The Classic Reply to "How Does It Work?"
Just fine, thank you . . .
Okay, here's a bit of illumination from someone who's reached at least junior grade guru status (more than 25 years of continuous sobriety). Only thing, assuming you've got a drinking problem that's eating your lunch, I want you to do what AA suggests, i.e. Don't Drink, Go To Meetings, Get a Sponsor, Read the Big Book, Ninety Meetings in Ninety Days . . . Recovery comes from action, not analyzing . . .
Being one of the slow learner crowd, though, I'll offer the following . . . If you've got a head like mine--a veritable landfill of essentially useless information--maybe you'll be able to get it to shut up for awhile . . .
The skeptical scientist types hate it because it's folk medicine. They see the power of the groups, the mutual support, the mirroring of one's own character flaws in others, and the hope, usually grounded in faith in a Power Greater than One's self . . . They want to replicate it in a laboratory, particularly if they can bottle and sell it . . .
This extends to many in the professional community, and I've been around long enough to get really nervous when the re-inventing-the-wheel crowd talks about "underlying conditions" or has controlled drinking as a treatment option . . .
At the same time, therapy with a counselor or other professional familiar with addictions can greatly augment recovery . . .
I've heard AA characterized in many ways, as offering a superb support system, excellent behavioral modification tactics, you-name-it, up to and including perjorative stuff like "cult" and "magic thinking."
For this alcoholic, though, it works just fine . . .