I'm so thankful for this site and this thread
It seems that with the dominance of AA and 12 step recovery if you even mention the possibility of their being another way you are told you're doomed to fail!
Thanks Terminally Unique for your private message - I've been reading all the links you sent and tried to send you two reply messages but I dont think they've sent because when I check my sent box nothing is in there? Perhaps I dont have authority to send PM messages yet?
My experience so far - I made a big plan yesterday and even though I dont have the book yet (I live in New Zealand, ordered from Amazon but not scheduled to arrive until the 3rd of Feb) I did the crash course and I will never now drink and I will never change my mind. I like never now drink rather than never drink again (even though I know they are the same) because I like thinking about it in the now as well as the never
This has given me so much hope and certainty that AA never did. Even yesterday morning in my desperate depression talking to women in the fellowsihp (bless them) who had 25 years sober could give me no concrete reassurance of what I HAD to do to get sober? Keep going to meetings, pray to God in the morning, wait for the miracle to happen - which made me more and more anxious - how long will this alcoholic torture go on for??
It seemed by the afternoon/night having read and read on here and taken the crash course my anxiety had lifted and I felt quiety confident. RR has given me back something that I feel sittinging in a room labelling myself with a disease that I was powerless over took away from me.
I'm watching my beast and its funny you know how it crops up and when it crops up. I got one doozy last night "what if your life depended on taking a drink what if you HAD to either have a drink or be killed?? would you do it then and then if you DID would the method still work AFTER you'd done that? oh well I guess AA would still be there for you then"
I will say right now that I'm a Christian - so on the surface of it AA seemed an appropriate fit in some ways.
But a few things never sat right with me and one of these things was beautifully pointed out in an ealier post by someone else.
-1) Drunkeness or the excessive use of alcohol is clearly pointed out in the bible as a sin just like fits of rage, hatred etc - acts of the sinful nature (BEAST) and something that God clearly wants us to exert some kind of control over and to rather live in the spirt. If we have a disease and are powerless then there is no personal responsibility and it is not OUR fault.
- 2) There are plenty of times in the bible where people have been healed of an affliction but there is nowhere where someone is told You will have this for the rest of your life and you are just one drink, action etc away from being a hopeless wreck again. God says you are healed, stand up and know you areh healed!
I know not everyone on here subscribes to Christianity or God at all but I wanted to share my processing all of this with you guys so you can see how this program is very much compatible for a person like me who does have faith and wants to be empowered.
I was desperate yesterday and believe God sent me to the RR website and to all of you