Given your perspective, would you rank AA as a cult after reading this? (page 2)

Hortensia

Thanks for sharing that link. Lots of interesting stuff about Synanon -- I remember when folks were going to EST and Synan and the Moonies. It just made crazy people crazier. As a new ex-JW, fresh out of the org., I remember a distaste for all that crap but I didn't have the understanding yet to see why it was all wrong. and dangerous.

JeffT

Sigh.

AA saved my life, my marriage and my relationship with my family. If you don't like it, don't go. Keep drinking if you want, we don't care. Nobody has any monetary incentive in AA, I've been involved in several groups and after we paid rent on the hall and bought our coffee there wasn't anything left. And all of us tried to quit and haven't been able to do it on our own. There is a significant genetic factor to the disease. Our bodies process alchohol and other addictive drugs differently from normal people. If you are not an addict you quite literaly cannot understand what it is we go through.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2442454/

Shirley, nobody leads an AA group.

Nathan, being on the road can make it very tempting to drink. Looking up the local group is likely to help.

PS I've read that article several times. It reads like a Watctower article about why catholics are wrong or some such. If I felt like expending the time and energy I could make that say JWN is a cult. Speaking of time and energy, who is A. Orange and why does he/she/it have such a hard-on for AA?

transhuman68

Yes, AA has some cult-like characteristics, but look at the upside versus the downside… a person’s sobriety can be very important to them- affecting their employment, marriage, health, licence to drive etc. The stakes can be very high, and I for one wouldn’t try to get anyone out of AA. They can find out themselves, and try something different if they don’t like AA, but I wouldn’t tell them unless they were struggling with sobriety in AA. So yes, maybe it is a cult; but maybe also a necessity for some people, at least for the time in their lives when they need it. …

ShirleyW

Jeff T - Since I'm not f amiliar with the meetings at all I don't know the correct terminology, but the sisters husband is a counselor or whatever they call it, there was an AA meeting place in my nabe where her husband used to "lead" or "counsel" the folks at their meetings.

designs

There are levels of involvement, I helped several people get started with AA and NA and it did them good. Some have stayed active as counselors and others moved on but have stayed sober. I got bored with the repetition and moved on but it helped in the beginning.

If you have someone in your circle that needs help let them check out a meeting or one of the conventions, the conventions are very powerful and you hear some remarkable stories of recovery.

The speaker at the PowWow convention in Palm Springs a few years ago still resonates- the vision of a woman in a full body cast being shoved into the back of a pickup truck by her drinking partner and heading off to a party to get blasted ought to be in a movie. She recovered and went on to get her law degree.

Nathan Natas

JeffT boasted, " If I felt like expending the time and energy I could make that say JWN is a cult."

No you couldn't. I double-dog dare you.

JeffT

Shirley, it's not a matter of terminology. AA does not have people who lead or people who consel, no matter what you call them. The meeting secretary does nothing more than get the meeting started on time, introduce the chairman and handle a few announcements. Most groups rotate the position every three months. The chairman is a different person every week, just a speaker who talks about their own experience for ten minutes or so to get the meeting going, and then calls on members of the group to share their own thoughts.

The group itself is run by the consensus of its members. Every group is autonomous and free to run its own affairs within very broad guidelines. Which is why I tell people not to judge AA by one group. If you don't like one, go to another one; they can be very different. There are also meetings just for men or women, and specifically LGBT friendly meetings. Many of us have problems unique to some background of our own.

Was your friends husband a licensed counselor? He might have been leading a support group seperate from AA. Or he could have been a sponsor, although that only involves helping one person who has asked for his help in gaining sobriety. A sponsor only has no authority, he can only make suggestions, and the sponsee is free to pick somebody else anytime he wants. I had three my first year of sobriety and we're all still good friends. It's also possible that he was meeting with several sponcees at once (not usually pracitce, but done sometimes just to get everybody together). If so that was not an AA meeting.

Finkelstein

It sort of acts like a persistent cult intensionally to keep a close attachment to the members.

In doing so they can monitor the members progress.

There is some religious teaching/counseling as a means to again help people out with this kind of substance abuse.

Certainly not in the same league as Scientology, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons etc. .

ShirleyW

Perhaps he was a sponsor, have no idea, all I know is he used to to do "something" their maybe he's the one who had the key to the door, everytime I used to pass by their always saw the car, and like I said since I'm not familiar with the meetings are terminology I guess he was sponsor. According to this Sis since he was at the level to help others (or whatever it's called in AA) he used to "help out" (or whatever it's called) the folks at the meeting place.

I don't know your age Jeff, but something I found interesting that she shared was when AA used to hold dinners back in the 70's and 80's ("or whatever it's called in AA) at certain venues the program listed a GarryM as the MC for the various events, do you remember Gary Moore from "I've Got a Secret"? That's who the MC was, he was involved with AA himself.

JeffT

maybe he's the one who had the key to the door

quite possibly. That guy and the guy who make the coffee are the really important ones, although if they don't show up you can meet in the parking lot. Or the coffee shop down the street.

FYI, I'm sixty-two, the 29th marked eight years of sobriety and involvement in AA.

Given your perspective, would you rank AA as a cult after reading this?

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