Wow - I feel so lucky that my meetings that I chose to attend are not rigid like the ones discussed her. Perhaps that is judgement but its also gratitude in what is availed to me. I welcome you, just like I welcome and am welcomed as an alcoholic/addict in my Home Group, Mens Meetings and Step Study.
Many of you already know this but I don't delineate between substances or behaviors. It is my view that Addiction has no prejudice between risk and poor or substances between booze or crack. For me alcohol was merely the most convenient and available drug, which is why the love affair began - my first marriage if you will. I left her later for cocaine but still carried on affairs with my first love - the divorce ws never final. As such, I find it helpful when in my meetings the topics include real life, which does not limit to just alcohol.
This is my rationale for step work, because I believe while other techniques can help with sobriety, step work is designed to change an addict/alcoholics way of living. A lifestyle, which I agree has its benefits.
Sorry if I offend anyone with my experience or beliefs.
I wonder how many alcoholics are unwilling to identify as an addict bc they have not yet been activated. I would guess all true alcoholics if the booze was removed and offered another mind altering drug of choice such as cocaine or heroin would become addicted to those substances? It is my view that the Real alcoholic described in the BB uses the substance to escape and the problem is with the thinking, as a result of a spiritual void. A Hungry Ghost if you will. SO based on this, I have to question how many alcoholics are fearful of being classified as an addict due to ego, which is at the core of most alcoholic/addicts problems.
Would AA be called Addicts Anonymous if it was created today? Alcohol was the most common drug in the 1930s when AA was founded. It still is today but with the epidemic of prescription pills are other drugs becoming just as widespread? I see the narrow scope written amongst many of you here as a way to feed your own ego and limit the scope of your own recovery by focusing on one part of the elephant. Someone told me in step #4 as to how broad a net you want to cast, "how solid do you want to make your recovery?" For me I have had to tear all preconceptions down and go back to my roots to understand the scope of my addictions, which identified just as written in the Big Book that my maladies went well beyond just alcohol.