Alcoholism Support Group
Alcoholism is the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages, even when it is negatively affecting your health, work, relationships and life. If you think alcohol is causing you to lose control, it's time to seek help. Our group is a safe place to vent, check in, get back up if you fall, and reach sobriety.
I have found that many inquire to the nature and structure of AA as it relates to being a cult.
I come from a very religious background and have found nothing in AA that would at anytime incourage me to turn my back on my own deeply held personal beliefs.
But if it is a cult, then shame on them for helping me to find a way to a happy, healthy solid sobriety.
So what if it is a cult? Does it matter. By some peoples defination believeing in mathmatics or science would be a cult.
If it is a cult then I have no problem claiming to be a memeber of a cult. It beats being a memeber of the imprisioned, the institutionalized, or the dead.
Cult life has done wonders for me. It has given me tools to deal with lifes problems. It has taught me that focusing on others will help me in my efforts to have a higher quality of life than what I had while under the influence of alcohol.
Cult life has also taught me that there will be those who can not, as a result of their own power of choice be able to grasps the principles of a simple proven program.
The simple program is based on honesty. There are those who lack the capacity to be honest, they are not at fault, they seemed to have been born that way. There are incapable of grasping a way of living which demands rigourus honest. There are such unfortunates.
So some people can not or will not be able to get sober using the AA program's principles.
So what? They may be able to obtain sobriety through a different means. I think it is wonderful it they can.
So if AA is a cult, then a wonderful cult it is. It worked for me and for countless others. I will not take it personally when someone derides, slammes, or put down a program like AA.
In fact, I think it is marvelous that some who claim to be sober using other programs, find it a needed part of their recovery program to be so bitter to another recovery program. It actually offers me a degree of solice that I made a powerful choice to work the AA program. I would have felt rather worn and sick if the AA program required me to disrespect others religious, non religious, or otherwise different methods to recovery.
Is AA a religious cult?? It may be. Does it change the fact that I am sober for the first time in my adult life? No!
I come from a very religious background and have found nothing in AA that would at anytime incourage me to turn my back on my own deeply held personal beliefs.
But if it is a cult, then shame on them for helping me to find a way to a happy, healthy solid sobriety.
So what if it is a cult? Does it matter. By some peoples defination believeing in mathmatics or science would be a cult.
If it is a cult then I have no problem claiming to be a memeber of a cult. It beats being a memeber of the imprisioned, the institutionalized, or the dead.
Cult life has done wonders for me. It has given me tools to deal with lifes problems. It has taught me that focusing on others will help me in my efforts to have a higher quality of life than what I had while under the influence of alcohol.
Cult life has also taught me that there will be those who can not, as a result of their own power of choice be able to grasps the principles of a simple proven program.
The simple program is based on honesty. There are those who lack the capacity to be honest, they are not at fault, they seemed to have been born that way. There are incapable of grasping a way of living which demands rigourus honest. There are such unfortunates.
So some people can not or will not be able to get sober using the AA program's principles.
So what? They may be able to obtain sobriety through a different means. I think it is wonderful it they can.
So if AA is a cult, then a wonderful cult it is. It worked for me and for countless others. I will not take it personally when someone derides, slammes, or put down a program like AA.
In fact, I think it is marvelous that some who claim to be sober using other programs, find it a needed part of their recovery program to be so bitter to another recovery program. It actually offers me a degree of solice that I made a powerful choice to work the AA program. I would have felt rather worn and sick if the AA program required me to disrespect others religious, non religious, or otherwise different methods to recovery.
Is AA a religious cult?? It may be. Does it change the fact that I am sober for the first time in my adult life? No!
We're still waiting for one to show up.
And all this time, I thought it was armadillos!
if you look up definitions of cults in dictionaries it doesn't match AA.
Just in case anyone was wondering.
it isn't.
I am serious-I would actually be in a cult in which virgins WERE sacrificed in order to stay sober.
Who needs virgins anyhooo, so dull and holier-than-thou acting.......
If it is a cult, though, it's the lousiest-run one there ever was. No one is in charge. No one tells anyone else what they have to do. No one gets thrown out. No one is forced into it. No one seems to be really sure how or why the hell it works. Above all, no one tells anyone else what, if anything, they ought to believe or believe in. Some cult.
Any group has elements of a cult. Sports teams and Rock Star fan clubs for instance. Generally, cults have an individual as a leader. Remember Jim Jones?
The membership assured that would not happen when in 1950 they voted that AA would be based on principles, not personalities.