Jim Clark wrote:
Odd, AA almost endorses smoking "Nobody ever got driving while smoking", yeah but emphysema and lung cancer are pretty nasty diseases.
I don't want to step on anyone's toes, because I know that some people absolutely adore AA. I however, think that AA is an outdated, religion-based relic that should fall to the side like Freud and Jung; awesome ideas for their time, but very ineffective compared to modern wisdom and techniques.
There are so many slogans, catch phrases, cliches, rhyming mantras... every person I've ever known in AA, ends up just sounding like one of those dolls with a string in their back, regurgitating scripted answers to every question one poses. Now granted, considering the fact that AA has been around since like 1935, it is going to pick up a lot of baggage, interpretations, and personal angles. But in general a 10-12% success rate... joining a good quilting bee might very well have the same 10-12% success rate.
But, I've never been to an AA meeting, so I hate to judge so harshly. I truly admire anyone with the courage to face their demons head on, with nothing but will power between them and failure. That is one meaty struggle, if you ask me. Standing ovat' to anyone who found success through AA.