Alcoholics Anonymous Exposed: Addressing the Critics | Responding to the AA Cultists

The truth about AA: addressing my critics. Alcoholics Anonymous is the program that fails.
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 in 1913
Video opinion of creator only not to be taken for medical advice

Transcript

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There is a tsunami of commenters from the AA propaganda machine. How wrong I am in suggesting that Alcoholics Anonymous is a failed program. So today I'm addressing you, AA commenter, and I'm gonna show you why your rebuttals have absolutely no merit whatsoever. Stay tuned as I hit the AA method back. Interestingly enough, when I had my first self-help channel on YouTube, the best performing videos were largely the published ones on how to rid oneself from the addiction of alcoholism. And I point blank declared that Alcoholics Anonymous was not the route to follow if one wanted to change his status from that of an addict to one of a restored and fulfilled human being. As expected, when one turns his boat against the tide, there will be resistance, usually heavy backlash. And that was the case with these videos, which became the foundation for these episodes today. Many remarks told me that I was right on point from their own experience with AA, but others were outraged. How dare I? Comments were frequent. Who was I to knock 100 years a protocol? Which is ironic since the majority who enter the doors of AA, they fail. It became apparent to me that the next endeavor was not only going to be in the realm of self-help, but how to recover from the addiction of alcoholism as I've been recovered for now 17 years. A status which I defiantly call cured, challenging the AA mantra that one is never cured but always in recovery. And I also declare that the entire method of AA needs to be completely reconstructed if they want to have high success rates. So came the advent of my anti-AA works. And like my original videos that were published a few years ago on the matter, the responses are the same from the AA propaganda machine. This is nothing I didn't expect. If one's gonna row against the tide on social media, one can expect a severe reaction. The battle cry from their largely failed program remains to ring. You were never a real alcoholic. What do you know about AA and your whole two meetings to judge? AA has helped millions of people. This is the most successful time-tested program to date. The members who failed refused to follow the program. My life is great with AA. Why don't you just do your own thing and leave AA alone? You're dangerous to others' future sobriety. These mantras remind me much of a Christian fundamentalist cult, as I also have a channel as a non-specified theist, closer to a Jew than anything else, on challenging Christian doctrine and apologist claims by someone who left Christianity years ago. Here are some of the responses I get from fundamentalists. You were never a real Christian. Christianity saved me. Christianity is time tested for 2000 years. Why don't you just do your own thing and leave the apologists alone? You're under the influence of Satan. Do you see my point? So now I'm going to address these cult-like comments from the AA bullhorn, and I'll easily show why their content has no merit. For just because something's been done a certain way for a hundred years doesn't mean it's correct. AA could be a wildly successful program if they would change its methods. But it remains to adhere to a protocol that largely fails. It fails because of the mentality of AA exhibited by those commenters. First, let's start with AA has helped millions of people. I'll contend that it doesn't help as many as it fails. By a lot. There is one study from Stanford that claimed that the AA method helped the majority who entered its doors. I'll be doing a separate episode on this study, as the brief overview I've done so far points that its research methods and sample taken is questionable at best. Because all other consensus shows that the success rate of AA is dismal. You cannot argue that fact. If Alcoholics Anonymous was a business, it would be out of business. Regardless of their reasons why, the sad fact is the program fails most. A smart person knows if he's engaging in something that isn't working, he needs to change his methods. That goes for business, side hustles, or whatever one is pursuing. The Einstein definition does hold here. Continuing the same method and expecting different results is insanity. But AA is adamant that their way is the only way, but yet they fail most of the time. Step back, commenter, and think of the illogic of your assertion. Which leads to their second argument. The people who fail do so because they don't follow the program. They don't start the steps. They don't get a sponsor. This argument also falls flat. People come to AA because as of today, AA is where most people are directed. They know they're in trouble with alcohol, but those who are aware know what's being presented to them by AA is not going to be helpful. They see the minority who are 10 years sober now addicted to the rooms. They see the members guzzling caffeine and sucking the cigarettes to ward off the cravings, which should have been long minimized. They hear cult-like mantras, much like those in fundamentalist churches, and they don't see this program as beneficial, so they walk away. The problem is now the AA recruits who leave don't know what to do. The only support group they see resembles a cult. They leave a meeting feeling more cravings and negativity than when they entered. That's how I felt when I was 11 months sober. When I investigated the meetings in the rooms, no one is there to present them a better alternative. Non-12-step programs are having more success, but they aren't mainstream yet. I hold that one day they will be. But the fact that the group Passages has a much higher success rate, not engaging in AA protocol, negates the contention that the reason people fail is because they don't follow the AA method. The founder son of this group failed multiple times with the traditional route of recovery. He succeeded with an alternate method. So did I, and we aren't hostage in the rooms every night long after we beat the addiction. Let's go back to the mantra AA Helps Millions of People argument. We already established they fail most, but let's talk about the minority who stay sober. How AA helps them is a matter of great debate. Physically, AA is unhealthy. I'll judge that by all the smoking in the room, sugar cookie consumption, and caffeine intake. Not to mention, if you're in the rooms most nights, you aren't exercising. In the meetings I attended, there was not one person who was long sober whose afterwork life wasn't AA. It is absolutely ridiculous that people are in meetings most nights at 10 years sober. They should be physically active and emotionally tranquil by now. And the fact is, the AA member isn't. If you're a year sober and feel like you can't continue to live in sobriety without AA, then you have a psyche problem now. You are afraid to live on your own. AA may have kept you sober at the expense of your emotional freedom. I'm sure there's an exception to the rule somewhere, but that is the exception and not the rule with AA. This contention makes AA cringe with rage, because it is coming from someone who has been sober for nearly two decades and did it without them. Just like the fundamentalist church seethes when one states he's a Christian yet has no need for their church. Most humans are sheep by nature. No one likes a sheepdog who walks alone with enough fortitude to ignore the flock. So the counter from AA will be the third point. You were never a real alcoholic. You were never a chronic alcoholic. What a bunch of self-absorbed BS. First, let's address the word chronic. I drank from 18 years old, my first real drunk at a high school graduation party. 22 years passed before I quitted at age 40. The last 13 years I would have considered myself a quote real alcoholic. And so would anyone else who lives in reality. Which addresses the next point. What is a quote real alcoholic? An alcoholic is someone who can't stop drinking, someone who has to have it by the end of the workday or goes into withdrawal. Some can't even make it through the day without it. And as all of AA members know, as well as non-AA recovered alcoholics, this addiction is progressive in nature. No one starts out a real alcoholic. It starts a few nights a week, but maybe only heavy consumption on the weekends. It will wax and wane. Then it may progress to every night, but not excessive intake every night. It waxes and wanes some more. Then the day comes where the intake is in the alcoholic realm every day. My first real hangover was a result of about six or seven beers and a cup or two of vodka. I didn't touch alcohol again for a week after that endeavor. From 18 to 22, I would never have been able to consume an entire 12-pack. By the last year of my alcoholism, I was drinking about 12 to 15 beers every night at 150 pound body weight. That number increased on the weekends where I drank literally every waking hour. When I quit, I went into acute post-alcoholic withdrawal. I'm sure I don't have to explain that nightmare to those who've been through it. I had severe cravings every day for about 45 days from my last consumption. Does that sound like someone who wasn't a quote real alcoholic? All of you commenters saying that are flat out deluded. Plain and simple. No doctor would agree with you. What it really comes down to is you can't comprehend that someone went clean without your rooms. And you despise that fact because you don't know how to free yourself of them. That's it, and that's all. Then the AA will fire over the bow that my experience is limited with their program. You went to a whole two meetings. You didn't even attempt the 12 steps. Who are you to say anything? First of all, alcoholics were rampant growing up with me. Uncles, cousins, and immediate family. Second, I was involved in open meetings for family members via my once alcoholic brother, who by the way also dropped AA as non-helpful after a few years. I've known many AA members. I've studied your big book thoroughly as well as your 12-steps mantras and protocols. I've talked extensively with a few of your sponsors, and more importantly, even a non-alcoholic can read the stats of a massive failure rate in your program. Anyone can see your program doesn't work for most. Again, that's most AA. Second, even if I didn't have all this contact with the AA family, I wouldn't need it. If you are an aware person, it doesn't take much to see the absolute toxicity of your meetings. Do you think I would need a year of meetings to determine that the Hare Krishna's are a cult? It didn't take more than two times in the rooms to see the cult mantras of your organization, the high authority platitudes of this is the only way. The obvious fallacy of method that indoctrinates one into thinking he is 10 years sober and still needs to be in the rooms five and six nights a week. The fact that everyone is smoking in an agitation every night due to the negativity and constant rehashing of their past. As far as not starting the 12 steps, apparently I didn't need them. I'm 17 years clean. Most who enter AA will never be able to claim that. Which will lead to the fourth comment I usually see. My life is going great with AA. You need AA to learn how to live. Also followed with, you're just a dry drunk. What a massive delusion. First, if all your time is spent in AA, if AA activity is your life at years sober, you aren't living, you're just existing. Think of all the things you're missing in life because of the center of your life is AA. My god, many of you won't even go on a vacation where there's no access to the rooms. Again, you aren't physically healthy with your cigarettes and you're not emotionally healthy because you're afraid to live sober on your own. Let's compare that existence to my life. I'm engaging in physical fitness two out of every three days. Most of you aren't exercising at all. I'm engaging in yoga and tai chi two out of those three days. You're sitting in a circle regurgitating your past in fear you will return to it. I'm progressing my life, trail walking all over the world, engaging in activities like these episodes, and am in constant state of advancing every aspect of my life. You're spending all your off time in the rooms. For myself, cravings for alcohol and thoughts about alcohol are almost non existent today, and if they do occur, are very minimal in symptoms and transient. Many of you are still fighting cravings after years of sobriety, unaware that the very methods of AA's constant recovery are actually causing them. So, no commenter from AA, I don't buy your life is going great. I buy that your physically and emotionally unhealthy life is now just your new normal. So why don't I leave you alone? as a final comment point from AA. I don't hate the AA member. I abhor the organization, and I feel sorry for these commenters. I hope my endeavor can rescue as many of you as able. I'm not leaving AA alone because AA is destructive to people. It wouldn't have to be if it would just change its protocols, especially in light of these recent and budding non-12-step programs who produce better results than the AA method. For ask yourself, AA member, what other program do you actually know? What alternate method did you attempt? Did you ever actually get on a physical fitness and emotional program? Did you ever quit smoking and engage in a healthy diet with minimal caffeine and sugar? Did you ever address the rebuilding of all your planes? The physical, emotional, career, and spiritual. Most of you didn't. You were captured by AA in your weakest condition. You didn't have any other option that you knew of, so blindly listened to your 10-year sober sponsor who must know, so you followed his lead, just like the Krishna's capture many in their weakened states of mind. Then years went by, and pretty soon you were chanting their mantras as ingrained truths. You never thought outside of the AA box again, if you were in the minority who stayed sober. I'm not gonna leave AA alone, because I'm on the other side of the fence, and it is such a better pasture to graze on. All those who went non-12 step and are now sober today know exactly what I'm talking about. The AA members, don't. But if you would open your mind and begin a holistic recovery program that I describe here and in other episodes, a year later you would realize that Alcoholics Anonymous was not only not your friend, but a closet enemy that is stealing your life by placing you in its prison. And me, I'm offering the key to walk out of that cell into the sun of a renewed life and full recovery. And if you want some more reasons why AA is not a healthy way to advance to recovery, check out my playlist card at the end of the video. And check out my own guidebook on how to recreate your own life on all holistic planes. Reinvention of self, how to change your life and being forever. Link is on the video description as well as the channel page banner. And remember, you made the contract, so keep it. Be sober at sundown, and I will see you at the next sunrise.