Marcus, thank you for the link – as you said, the discussion can be quite heated; at some points it seems like people are debating religious dogma.
Miamifella, thanks for your comment. It is new to me to read that it's your pattern of use that unites you with AA – something I never considered before. It would be great to read more comments from folks with similar or alternative experience.
I realize that AA vs. NA issues are "other side of the street" for me, but Al-Anon and Nar-Anon are closely related to these groups, both in terms of their histories and their communities. It helps me to learn more about this "family disease"...
In my personal experience, my companion is currently in a rehab community here in Argentina and it is 12-Step "informed," by which I mean to say is that the 12 Steps are used as part of the everyday social structure. They have "group" twice a day, but there is weekly personal psychological treatment as well as cognitive behavior therapy. In this community, there are people from all parts of the country, from all economic "classes" (absolutely nothing like the "Malibu" treatment centers and their ilk exist in this country), and their patterns of use run the entire gamut of substance addictions (and, yes, alcohol is a "substance"). It is neither AA nor NA, although the patients are required to go to either (or both) when they begin their social reinsertion.
This community also urges family members/loved ones to go to Nar-Anon or Al-Anon; in fact, it counts on that. More than any others, they can see the parents'/partner's illness that almost invariably goes hand-in-hand with the substance addict's illness. They see it time and time again.... So, this is why I'm asking my questions: these organizations are closely, intimately linked, but there is a division between AA and NA, and Al-Anon and Nar-Anon, respectively, that doesn't make sense to me.
Miamifella's comment about his process is one of the first clearly-stated, non-dogmatic reasons I've encountered as to why someone would choose AA over NA, but it seems certain that his reasoning would be considered downright heretical to a significant percentage of AA members. From some experiences I've read or heard about personally, there would be a similar reaction from a significant percentage of Al-Anon members. Why is that so?
The AA vs. NA issues are things for those folks to deal with, I'm well aware of that, but there's a "trickle-down" effect in Al-Anon and Nar-Anon and it makes no sense to me. I can see why the partner of a gambling addict should seek a recovery group that is focused on that problem, which is distinct enough from drug addiction to warrant its own "singleness of purpose," but there are people being turned away from (or ashamed to share in) Al-Anon groups because their loved one's drug of choice isn't alcohol (a drug of choice). How can this have any bearing on the purpose of that group? Is the mother or wife of a crack addict different than the mother or wife of a person who is addicted to alcohol?
If, for some folks, the answer is yes, then we're in for a ride through some pretty nasty territory.