freya

sekular:

I'm not trying to pick a fight here and I really am interested in looking into this and don't know how to ask it without just coming out and asking it, so here goes:

Could you share your source for this statistic? I'd be really interested in reading up on how that conclusion was made and also seeing exactly what definitions of "successful" and "recovery" were being used.

Thanks,
freya

SeekingSelf:

OK -- I'm a born-again 12 Stepper and I am very, very lucky that here where I live the people in 12 Step rooms really truly mean it when they say "Take what you like and leave the rest," and I have never, ever felt in any way "frowned upon" whether or not, on any given day, I am most comfortable referring to my HP as Higher Power, or God, or Goddess, or The force, or the Energy of the Universe, or the Collective Unconscious, or what-the-h*llever is working for me and comfortable for me at that particular time....(and the truth is that any, all, and/or none-of-the-above might or might not be working for and comfortable for me at any given time.)

What I do know always and for certain is that I am not the Ultimate Power in the Universe and that when I try to figure everything out for myself and make everything -- through force of my own will -- go where I think it should go and be what I think it should be, I tend to be miserable and overwhelmed and I tend to find myself contributing to the misery and resentfulness of others (...uh, I also tend to fail to achieve my goal of getting the world to fall in line with my plans). Now, of course, I always knew this intellectually, but thanks to my experience in 12 Step rooms, I now "know" it in a way that actually manifests in my life...and, WOW, what a liberating and empowering and uplifting lesson that has been for me.

In order for me to have a life that works and that feels -- physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually -- good and fulfilling, I have to be connected to whatever it is that holds all of existence together and I have to be in right-relationship to all of that.....By working my 12 Step program, I learn, on increasingly deeper levels and in ever more subtle but more powerful ways, how to do those things.

...and, I do believe, ultimately, learning those things is the goal of all human life....but I do not believe that 12 Step Programs are the only ways to do so..The bottom line is that you have to find something that works for you...and, if you're an addict or alcoholic in any kind of desperate situation, it is probably in your best interest to find it pretty quickly. So, yeah, check out whatever you think might appeal to you....But also be very careful because, if you find yourself repeatedly coming up with insurmountable reasons why things that are working for a lot of other people will not or cannot work for you, then the chances are going to be very good that it's not the particular "recovery" method, or program, or plan, or philosophy that is really the problem. The problem might be the incredibly powerful defenses that your addiction has built for its own protection and furtherance and, unfortunately, what "works" for its protection and furtherance can, if left unchecked, totally undermine your own.

Good luck in your search.

freya