Has anyone had any experience with integrating some of the 12 steps with using the Sinclair Method?
I'm just wondering is there any healthy point to me doing a step 4 resentment list, if I am not actually doing the 12 steps.
Is there any benefit?

If you were to use TSM to become sober and then use the moral support of AA to maintain your sobriety, sure. People often fail on AA because they can't resist the cravings; TSM can get you to the point where cravings are reduced or negligible so AA can finish the job. It's not what I'd choose for myself--if sobriety is your goal and TSM is reducing your cravings, why not just continue on TSM until you stop drinking altogether?--but there's no reason it shouldn't work.

I'm not convinced the twelve steps themselves do anything that wouldn't be better done by the intervention of a competent therapist, though, particularly if you're not religious.

I can't imagine what the point would be. Statistically, AA simply doesn't work, so what exactly are we trying to salvage from it?

Some people who've done time in AA are afraid to drop it completely because they've been threatened with "jails, institutions, and death" if they leave. Somewhere in the back of our minds, part of us fears that they were secretly right all along. They don't have facts on their side, but they do control the channels of information, so we keep hearing about AA as if it were an established, successful thing.

Why are you thinking of doing this?

People aren't statistics, though.

I think that if anyone at all has a shot at benefiting from AA, it would be someone who doesn't really find it that difficult to abstain, who gets a sense of accomplishment and responsibility out of regularly attending meetings and such. Again, I'd recommend just sticking with TSM and letting your existing support network handle that, but diff'rent strokes.

I thought it may help with the underlying reason I drink


But now in not sure
I'll have to tell fellow aa members tonight

Sorting out the underlying reason why you drink is going to be much easier during and after the TSM process, when you are no longer physically addicted. It is likely to be some combination of enjoyment and habit, along with the physical addiction.

AA originated as a cult, and it still uses many cult-type techniques. I highly recommend reading the information compiled at this site: http://www.orange-papers.org/

You don't "have to" tell fellow aa members anything. You can tell them as much or as little as you want about your life and your choices.

Thanks for the link

If you tell fellow AA members, they won't try to understand. They'll just tell you that TSM is an "excuse" to keep drinking (when did an addict ever need an excuse?), or else just smirk knowingly while saying nothing significant.

It baffles me that anyone goes to AA without being spurred by legal or familial pressure. I guess it might be okay for someone who already believed in God as AA understands him.

No one needs a 'program' at all. This is a 12 step cult invention to keep the cult alive in spite of the people it's dogma helps to kill. People die an emotional death in AA everyday ... every time they hear "rarely have we seen ..."

We are a powerful animal and should use our power to help ourselves and others. Unfortunately, damaging brainwashing makes this very difficult for those with a 'head full of AA.' AA does not just ruin your drinking, it ruins your entire life.- CounselorChick

Your reception at AA will be chilly if TSM and DRINKING are discussed. The ONLY plan there is to NEVER drink again. Think Hare Krishna. It matters not if you drink or don't , either way you're going to feel like a loser, and will be petrified of ever "relapsing".




You our empowering yourself with TSM, not disempowering yourself through AA

I agree Guapo well said