Guest guest Posted December 12, 2000 Report Share Posted December 12, 2000 Hey folks I'm on a site-updating spree, and while on such sprees interesting 12-step tidbits always bob their strange heads. Today I found a site that outlines beautifully, in spite of itself, why AA is so incredibly unhealthy for so many. You will cringe remembering the terrible emotional imprisonment we have escaped. http://www.sober.org/Relapse.html http://www.sober.org/Anger.html Best, http://www.aahorror.net Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 13, 2000 Report Share Posted December 13, 2000 Strange and Awful > Hey folks > > I'm on a site-updating spree, and while on such sprees interesting > 12-step tidbits always bob their strange heads. Today I found a site > that outlines beautifully, in spite of itself, why AA is so incredibly > unhealthy for so many. You will cringe remembering the terrible > emotional imprisonment we have escaped. > > http://www.sober.org/Relapse.html > > http://www.sober.org/Anger.html > Thanks ! You're right, I did cringe reading the quotes on anger from the Big Book. I remember how unhealthy it was to feel that I had absolutely no control over my life and that I just had to run to meetings and pray for my charcter defects to be removed. " We constantly remind ourselves we are no longer running the show, humbly saying to ourselves many times each day " Thy will be done. " We are then in much less danger of excitement, fear, anger, worry, self-pity, or foolish decisions. We become much more efficient. We do not tire so easily, for we are not burning up energy foolishly as we did when we were trying to arrange life to suit ourselves. " We don't tire as easily! How in the world did I believe this crap? I wish I could show those still trapped in the AA world just how much energy one feels when they take control of their addiction and their lives again! " Whatever our protestations, are not most of us concerned with ourselves, our resentments, or our self-pity? Selfishness-self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles. Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate. " There it is! My problems of course were caused by my resistance to becoming a passive, unselfish, non self-centered person! Being bombarded by this Big Book nonsense for 10 years is one of the main reasons I ended up so full of self loathing. In AA. my traits such as free-thinking and creativity became " character defects " such as self-pity and false pride. I was actually convinced by those AA, God control, Big Book thumpers that I was just a delusional, self seeking mess who stepped on the toes of others! I was even ashamed that I earned a Master's Degree during soming turbulent years of addiction and AA. AA members told me with little smirks that they had wished for me to flunk out of college so that I would have found " humilty " and become right-sized. I learned to speak Spanish and I met my wife in Venezuela. I recall one AA " friend " asking me why I wanted to bring her here to the U.S. " What are you going to do, keep her as a pet? " he asked. To him and many others my passion for the Spanish language and Latin American culture was another manifestation of my disease of alcoholism. I am so glad I didn't allow them to totally destroy me. Oh, and another " friend " of mine had a nice line to say when he saw our son for the first time. My boy was a few months old and this idiot's comment was " well, he sure doesn't have blue eyes and blond hair " . This comment was not said jokingly by any means. I realize now that this racist idiot with 7 years of sobriety in AA had been using AA doctrine and his hierarchial AA power to try to push his personal views on me. My life was a mess at the time but I was doing my best to get it together with my new wife and son. I had just finished graduate school but I was feeling lower than at any time in my life. When this " friends " made the somment about my son, he had pulled up in one of his two $25,000 classic muscle cars that he had " only through the Grace of God and Alcoholic Anonymous. He was so busy telling me how awesome his life was that he didn't even have time to ask how I was doing. What a scumbag. Yet I was supposed to bow down to him and other AA elders in order to learn to stay sober. Thanks again for the links. These really aren't painful memories. They help me realize just how free and I suppose lucky I am to have escaped AA! Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 13, 2000 Report Share Posted December 13, 2000 Yep The " anger " one is particularly troublesome as it specifically attacks healthy so-called " contradictions " about anger. I note also that the relapse section is drawn mostly from the that dreadful, mandacious " To Wives " chapter, which presumably the alcoholic need not be reading. Hum. P. > Hey folks > > I'm on a site-updating spree, and while on such sprees interesting > 12-step tidbits always bob their strange heads. Today I found a site > that outlines beautifully, in spite of itself, why AA is so incredibly > unhealthy for so many. You will cringe remembering the terrible > emotional imprisonment we have escaped. > > http://www.sober.org/Relapse.html > > http://www.sober.org/Anger.html > > Best, > > > http://www.aahorror.net Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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