AA has about the same success/failure rate as other outpatient addiction support groups. Don't be fooled when they tell you it's spiritual and not religious, it is religious. Any time you mention "God or God as we understand him", prayer, Christ, and end meeting with the Lords Prayer, it's a religion, christian religion. If you've read their literature you should note that they are to "tolerate" the heathen until they come around to the godly way of thinking.
That being said, I attend AA meeting's where, for the most part, god is not discussed except as a nebulous higher power (ick, even that sticks in my throat). It's kept me clean for a few years now. Not sure if I still need it and not sure if I don't. Just know I don't want to go back to using so I still attend.
And yes, it can be viewed as a cult, especially when people take it to the extreme. I avoid those people like the plague.
Every group that I attend regularly knows that I'm an atheist. If they start to fuck with me, they either get an ear full or one of us walks out.
I'm on the fence about people with legal troubles being forced to attend meetings as part of government probation/parole primarily because AA is religious. I know the courts have stated that a convicted person can refuse to attend on religious grounds but in my state their only other option would be to do the time. Most pick the lesser of two evils.
That being said, I attend AA meeting's where, for the most part, god is not discussed except as a nebulous higher power (ick, even that sticks in my throat). It's kept me clean for a few years now. Not sure if I still need it and not sure if I don't. Just know I don't want to go back to using so I still attend.
And yes, it can be viewed as a cult, especially when people take it to the extreme. I avoid those people like the plague.
Every group that I attend regularly knows that I'm an atheist. If they start to fuck with me, they either get an ear full or one of us walks out.
I'm on the fence about people with legal troubles being forced to attend meetings as part of government probation/parole primarily because AA is religious. I know the courts have stated that a convicted person can refuse to attend on religious grounds but in my state their only other option would be to do the time. Most pick the lesser of two evils.
Being told you're delusional does not necessarily mean you're mental.
