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Politics : Actual left/right wing discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (2947)	10/17/2006 8:25:48 AM
From: Keith Feral	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10087

Generalizations are observations for feeble minded people like myself. IMO, society has placed alcohol on such a pedestal, they think it is impossible to give up unless you have a problem. Of course, this reinforces the reluctance of people to stop drinking. In our society, people assume that you are an alcoholic if you stop drinking. The only organization in this country to help people stop drinking - AA - calls all of it's own members alcoholics. They promote the attitude for people to think they have a disease so they keep coming back to get better. The 12 step program is one of belief and faith to turn their lives over to a higher power. It is used by many people wishing to let go of alcohol, narcotics, gambling, weight loss, and many other addictions. It really isn't about drinking. The recovery process is about letting your faith in a higher power replace your ego. It has nothing to do with whether a person drinks too much or not. Let me clarify one point. The 12 steps has nothing to do with money. However, AA encourages $1 donations at each meeting. It is all about surrendering your life to a higher power. This is a very powerful process that does work for millions of ex drinkers that have used the program to stop drinking. The thing that people didn't know walking into AA is that they were entering a religious conversion. No one is preaching at them like Billy Graham at the Crusade, but the effect is the same. Most people that are successful in working the steps to stop drinking become born again believers in a higher power. It's kind of surreal that this whole process is condemned to small rooms in churches where ex drinkers have to sneak off to talk about their new lives. I believe in the 12 step process for people to dedicate their lives to stop drinking. I also believe that AA is the only program to teach people these 12 steps. It's very uncomfortable to sneak into a church to avoid being seen by anybody that you might know. People start getting real uncomfortable any time you are in a conversion environment. Once you start turning over your life to a higher power, these people are capable of sacrificing everything as they listen to the word of God tell them what to do with their lives. Once you get to that point, the experiences and confessions of the recovered alcoholics may be even more intimidating than their self described tales of destruction with the bottle. It becomes almost of a jihadi sacrifice to totally commit yourself to helping other drunks start the recovery process. When God starts to speak, most people don't want to stop to listen. Helping other people is the exact opposite of what you intended to do in the first place, which was to get your own life in order. Nope, it's not at all like fulfilling your wildest sexual fantasies if you choose to hang around a meeting and drive some person back the bus station across town so they can make it home from the meeting. Helping people is a royal pain in the ass.