alcholics anonymouis it a cult, religion, or a self help program?

[gseeker]

Alcoholics anonymous seems to be very popular and I've had people get in my face before when I unthinkingly called it a cult. What do you think, cult, religion, or self help or maybe you can define it better than that.

[Odion]

Why would it be either a religion or cult?

[mycorrhiza]

Originally Posted by Odion

Why would it be either a religion or cult?

I guess because the method used by AA is based on monotheistic spirituality. I'd still say that it's self-help, though.

[Levite]

Self-help. Way too many alcoholics are helped to get sober by AA for me to want to dismiss it.

That said, I will say that I have occasionally encountered AA members whose embrace of the tenets of the program is so zealous and absolute that I wonder if they have not simply replaced their alcohol addiction with an addiction to the program instead. But I think that's more a question of the individuals, not the program itself.

Seems pretty benign and open, to me.

[Revoltingest]

I want "All Of The Above".

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Originally Posted by Levite

Self-help. Way too many alcoholics are helped to get sober by AA for me to want to dismiss it.

IIRC, their own statistics are inflated, since they publish their success rate for people who have completed all twelve steps. People who leave partway through and go back to drinking aren't reflected in their success rate.

Originally Posted by Levite

That said, I will say that I have occasionally encountered AA members whose embrace of the tenets of the program is so zealous and absolute that I wonder if they have not simply replaced their alcohol addiction with an addiction to the program instead. But I think that's more a question of the individuals, not the program itself.

Seems pretty benign and open, to me.

I think that AA probably does work for some people, and I think that in something like addiction recovery, it's good to have as many different options as possible. However, I worry about AA being marketed as the "default" option for addiction recovery, or 12-step programs being the only option available in many areas.

I'd really like to see non-religious addiction recovery programs like Secular Organizations for Sobriety be offered over a much wider area and for many more people to know that they're out there as an option.

[Quagmire]

I think it depends on what you do with it.

[Levite]

Originally Posted by 9-10ths_Penguin

IIRC, their own statistics are inflated, since they publish their success rate for people who have completed all twelve steps. People who leave partway through and go back to drinking aren't reflected in their success rate.

I'll take your word for that. I wasn't really thinking of statistics, just the sheer number of recovering alcoholics I've met, and who my colleagues have met, in the course of pastoral work, who got sober through AA. As a matter of fact, I have a colleague who himself went through AA. And another colleague who runs a Jewish recovery institute in Los Angeles who went through a Jewish AA/NA program himself before going to rabbinical school and beginning to help others.

Whatever the precise statistics are or ought to be, it seems inarguable that there are quite a lot of alcoholics in recovery thanks to AA or the programs AA has inspired as a model than there would be without AA.

[fantôme profane]

There is no evidence, other than anecdotal evidence, that AA has any positive effect in helping people with addiction to alcohol. That being said I see no major harm in it as long as it is voluntary.

I object to courts or even employers that require people to attend AA meetings. Because although I would not declare it a religion or a cult, it clearly does have features of both.

My vote for the poll is "none of the above"

[jasonwill2]

Originally Posted by gseeker

Alcoholics anonymous seems to be very popular and I've had people get in my face before when I unthinkingly called it a cult. What do you think, cult, religion, or self help or maybe you can define it better than that.

I think it's retarded that they require a belief in a higher power to help you. Perhaps that higher power is yourself? And really the "higher power" concept is just a way to externalize your own power into something that isn't self-conscious of it's own failures?

The power comes from within in my opinion, the gods are merely the inspiration.