Lord, there is a lot of good stuff here.
I dig the concept of ferreting out drinking vs the rest of our problems. Do I know that there was a lot of bleed into other areas because of addiction? Absolutely. But, I could not identify with the constant suggestion that every action I took was a direct result of being an alcoholic.
Everyone I know, addict/alkie or normie has issues. Ego issues, insecurity issues, attachment issues, abandonment issues, learning issues, authority issues, trauma….an endless list with endless variations.
The simplicity of acknowledging one problem that was obvious is in some respects the easy part. I feel it pays more homage to our uniqueness. To me it is exactly in acknowledging our uniqueness that I celebrate the human condition, good and bad. To me being told "of course you decided to wear green today, you are an alcoholic and it must remind you of a Tanquery bottle" is actually the grosser oversimplification.
A lot of work has been done in the field of education about how people learn. Some people work better learning rote material. Achelon, I think you touched on this in your comment about your learning style.
Accomodators: Concrete Experience + Active Experiment
Converger: Abstract Conceptualization + Active Experiment
Diverger: Concrete Experience + Reflective Observation
Assimilator:Abstract Conceptualization + Reflective Observation
It makes a lot of sense to me when I hear and experience the round peg/square hole comp. We all learn, process and proceed from a different place. There is very likely a reason traditional methods work for some and fail others. I think that the idea of someone who is being labeled "terminally unique" is often someone who is being confronted with a system that does not coincide with the way they are built. Just like formal education often accommodates students, yet fails learners, when one paradigm is offered without options it often neglects a large portion of people.
I don't do well with sequential rote learning, I tend to skip ahead, am sloppy with details and look for the bottom line. If I have a question I will return and revisit material but I tend to ignore what I feel is extraneous information along the way. Sometimes this strategy is very successful, other times it fails me, but I have awareness of how I learn and process.
I believe people across the board would find better results if they were encouraged to acknowledge and embrace their unique habits. I see a lot of parallels with the education experience…take a population of 30 people and put them in a room, different teaching styles are going to have different results. People that are stand out under one method are going to come up short in another environment.
I expect in time the field of addiction will broaden and that this component will likely play a large part. I think less judgement and more interest in an individual's peculiarity would reap far greater rewards.
I don't doubt that a poster is in disbelief that this method works, because it likely wouldn't work for them. Not better, not worse, just different. It can take a lifetime to understand that people are intrinsically different, but I think having greater self awareness in turn leads to a deeper understanding of our own limitations as well as others.