Originally Posted by
michelle01 
When I saw a thread called 'Terminal Uniqueness' posted my first thought was 'good grief'...But there were people who were non AA who felt that they could relate to it in some way, based on their personal experience, and there were some good shares in the end, which were of value to me as well.
I read this whole thread last night and all I could think is why do people get so worked up about programs? I have never had a program except my own and I will admit that I was very angry towards AA in the beginning. However, that dissipated the more I got sober and the more I learned precisely because it has given me a lot even though I don't attend. But like Michelle01 said above concepts aren't proprietary to a program even if that program gave them language. I do find quite a few concepts in AA pertaining to me, and of course quite a few do not. But I can't get mad if someone wants to discuss it because I usually learn more—even if that is to stay away.
I completely understand getting frustrated with dogmatic, proselytizing people. In fact the more I read about the history of AA, the more I want to scream at these people do you know how much you would probably be angering your founders? I highly suggest reading the history of AA it might give you a new found respect for it because a lot of it is very different than sometimes it comes off. However, I can't condemn someone of being closed-minded and stay closed-minded myself. And more importantly I really don't want to close off programs to any area of the board because would that mean closing off ideas key to recovery just because AA happens to include them? That would be unfortunate.