I noticed a statement about this in the FAQ section, and thought I would describe the position that was told to me by Alcoholics Anonymous's General Service Office. It also helps to understand how AA is structured.

AA isn't a single organization. It is actually thousands of small clubs that all receive their publications and general direction from a central organization called the General Service Office, or GSO. The small clubs aren't in any way lead or organized by the GSO, the GSO just provides them with materials and general direction.

It is against GSO policy to say anything one way or the other about any treatment for alcoholism besides the twelve step AA method. In a very real way, the GSO does NOT exist to provide help for alcoholics, it exists solely to encourage and supply the twelve step AA method. If that happens to actually help alcoholics, that's all the better because it encourages more people to try the twelve step method. It's like the old joke that humans are a virus's method of making more viruses. It sounds backwards, but one of the things that the study of memetics demonstrates is that ideas are like that. If we aren't careful, an idea can become more important than the people it's supposed to be serving.

The individual chapters are exactly that - individual. They get all of the central organization that they're going to get from the GSO. They don't influence each other much, and they vary in quality and philosophy considerably. Some of the chapter leaders that I've talked to have told me that they would consider it, but really I think that the primary issue is that actually drinking is anathema to everything they teach. That one issue has prevented the majority of people I've talked to from trying it.

So the AA is in the position of being a blind competitor, an animal without conscious guidance. It's been happy and unguided largely because it has nothing resembling reasonable competition. It's complacent in its superiority, and it sees no reason to change. I don't know what it's going to do when the Sinclair Method actually starts to threaten it.

P.S., here is a copy of the post that I made in the Int Ice forums on June 8th, 2006 after my phone call with AA. I wish I'd remembered to write down her name.

Robert,
I'm really not surprised . AA is about AA .

I know some good people from AA - but my experience was a nightmare. I was at an all time low. A predatory company I'd gone into partnership with put my highly successful business, out of business. A crooked contractor who cost me 100G above his contract was sueing me for even more. I was ending a 32+ year marriage. I was drinking heavily, and decided to go the AA route to help get me back on track.

I took two hard falls on ice, and was in a great deal of pain. The Dr. prescribed pain meds and muscle relaxers. Over the holidays I started drinking again, not even thinking about the effects of the combination of these pills with alcohol. One night I was home alone, drinking, and became so despondent that I was very, very seriously considering suicide. The thought of doing that to my children was the only thread that kept me from putting a shotgun to my head. Instead, I called my AA 'sponsor.' She told me that she couldn't help me, since I'd been drinking. So I called another 'friend' in the program - and got the same response! Here I was, home alone, drunk and seriously suicidal. . .and these 'good folks' wouldn't so much as call 911 to save my life.

I called a friend who drinks. She came immediately to get me, took me to her house, and babysat me for three days while the pain meds and alcohol washed out of my system. Thanks to her, I survived.

I never stepped inside one of those 'rooms' again - and God willing, never will.

An awful experience made worse by people no doubt reacting as programmed.
Their get out is always "take the best and leave the rest " which is possible for those who are balanced and well integrated . For the rest its a nigh impossible task surrounded by what goes on there . Anyway you sound very clear that you won't go back . Same goes for me .
I once had someone who cut me off and told me to get back to the step they were
discussing . That was my last visit EVER.
AA is about AA !

I probably have over 20 years of AA sobriety though how I am to accredit a non-drinking day to AA, I don't know. But I am intimately familiar with AA. And if I had not discovered the SM, I would probably have returned there. But this forum is about the Sinclair Method. There are many foruns about AA and if you are interested in that topic, I would suggest you go there.

Sorry , I won't do it again . It can tend to be a rather fruitless polemic bashing and defending .
However how tsm is seen by AA ,as the press as the medical corps deserves some place ?

SR, you have a point. But so do we, and it does relate to TSM in that many people will be conflicted/confused about trying TSM when the alcoholic 'church' (AA) members consistently insist that their way is the only way to accomplish sobriety. While there are many, many good people who have been helped by the organization, it is still just an organization filled with (some flawed) people. . .and those trying to decide if they want to try this method just might benefit from being reminded of that fact.

My interest in AA largely stemmed from trying to figure out how "spectacular" TSM's claim of 78-87% was, and later when I was looking for people who might consider TSM to be valuable. Value is always comparative to other similar things. I could sum up what I discovered while researching their organization, but to be honest, The Orange Papers do a much better job of it.

I mostly try to keep my statements about AA to be factual, but it's purely factual that I found them to be tremendously disappointing and dishonest at an elemental level. Some proponents claim 100% success rates, and it's true. AA works for 100% of those that it works for.

But I won't deny that AA is something that works for some people, and that nothing works for everybody. I'm really looking forward to a decent large population study of TSM just so I can see how it stacks up.

I would like to interject here and say that discussions about AA and other treatments are perfectly welcome here, but I'd ask that they not be used to hijack threads about other topics. I'm not saying that has happened (I haven't looked) - I just don't want it to.

That is all. Carry on...