Alcoholics Anonymous and Drug Addiction

[John V]

Though you won't hear very many people actually admit it, there is this all-pervading attitude amongst AA members that AA is the ONLY WAY TO STAY SOBER. They claim that if one stays sober without AA, they are not actually sober but rather a 'dry drunk' (a dry drunk meaning someone who abstains from drugs but does nothing to change who they are or their behavior outside of drug use) because there is no way to be sober AND be happy without 'having the steps in your life.' It's as if people in AA CANNOT fathom being sober with a '12 step program,' and that anyone who is sober without the 12 steps of AA is not actually sober but rather a dry drunk. I am aware of secular based sobriety groups and have heard AA members speak of certain groups with a sort of disdain and lack of effort to even attempt to understand any other sobriety 'program' besides AA.

Yep, some people who find happiness in AA after the nightmare of addiction go a little overboard cheerleading for it. It's not an AA thing, it's a human thing. There are atheists here who need to think that Christians are all miserable, sexually repressed, etc. A lot of people grow out of it. Some don't.