Originally Posted by
skinnyninja 
Excellent stuff here.
I would argue that "adopting a spiritual way of life" is not specific enough, and that for the true alcoholic to recover they must undergo a spiritual experience, one that is characterized by a complete transformation of their personality (from selfish drinking to a genuine interest in other's sobriety) and ALSO a meaningful connection with a higher power. "Spiritual way of life" has too much wiggle room in it for me....
Also, I think there is danger in how we define things. If someone says "I'm an alcoholic," and they manage to get sober without a twelve step program, many die-hard steppers will completely discount this person's alcoholism....stating that they could not possibly be an alcoholic because they did not need AA to get sober. This is ridiculous. We cannot use the AA program to define what an alcoholic is. Alcoholism predates AA by several thousand years. Sometimes the arrogance of those in meetings is overwhelming.
Nonetheless, I still believe AA has tremendous value, simply for the concentrated amount of support it offers and the singleness of purpose. Simply humans helping humans to not drink. Basic support. Fellowship. It all has value.
Good stuff. A true transformation is necessary to recover. I agree as well that alcoholics have been recovering for as long as there has been alcoholism. Here and there it has been documented that an alcoholic at the end of his rope, in despair would recover through a religious conversion experience. Actually, it is more common than most AA's believe. I personally know of three cases where that has happened.
In AA our path to that experience is via the Twelve Steps. But there are many fine religious paths as well as several fine psycholigical paths. For us in AA to claim a monopoly is indeed arrogant.
As the distinction between the alcoholic and the problem drinker, it is simple. For the problem drinker, the problem is alcohol. Remove the alcohol, problem solved. For the alcoholic, once alcohol is out of the picture, the problem begins. The root is still there, in other words, the spiritual malady is still there. A sense of self-centered isolation, a feeling of seperatness which drives the peculiar mental twist, the strange insanity that causes an alcoholic to do the most insane thing he can do. And he does it stone cold sober, he picks up a drink. As long as the alcoholic remains seperate he remains insane where alcohol is involved.
Jim