Originally Posted by
miamifella 
f. My experience is that critical thinking skills at the very start do not help since thinking is so distorted at that point.
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I think what may need challenging here is the idea inn early recovery we are not mentally equipped or things are distorted, that maybe true in detox however after that this idea is more a "recovery" party line and probably not something real or true. Its not hard to convince people with their last binge or relapse still fresh in their minds that everything is broken or dysfunctional with thinking, I think it is false however and many many people are ready and willing to learn from the get go. Maybe this all comes back to this Step 1 idea that we are powerless, when we feel hopeless then we are vulnerable to suggestions we are powerless, if this is the main MO of certain recovery groups then of course people will reinforce the idea our thinking is distorted. By the way Critical Thinking skills are a How of thinking not a What, pretty easy as long as we can get the"powerless" fallacy out of the picture.