And remember, keep your contract, be sober at sundown, and I'll see you at the next sunrise.