Dee74

I think SR would be even better than it is if we all stuck to our experience more and passed comment on someone's else experience less....

But I digress.

We're drifting off into another thread topic with the hypoglycemia/dry drunk stuff.
Please try and focus on the topic at hand.

D

justjo

I do things that work for me.

stugotz

AA was my only and last option. How else could I learn something that went against every fiber of my being, unless there were others there to teach me? I thank God and AA for that.

lilac0721

I am not sure whether or not AA is for me. Whether it is necessary I feel is a very personal decision. It is necessary for some people. There are others for whom AA did not work and did other things to support and enhance their sobriety. The best way to find out is to try some meetings and see how you like them. Read the Big Book. Talk to others in AA, and talk to people for whom AA was not the answer to achieving sobriety.

SR has people who have achieved sobriety using AA and other methods, so this is a great place to explore!

ForwardLooking

I hope AA isn't necessary, because I am not planning on going and I'm still in the very early days.

Thanks to all those posters who discussed the term 'dry drunk', both for and against. FWIW I can see that, for some people at least, a change in outlook and behaviour is necessary if sobriety is to be maintained. (Sorry for going slightly off topic)

LuckyDrunk

I'm posting from work and haven't been able to read all of the replies, so apologies if I repeat something:
AA is necessary for me- I tried other things and nothing worked, and if I stray from AA for too long I can feel all the bad start to come back. I'm coming up on 4 years in January and have no intention to stop AA.
Having said that, I know people who have done fine without AA, but most of them have some sort of help other than quitting on their own.
My advice would be not to count anything out- even if you decide now that AA (or any other suggestions) isn't for you, allow for the possibility of changing your mind in the future, or use some AA tools even if you don't join AA, etc.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I always had a tough time going back and revisiting things I had previously discarded. Now that I've done a fair amount of it and achieved plenty of good results I'm much more open to that kind of thing.
Regardless of what you choose, good luck!

EricL

Nobody plans on going to AA.

My experience, and I suspect I am not alone here, is that I only tried AA once I realized that counseling, work, school, diet, reading self help books, and even treatment wasn't gonna do it. This isn't something I can get from osmosis, I needed a real solution. Thats what I found in my last resort-AA.

A spiritual program was something that I fought, hard, against embracing, instead focusing on self-knowledge and buzzwords like "triggers" and catch phrases like "think the drink through". Needless to say it didn't work out.... there was no way I could use a sick mind to fix a sick mind-think the drink though? lol, right, cuz when I was stuck in the obsession I really cared what might happen if I drank?

I tried just putting the plug in jug, tried exercising, tried changing my scenery, but what I hadn't tried was actually treating my alcoholism. I just had to go further down that terrible road, suffer more terror, bewilderment, frustration, and despair before I was willing to accept a solution.

EricL

And you never will see credible research on that because there is no real hypothesis to be made, no real science behind it. This field is hard enough to study rigorously due to the self reporting nature of the disease. Most research you read on addiction is likely to be full of confounders and biases making it notoriously hard to study. So, trying to tackle a baseless question on a group that is hard to regulate is next to pointless.

loveon2legs

I have not gone to AA and find my recovery is going great...I will be 10 months sober this month!! In the beginning of my recovery I did alot of reading and spent alot of time alone, mostly in nature just thinking things out....getting in touch with my spiritual side again...I am now in counselling and this week I'm in group therapy...we are talking about mindfulness based recovery.... Its all about what works for you...really whatever it takes for YOU to begin the journey of recovery!!

hersecret

Hello, I'm a new member. I was dating an alcoholic for a year until a few days ago. Breaking up with him has been one of the hardest things I've ever done. He is a loving man and his drinking personality is even more loving, but I do not want alcohol in my life. While I know it's not too late to runaway, I feel it is too late to run without trying to get him help, us help. I don't believe I am the exception to the rule, but we are very much in love and I will do anything and everything to save us. There is nothing else wrong with our relationship, just the drinking. ps i'm not a drinker, maybe a social night once every 3 months.

AA does not seem to be the place for him and or alanon for me. Would anyone have any suggestions of programs that are not religion related? Sorry I come from a strong pentecostal background but i strongly resent it now. Bottom line we would like to try something other than AA. Any help is appreciated.

Dee74

Hi HerSecret

welcome.

I know there a variety of recovery programmes for alcoholics - we have a sticky post of some of the main options here - not all of them are 12 step based

http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...formation.html

As for alternatives to AlAnon - not my area I'm afraid, but our members in the Family and Friends forums may have some suggestions

D

stugotz

AA isnt the only way to stop drinking. The Big Book has been described as simplistic, repetitive, and poorly written. But thats exactly what I needed in early sobriety and I thank God and AA for that. Just sayin...

Mark75

Hi love... When I was in treatment we used mindfulness... I think it's very useful. It's not all I do, but it certainly enhances my program in a big way.

onlythetruth

In a global sense, AA is not necessary.

When I say that, what I mean is that AA helps some people, and those people might therefore reasonably conclude that, for them, AA is necessary.

But AA is not the best path for everyone--and for people who don't find it a good fit, the idea that it is universally "necessary" (which does get floated around a lot, and which you must have heard, or you would not have asked the question) can actually be harmful.

I am personally very gratified to see that the responses to this question posted here have almost universally agreed that AA is not the only path to sobriety. As someone who struggled to fit into the AA way of life for years--square peg, round hole--this is immensely comforting.

My own path is SMART Recovery.

OTT

Ainslie

AA meetings werent necessary for me, however without knowing, I employed some of the 'steps' along with ideas I got from other recovery programs, books and SR. And of course my dad who went to AA for many years before going it alone.....the advice and phrases he gave me in the first few days ALL stemmed from his AA experience. So in some ways I credit AA for my sobriety - it got my dad sober, and without his support, I wouldnt have reached sobriety at the early age of 27.

So thats my personal take, despite not ever going to a meeting, im sure I wouldnt be sober if AA wasnt around.

yeahgr8

I think (SR) the world would be even better than it is if we all stuck to our experience more and passed comment on someone's else experience less....

Man its true what they say...opinions are like buttholes everyone has one!

Demut

Name a means of recovery, and I'm pretty sure I can tell you I've tried it. My personal perception of alcoholics anonymous reaches far beyond the fundamental goal of sobriety. AA is a way I can be held accountable for honesty, for treating others with kindness, for keeping tabs on resentments and when identified dealing with them immediately, for learning how to be non-judgemental and seeking the good in each person instead of promptly identifying the negatives. AA teaches me how to STAY IN THIS DAY ~ I can't afford to mourn the past and become anxiety filled about the future. Oh, I could go on and on, but you get the point. I put decades of my life into nurturing some very unhealthy ways of thinking. I need a regimented program to turn that thinking around so that I may become a person who I can look at in the mirror without crying.,
What worries me when someone is out experiementing and seeking different venues for recovery is that while investigating , some lose this battle. I'de put my money in AA where, if followed precisely as layed out for us, will work.
IF YOU WORK IT

DayTrader

Even cooler is that the steps really just teach you to let go of the junk that's creating that thinking. And if you can't let go, there's a step and some help for that too. We do the steps, HP does the work!

Onewithwings

you got clean on my husband's 12th birthday! lol!

NoAlcoholToday

Same here ForwardLooking. And in any case, I couldn't really go regularly cos its a 7 hour round trip for me to the nearest english speaking AA meeting.

So if the AA preachers round here are going to damn me to hell as a non-believer, then so be it. I don't believe in hell anyway.

I am rather weary of the "this is the ONLY thing that truly works" arguement. If it works for you, great. However, please be open-minded about the possibility that there might be alternatives. I'm off to the secular forum where I can find a rational debate rather than simple dogma.