If you’re an alcoholic, did it help you to stop drinking? It helped me for a short time, but not permanently. After about 2 and a half years of continuous relapses, I finally just stopped going. I don’t want to go back now, because I never really got much out of it, but the same problems still arise with my drinking.
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It didn’t work for me, or any of my friends or family.
you are the one who needs to be effective,,,,sounds as if you are looking for another crutch…
It didn’t work for me either. Hearing about alcohol made me want to drink even more. And,,,hearing some of those stories made me feel like I dind’t belong because they were much more serious then my drinking was (people running into houses because they were drunk, etc.)
You get out of AA what you put into AA. Addictions are very difficult to conqueror by your self. If I were you and I really wanted to quit– I would go back. But that’s me man. If you are going to quit then commit!
AA has changed my life but not until I was willing to actually make the changes that the program suggests. I am willing to say that you have not done all 12 steps with a sponsor who has continuous sobriety. You will only get as much as you put into it. “Half measures availed us NOTHING.” I don’t mean to preach but it didn’t work because you didn’t work it. AA is the #1 program, world wide that saves Alcoholics from a life of misery and brings us back to productive citizens. I know…I have 17+ years. Go back to the meetings, find people that you can talk to, do whatever the program suggests and do it 100%. The rewards are Beyond your wildest dreams. Good luck…I hope you will consider it.
Given the need to quit, a good sponsor and a lot of effort u can quit drinking at AA, I have.
it will be very effective just apply your self and follow the steps and you can do it if it didnt help anybody here its because they were lazy and didnt apply themselves.
Dear truth full to be Honest with you the program is just their for those who choose to use it and believe in it. I don’t believe in it myself because it didn’t work for me either, as a matter of fact I had to go through the court system. But my point is this if you choose to drink your going to drink, Nobody or no program can make you stop drinking but your self look deep into your soul and ask your self what is it that I want to control my life me or alcohol.
I know few people who have successfully quit drinking by attending AA meetings. But those people attend at least one meeting, 6 days a week, and up to 3 meetings a day around holidays and personal anniversaries. The meetings and AA really consume their lives. I know several people who quit drinking through sheer will power, including me. My experience, and belief, is that to quit by oneself may be harder in the beginning, but is more freeing in the long run. It seems the latter group, quit drinking, quit obsessing about drinking and move on with happy lives. What ever you choose, I wish you the very best on a difficult, personal journey.
As a dry alcoholic I must say this in defense of the A.A program, you only get as much out of anything and everything as you put into it. I have ben dry over twenty years and still active in this program. My husband has ben dry over thirty years (nearly half of his life) and still active too. We both agree that A.A is the first thing of any lasting value either of us ever found in our life! I have heard him(my husband) say A.A. was the first thing he ever found in his life that he could really believe in. He started on a voluntary basis and I started , not because I thought I had a problem but to al anon to try to understand the program better. After attending a few meeting I to realized I too had a drinking problem and started going to meeting with him. To close this rant when you get sick and tired of being sick and tired go back ,listen and learn. There is help there for you if you really want it!!!
I’m a lawyer and also currently studying for a MSW degree. In addition, I am a former “alcoholic” who quit drinking 11 years ago.
In rehab, they told me that AA was the only way to quit drinking, so I went to AA for several years. I’ve attended literally thousands of AA meetings, worked the steps several times, had a sponsor, sponsored a couple dozen others, was GSR and treasurer of several groups and even started an AA women’s retreat. I was very involved for a long time.
In the end, however, I don’t think the program had a darn thing to do with my long term abstinence. I found the social support helpful at the start, and it was great to have something to do with my time besides drink. But I did not find the program’s notions of “powerlessness” useful, and I certainly never bought the idea that God, not me, was responsible for my sobriety. I also couldn’t stand the sick behavior that went on all the time between members. I can’t tell you how many vulnerable newcomers I saw exploited for sex or money! It was constant. Just as terrible although not as typical was the practice of telling mentally ill people to stop taking their psych meds (you do NOT want to see what happens when someone with bi-polar disorder goes off their lithium, I can tell you that for sure). In the end, I quit the program in total disgust. I lost all my AA friends when I did this, but I feel much better about myself now that I am free of them. In many ways I feel that I spent several years of my life in a cult.
Worse, I’ve been spending a lot of time doing research on the effectiveness of AA. I’m reading study after study, and there is no consistency. Some studies find that it helps, others find that it has no effect at all, others find that in some situations it is actually harmful. And even the most favorable studies make clear that it doesn’t work for everyone.
Which is why it is a mystery to me that the medical community has rallied around AA so strongly. 95% of treatment facilities use the AA/12 step model even though it has not been clearly shown to be effective. It’s amazing. It’s hard to imagine a treatment for any other condition being so universally used when its efficacy is so questionable.
One thing that studies do show pretty consistently is that most people who quit drinking do so on their own, without treatment or the use of any support group. The most important factors involved in quitting are being married and employed.
There are also numerous support groups out there that do not follow AA’s “powerlessness” model. These include SMART Recovery, LifeRing, SOS and WFS. For those who don’t like AA but do feel that a support group might be helpful, these other choices are readily available on the internet and face to face in some areas.
When I got sober there really wasn’t any other choice. And, in my opinion the choices today are limited and unrefined, but at least they are non-spiritutual and going along the right lines.
In my opinion, AA has some advantages and some very big disadvantages. I think real problem drinkers are helped by contact with others who share the same goal of abstinence, it can help you get physically sober and keep you reminded of your goal thereafter. On the bad side, the 12 steps were a forgiveable error to make 70 years ago, ie. the idea that an alcoholic must hand his life over to whatever god he thinks there is and keep doing so for the rest of her days…or drink again. This premise is thoroughly disproven and the rest of the steps only support a religous approach which ought to be offered as an option to those that way inclined and not implied as mandatory, which they are. Worse, while people who really want to stop driinking will do so with the support of AA members and will feel better for all the praying and confession, this falls very short of dealing with any underlying problems that underpinned the drinking behaviour in the first place. That’s why many AA’s get sober but go from one unhealthy activity to another and never really grow up, eg. shopping therapy, gambling, sex preoccupation, overeating, over working, not working and so on.
My own drinking became a problem in its own right, but it also simply reflected a chaotic and naive thinker, which I was left with once again when I put the drink down. I chose to leave AA to try and be open to other solutions. I personally use Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy, authors would be Albert Ellis, Windy Dryden and Paul Hauck. And I recommend smartrecovery.org for people in the process of stopping and looking for support. Though none of this is perfect.
I do go back to AA very occasionally because, as well as the unsavoury characters, there are a lot of people there I like and miss from time to time – plus I like to wind them up with my views.
I wish you well with your efforts