I'm a Southerner and my family has lived in the same rural area for over 200 years. If there is a symbol to show the pride of being Southern, the confederate flag isn't one of them. Plain and simple. You want to show pride? Feed people who aren't from the South BBQ, have them listen to bluegrass, blues, or country,…

*crosses fingers* (please be sarcasm, please be sarcasm....)

Statistically true. But would you describe them as “studying”? The phrase in question was not “attending” it was “working the program”. To transpose (I hope correctly) you would say that the hypothetical slacker student was “very much pursuing a degree”.

The trouble with that is that it's very much an early-Enlightenment form of religious tolerance; you can have any faith you want, but you have to have one. I would think it would be obvious why that's offensive to the non-religious, but perhaps not.

That's like saying someone who attends class but never studies, never listens, never takes the test is going to school.

Scandinavian countries have such better justice systems than basically anywhere else in the world. They give prisoners laxer sentences and they experience much less crime. Keep your vengeful attitude to yourself and actually think please!!

1. Then that's a failure point of the system. When tracking the success rate of a given treatment you don't get to cherry pick your subjects. You have to consider everyone.

Anecdotal evidence is not evidence, and your anecdote does't align with actual facts.

Your stepfather got himself sober and stayed that way - why not credit him?

I'm not going to argue with AA. It did your step father a lot of good and the results are clear for you. But, an organization can be helpful, honest and well meaning, while still causing more harm than good. Or, they could be doing even better following scientific and doctor prescribed methods. It's not wrong to…

Actually, AA does do harm. Every time they tell someone they can't get clean without AA, it does harm.

The primary contention of this article is that it does hurt people.

My biggest problem with AA/NA and 12 step programs is that if I use other ways to stay clean, in the eyes of most members of AA I am NOT clean. This is a dangerous position to tell people who DO NOT find help in AA. There are many ways to get clean and stay clean, but AA wants it to be the ONLY way. This is the part…

You're correct. I've been sober since age 19, and have participated in AA all over the US. My experience with Boston AA was radically different from southern AA which was radically different from midwest AA and West Coast AA. Some groups/meetings/people have been phenomenal, and others have been a misguided cult run…

From my experience, the folks with more time sober get looked at often for advice. But what works for one person doesn't work for everyone. And it seems like the folks dispensing advice forget that sometimes.

It kind of sounds like the real problem with AA/NA is that each small group is under no oversight and control from a professional regulatory body. And the "leaders" do not seem to require to have any training or accreditation in addiction counseling. And so groups seems to run the entire spectrum of professional grade…

You're wrong.

I hit bottom with my alcoholism and and drug addiction about two years ago. I was desperate for help so I called the local addiction hotline. I was referred to the local health department. They sent me to rehab facility in the area. After arriving there, I was a bit confused with the curriculum. Being new to the…

Unfortunately the 12 Steps are highly explicit in the idea of 'surrender' to whatever power it is you choose, and their entire methodology is based on asking someone / some power for forgiveness and healing on the condition of total submission. AAA refuses to update their archaic language and their outdated book that…

My biggest problem with AA is the requirement to align with a religious state of mind. That organization requires you to align with a religion that identifies with a monotheistic God. Honestly, I'm agnostic. I guess I'm fucked if I developed a medically prescribed addiction or otherwise...