Jaynie, excellent post. The undermining of confidence is what I find to be the most dangerous practice in recoveryism.
For me, I had that spidey sense when I first quit, I did everything related to conventional wisdom also because that's what I was "supposed" to do. I realize now that I often faced with a collective beast. The feeling can be overwhelming. Seriously, if I wasn't such an opinionated b*tch I'm not sure I could have gotten out unscathed.