Fenian_Man

Totfit,

Let me start by saying that AA claims no monopoly on the means of recovery from alcoholism, and has no desire to quarrel with those who do not see a need in their life for our solution.

However, your post contains statements that I challenge as inaccurate and unsupported.

This is a straw man, an attempt to put words in someone else's mouth. It's done with weasel words, specifically the use of the deceptive passive voice: whose view? stated when and how? and your documentation is...?

The view of the medical profession is that alcoholism is a chronic, progressive, life threatening disorder. From the Medline Plus website:

MedlinePlus: Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: al·co·hol·ism
Pronunciation: \ˈal-kə-ˌhȯ-ˌliz-əm, -kə-hə-\
Function: noun
1 : continued excessive or compulsive use of alcoholic drinks
2 a : poisoning by alcohol b : a chronic progressive potentially fatal psychological and nutritional disorder associated with excessive and usually compulsive drinking of ethanol and characterized by frequent intoxication leading to dependence on or addiction to the substance, impairment of the ability to work and socialize, destructive behaviors (as drunken driving), tissue damage (as cirrhosis of the liver), and severe withdrawal symptoms upon detoxification
<end quotation>

Therefore: if you have a chronic disease, you are sick, in the rooms or out of them, drinking or dry. The disease does not go away any more than diabetes, lupus, asthma, or herpes does. AA presents a means of arresting the progress of the illness.


Then later in your post, you admit that AA is great "for those who benefit".

So which is it? Do people benefit from AA or not? If they benefit, on what basis can you say where they benefit? You claim to know the reality of where recovery occurs and how for others. I call Baloney. If you want credibility, speak for yourself only.

In summary: I assert that you are setting up a straw man argument about what AA teaches, trying to imply that AA's view themselves as healthy, and others as "sick", in a negative perjorative sense. I say AA conforms to the view of modern scientific medicine in it's understanding of alcoholism.

I say that your statements about when, where, and if people benefit from AA make no sense because you contradict yourself.

If you have a good life free of alcohol, you have my congratulations. In any event, you have my sincere best wishes for your good health and well being. If you think you have an answer others will be interested in, I challenge you to set up your own organization, show the results, and withstand the independent scrutiny that AA has.