But it is a harmful lie to tell people, to drill it into their head again and again, the falsehood that "they can't do it alone." It is the ONLY way they will ultimately do it. When I quit drinking and shared my story (in print, no less!) with others, people came OUT OF THE WOODWORK who wanted to tell me how they, too, had quit all kinds of addictions,from cigarettes to cocaine to booze to pot -- TWO people even told me of quitting their heroin addictions, and these were people I knew, and hence knew they were telling me the truth -- without going through the 12-step program that you erroniously believe is the sole path to recovery. It isn't. You aren't doing yourself or anyone else any favors by trying to convince them that they are too weak to do it on their own. All that does is foster a false sense of dependency, of inferiority, of neediness.
I know for certain sure that YOU are wrong becaue I am proof, and I know other people who are proof, as well. The 12-step way isn't the ONLY way, and indeed, I think that while it certainly can work, it doesn't succeed for the reasons you think it does.
I never said AA was the only way to go. You don’t seem to understand or notice what I’m saying. The alcoholic s way of doing things is what brings him to his knees and being so driven to near insanity and alone they’re chances of become sober alone are almost nil. And AA doesn’t lie and I take offense at that. Ours is a program of rigorous honesty and constant moral self-inventory, some people are capable of that and some aren’t, those are usually the ones who fail . AA doesn’t see anyone as ‘’weak’’, only powerless over alcohol. Our steps are suggestions as a means of recovering and you feel AA isn’t for you, your misery can be refunded at the door.’’ The 12 Steps of AA are a set of principals, , spiritual in their nature which practiced as a way of life can expel the obsession to drink and enable the sufferer to become happily and usefully whole’’. AA has been success since 1934. It’s been a success around the world for that matter. In fact AA 12 Steps are used by every addiction group from gamblers to narcotics. I’m proof of that. When you quit drinking, did you change the person you were when you drank? You’re a success? So am I, for 21 years a day at a time. The 12 Steps work, again, because of rigorous self-honesty.