Originally Posted by LonelyShadow

I first learned about 'The AV' back in February when I joined this site, and I thought it was a concept from AA, so glad that it isn't! It's been a massive help to recognise it for what it is because I was very much aware of it before.

I did like SOME of the concepts from AA but really my alarm bells were ringing so often that it just didn't work for me. It was just far too often that things would be talked about that literally had nothing to do with sobriety, and it's infuriating that when you raise any sort of critisism or even ask a question it's just met with a sort of smugness and a "Just keep coming to meetings", which doesn't answer any questions and left me very confused.

I thought AA would be a place for people recovering from addiction to share experiences and tips on what works, but instead there was this strange, melancholy atmosphere where everyone just spoke as if they were DOOMED.

In AA i'd have to ascribe all of that success to a higher power and my pride would probably be seen as ego and somehow not morally conducive to sobriety.