You're poor and dying because God hates you

[Jenne]

Yeah, that "dry drunk" thing is horrormirth personified.  Basically gives the recovering AA peeps a ticket to be a complete and total chode, from what I can see.

[eighteen buddha strike]

i hereby rescind any reservations i had about being to harsh in my opinion of AA

As LMNO pointed out, there IS in fact a use for these overbearing brainwashing fucktards, its just an uncommon one.

IMO, alchoholism (True I Have to Have A Billion Drinks Or Else I Get Delerium Tremens and Fucking DIE Alchoholism IE: ALCHOHOL FUCKING FUELS MY EXISTENCE ALCHOHOLISM) should be dealt with by any means possible, and brainwashing is an effective tool for this. Also, he points out that this is relatively rare, which is true.

On the other hand, other detox methods exist (I saw an episode of house once where they put a guy in a phenobarbitol coma to combat the DT's, and thought this was hilarious, and I hope this accurately represents standard medical procedure as is my wont).

As for another possible substitute for AA, therapy?

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

My mom quit drinking when I was 12 and started going to AA, and I  had to go to Alateen. I also went to a ton of meetings with her, and also her social circle became completely revolved around AA.

For short-term help in quitting drinking, I think it's pretty helpful. For long-term support though, I think it's incredibly unhealthy and dysfunctional. They tend to be tremendously insular, cult-like, and judgmental. They look down on people getting sober without AA, and refer to most people who do so as "dry drunks" because they haven't "worked the steps". If someone has a beer, they've "relapsed" and they "lose their time" and have to turn in the chips that signify how long they've been sober, which encourages wholesale benders if someone slips and has a beer... some people even think a normal dose of cough syrup counts as a "relapse".

After 6 years of intimate experience with it, I think AA is a sick model.

I despise AA.  The whole "it's all about me" thought pattern they instill in those recovering does nothing but support their whole reason for drinking in the first place.  The you have to take care of you because you are the most important.....  BULLSHIT!  Maybe if you are single with no hope of having any type of functional relationship yeah!  Otherwise, give me a fucking break!

I worked for a woman who was a long time AA member, mentor etc... she liked to hire AA members.  Now if one of us called in sick we got our asses reamed, but if one of her AA employees called in needing a "me" day it was all smiles and lollipops. 

I agree with Nigel here as it is a great first step program.  Maybe for a 6 months to a year, but after that, alcoholics need to face why they were drinking in the first place and deal with the mental and emotional issues that led them to drink!  Continuing on in the AA "take care of me" holding pattern does nothing to actually "cure" the problem!

[Kai]

To the OP:  the Pee-Oh-Pulls who believe in "God" never can answer all those hard-hitting questions.  Guess why?

Speaking of questions, and sorry if this is too much thread drift...

Was sitting in the Darwin Seminar this morning, and my adviser spoke up about the reason that science can't argue with religion. He said that science works upon testable hypotheses and a changing base of knowlege, while fundamentalists work from the static divine, untestable unquestionable truth of the bible. Its god's words is the premise they work from, so there is no need for any questioning and testing within those bounds. You will never ever convince a creationist literalist with science. He went on to say that his (late) mentor was asked once to take part in a debate with creationists. The mentor refused, saying "I speak as a scientist. I can't possibly use the Language of Man to communicate with the Language of Angels."

[Cain]

one thing that everyone seemed to overlook... if you dont like AA so much - what were you doing there?

In some areas it looks to be the only therapy provided.  Sometimes you can be given the "choice" to go there or go to prison, depending on particular circumstances.  Furthermore, cults build psychological dependency. Many people wont know about such things until they are already in, and by that point it may be very hard to leave.  Some may have already left, and are trying to warn others.

The more interesting question is why you are trying to simplify the circumstances as to why one may or may not go to the AA?