Having been in AA for over 40 years, know that what is being said in this article is true.I would like to be in touch with DR. Kern.My phone # is 317-289-3881 / address is 6115 N. Winthrop Ave, Indianapolis, Indiana 46220. (John Claypool)I started a Smart Recovery meeting in Indianapolis, and found that a combination could, or would be more effective?

because I know that I have the option to do as I please. If I want to stop I will. I..have the power...

I totally agree. awesome comment

Has not read the Big Book of AA and has no uindersatnding of what the book really say's about the differecnces in drinking problems.To ofer a quate from the book Alcoholics Annoymonus If you can drink like a gentleman our hats are off to you. This is not saying anyone with a drinking problem can never drink again.

Highlights the essential differences very clearly.

I live in a rural area. It is also a very religious area. I believe in God and an afterlife, but I am not a religious person. My belief is that AA will be the only alternative i have in this area.

12-step addiction programs represent a multi-billion dollar industry supported by government and insurance companies. Programs that are not based on 12-step models have trouble finding financial support.AA serves as a virtual advertisement for the promotion of 12-step programs. If you want the truth....follow the money.

Possibly looking for a counselor for emotional instability and dealing with troublesome co-workers. Been clean and sober about 2 months. My problem was with marijuana, not alcohol. Would like to know if I have to stop drinking forever.

I would like to learn more about the alternatives to AA

Thanks for posting this. I agree wholeheartedly that the so-called "fellowship" groups are borderline cults and infantilize people under the guise of "recovery"

The info provided makes me want to read more. I'm not sure this is the entire article but will now go to the other articles published by Dr. Kern.

Good Information. Options in perspective are empowering.

Though I am a member of AA and ACA I have to agree with your alternatives, though just to avoid argument I keep this to myself. Most of the stuff I hear is usually dogmatic crap, but at my age 59 there aren't alot of social alternatives. I have spent most of my life sober and only a few years of that attending AA meetings. I had to return to AA after some severe emotional difficulties as the result of old childhood issues and found ACA to better meet my needs. I do see a time when I will need to replace this with better social alternatives as I did before.

This article sucks it wont help me ever.

I want to quit and don't know if anything will work. I need help badly.

I personally am interested in Moderation Management instead of AA. It seems that AA people like to say that everyone who has ever gone through a period of too much drinking is now a full blown alcoholic in denial. Growing up in a religious cult, I was never taught to drink responsibly and always taught that drinking is too tempting. Well, I think that is BS, and I want to learn to drink responsibly. I already have been doing so for about a year but might like to explore moderation management.

ambivalent AA member nearly 5 years. check your big book, guys: there is straight line from 'resentment' as the 'number one' destroyer of alcoholics to the state of 'spiritual disease' (chap. 5, p. 64). so the author is incorrect in describing the 12 step understanding of 'disease' to be purely (or even mostly) in physical terms, and a lot of the AA commenters are being disingenuous by pointing to the big book as 'proof' that the author is wrong or 'has no idea what he is talking about'. AA's preamble suggests an 'open-arms' support group, while 'the program' encountered in meetings can be oppressively dogmatic & fatalist. that doesn't mean it doesn't work; it just suggests that the low 'success' rates (documented by AA itself) might have a little more to do with a lion's share of the organizations' members cleaving too closely to the religiosity (if non-denominational) of the early 'program' then in potential members' willingness to 'go to any lengths'. belief or faith in the supernatural is a pre-requisite for 'working' the 12 steps ("no human power could have relieved our alcoholism" -- suggesting that even the 'Group-Of-Drunks' or 'Good-Orderly-Direction' paradigms for god/higher power are, in the end, faulty and doomed to fail). being scientifically-minded, agnostic, or simply just interested in engaging the program as a simple support group can often be a very trying experience. i have felt this discomfort personally. it is neither pleasant nor is it conducive to helping me stay sober a day at a time. truly helping another alcoholic is helping another flesh and blood human being. it is not a matter of saving another's soul or bringing another's spirit in line with a higher power. the whole initial point of the silkworth 'allergy' model was as a corrective to the widely held public belief that alcoholism was an individual moral failing -- a failure to exercise god-given 'free will' properly. cleaving to tightly to the strident religiosity inherent in the 12 step model sends the pendulum swinging in the other direction for far too many alcoholics (and drug addicts) if they politely refuse the 12 step model while remaining within AA. having been freed of the stigma of moral failing, they find themselves now implicitly carrying the label of 'spiritually' failing. how on earth is that helping a fellow sufferer? those who have found success and satisfaction using the 12 step model within AA need to open themselves to the idea that there is a virtual infinite space worth of solution between sobriety through step-work and "jails, institutions, and death" or the "hat's off" experiment. just one man's opinion, but helping another alcoholic means being first and foremost another's friend. and friends allow each other to believe or disbelieve according to their own sense of 'rigorous honesty'. AA would do itself a world of good by embracing new methods, encouraging true openness to all things that might be of help.

"liquor is but a symptom" It has been through AA, and only through AA, that I have been able to identify the problem and then, address the problem. Sure, alternatives exist, but at just $1.00 per meeting, this is by far the best deal in town. But, if something else works for you, then go for it!

This is B.S. In my opinion, after being in AA for several years, I know how they feel. But the reasons they don't like AA is because they don't want to be an alcoholic, they think they can handle it. Of the hundreds of people I've met at meetings, the ones who work the program find that AA does work when you work it. If they're afraid or skeptical or they think it's a cult or they'll be brainwashed, they don't realize that nobody is going to MAKE THEM DO ANYTHING. AA changed my life; all kinds of people with high bottoms to low bottoms start identifying w/each other because we find there are others just like us. And it's really a lot of fun. You just have to keep going, or go to another group if you need to. Thanks for letting me share. Rosharon B.

It seems like everything is so black and white with AA. Either you're and alcoholic and this disease WILL KILL YOU, or you were never really a 'true alcoholic.' Either you 'completely give yourself to this simple spiritual, not religious, program' or this disease WILL KILL YOU. You have to completely surrender yourself, turning your will and your life over to the care of God as you understand him, or you're still in denial and you're going to die! You have to abstain from ALL mood/mind altering chemicals, and at some meetings they even argue that includes coffee and cigarettes (ridiculous) and if you don't, you're not working a solid program and you have to start back at step one. The hypocrisy bothers me too. They claim there is no requirement in any religion, and then they dedicate a whole damn chapter to say that only a vital spiritual experience can save a true alcoholic. And i haven't bothered counting how many times you'll find the word GOD in the book. Its very frustrating, but there is a reason AA is the most accepted addiction treatment. It has its pros. Its really hard to find a place other than AA or NA where the room is full of people that know what you're going through, and are willing to do just about anything to help you (that is, if you find a good meeting). And the steps do help one grow spiritually, mentally, and emotionally, all the BS aside. The main thing that bothers is that if you relapse, in the eyes of a hardcore AA, you just threw it all away. All your growth and all the sober days you've been counting (one at a time) is all out the window and you're back at day one and step one. I believe some people are problem users because of some specific tragic event or events, and run away from dealing with their problems with drinks and drugs. I believe that if those issues are dealt with through professional help, and new healthy coping mechanisms are learned, and there is some serious growth and change, that person might be able to have a couple beers during the game. But in the eyes of AA this is unacceptable, and the support is gone, and thats where the problem lies. In the extremeness. I would not say someone allergic to peanuts might be able to eat them after taking a break for a while, or that a heroine user might be able to use responsibly, but I think different people have different degrees of severity in their drug/drink problems, and the AA/NA way fails to see that in their 'our way or the highway TO HELL' approach. Its comforting to know there are other options.