(October 21, 2014 at 2:00 pm)alpha male Wrote:Quote: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.
I wasn't claiming that this was strictly an AA thing, I was talking strictly about how AA members feel about people who get sober without AA. Obviously many different groups of people in society tend to think in a righteous manner about their ways of living. But yes it's interesting... AA is a nonprofit group but their whole pitch just leaves you thinking, "ok what's the catch?"
“Love is the only bow on Life’s dark cloud. It is the morning and the evening star. It shines upon the babe, and sheds its radiance on the quiet tomb. It is the mother of art, inspirer of poet, patriot and philosopher.
It is the air and light of every heart – builder of every home, kindler of every fire on every hearth. It was the first to dream of immortality. It fills the world with melody – for music is the voice of love.
Love is the magician, the enchanter, that changes worthless things to Joy, and makes royal kings and queens of common clay. It is the perfume of that wondrous flower, the heart, and without that sacred passion, that divine swoon, we are less than beasts; but with it, earth is heaven, and we are gods.” - Robert. G. Ingersoll
It is the air and light of every heart – builder of every home, kindler of every fire on every hearth. It was the first to dream of immortality. It fills the world with melody – for music is the voice of love.
Love is the magician, the enchanter, that changes worthless things to Joy, and makes royal kings and queens of common clay. It is the perfume of that wondrous flower, the heart, and without that sacred passion, that divine swoon, we are less than beasts; but with it, earth is heaven, and we are gods.” - Robert. G. Ingersoll
