From: carnes@quip.eecs.umich.edu (Richard Carnes)
Newsgroups: alt.recovery
Subject: Re: RR vs. AA, or RR + AA?
Date: 3 Oct 92 17:02:37 GMT
Organization: University of Michigan EECS Dept., Ann Arbor

bc@Apple.COM (bill coderre) writes:

>Why don't you tell us all about RR? I, for one, want to know about it.
>Maybe some aspects of it can be added to my personal recovery program.

Rational Recovery has only one "step": "We made a fearless examination
of our most basic beliefs and selected the recovery program that made
the best sense."  This means that you will most likely be successful
in achieving sobriety if you are *committed to a coherent general
philosophy* that justifies abstaining from alcohol or drugs, whether
the philosophy is that of AA, of RR, or some other.  So RR's founder
Jack Trimpey recommends against trying to sit down on several stools
at once, so to speak; better to choose just one.  Although there is no
reason why AA and RR cannot peacefully coexist, their *philosophies*
are incompatible in a number of ways.

If you want spiritual healing, go to AA.  It is true that a great many
alcoholics achieve sobriety through AA; it is not true that AA works
for *every* alcoholic who "really" wants to stay sober.  Therefore it
is important that alternatives be available and *known* to be
available, so that people who are discouraged by their experiences
with AA will not simply return to the bottle.

RR does not aim for a "spiritual awakening"; its goal is merely to
enable you to stay sober and clean and to live a reasonably happy
life.  The RR program does not rely on any sort of a Higher Power
(although members are free to believe in one if they wish), nor does
it make use of moral inventories or confessions.

The best way for me to provide information about the RR program is to
post some quotations from _The Small Book_.  (I also recommend _When
AA Doesn't Work for You_ by Albert Ellis, which presents a very
similar program.)  Please remember that the following is only the bare
bones and is no substitute for reading the book (which at 275 pages
isn't really that "small").

It's relatively easy to stop drinking or using; the hard part is
*staying* stopped.  Trimpey writes:

 "The difficulty in staying stopped stems, in large part, from the
 *extremely popular, irrational, alcoholic belief that addicted people
 cannot choose to become nonaddicted*.  The truth is that *many* do it,
 and do it every day.  Stripped down, Rational Recovery could be
 called, 'generic recovery,' because we are using an approach that most
 people resort to when undertaking any kind of self-improvement."

To illustrate a basic concept, here is an excerpt from an imaginary
dialogue between an alcoholic named Bert and a counselor:

 COUNSELOR: ...You have the idea that alcoholics must stop drinking so
 they can gain self-respect, but that's getting it backward.  People
 who don't already like themselves aren't very kind to themselves.  I
 propose that you move ahead right now by forgiving yourself for being
 what you are, a person who is dependent on alcohol, and start
 recognizing that you are all you have, and you are therefore
 fundamentally worthwhile.  You want to be happy, to get some good out
 of life, and *you are the only vehicle you have to experience that*.
 It follows, then, that if you are the only avenue you have to some
 future good, then you are *extremely worthwhile to yourself*, do you
 see? 
 
 BERT: You mean that I'm worthwhile just because I'm alive?
 
 COUNSELOR: Excellent!  That's exactly the point!  You don't need to do
 *anything*, Bert, to start loving yourself.  That's a birthright.  You
 need only to exert your will, your intelligence, your ability to
 reason, and your authority to establish in your mind that you are as
 worthwhile as a person can be, whether or not you drink, whether or
 not other people agree, whether or not your business fails, no matter
 what develops.
 
 BERT: You've got to be kidding.  How would loving myself help me to
 stop drinking?  Wait a minute.  I just thought of something!  If I
 loved myself, I'd have a good reason to avoid alcohol because I know
 what the stuff does to me.  If I drank, I'd be harming someone I
 really cared about -- *me*!  Is that what you mean?
 
 COUNSELOR: You've just taken a giant, rational step toward recovery
 from alcoholism, Bert.  If you start to really like yourself and care
 for yourself, then it's not as if you "have to" or "got to" or
 "absolutely must" stop drinking.  [It is not something you "ought to"
 do in order to be a "good person".--RC] Then you will really *want* to
 stop, as a kind of gift to someone you care about.  You'll stop
 cracking the whip on yourself and do what you would probably do for
 any friend -- provide some TLC and keep the poison away.  I'll be here
 to help you along the way.
 
 BERT: I think I see how this all goes together.  If I care for myself,
 *I will plan to stop drinking for good*, not just one day at a time.
 Then if I screw up, I can just forgive myself and start over.  By
 using the Beast idea [explained elsewhere in the book], I can take
 control of my decisions to drink or not to drink.

Trimpey writes:

 "...RR identifies several specific irrational ideas and beliefs that
 perpetuate the addictive behavior of alcohol-dependent people, and RR
 provides the means to change one's own emotions and behavior.  The
 italicized irrational ideas listed below [I've put them inside
 quotation marks] comprise a personal *philosophy* that sustains the
 alcoholic drinking and relapse cycle. For clarity, we may refer to
 that philosophy as 'alcoholism'..."

Here, then, are the "Central Beliefs of Alcoholism", and the rational
ideas that contradict and counteract them:

 1.  "I am powerless over my alcoholic cravings, and therefore not
 responsible for what I put in my mouth,"
 instead of the rational idea that
 I have considerable voluntary control over my extremities and facial
 muscles. 
 
 2.  "In order to feel like a worthwhile person, I must stop drinking,"
 instead of the rational idea that
 it is *because* I am worthwhile to myself that I will decide to stop
 drinking and build a better life.
 
 3.  "My painful emotions and alcoholic cravings are intolerable, and
 therefore must be controlled by drinking alcohol,"
 instead of the rational idea that
 some discomfort is a necessary, inevitable, and entirely harmless part
 of becoming sober and remaining so.
 
 4.  "I have little control over my feelings and emotions, which are
 somehow forced upon me by certain person or by external events,"
 instead of the rational idea that
 I feel the way I think, and so have enormous control over my emotions,
 sorrows, and disturbances.
 
 5.  "It is a dire necessity for adults to be loved, respected, or
 approved of,"
 instead of the rational idea that
 adults do not have to get what they want, including love, respect, and
 acceptance; rejection is just another person's opinion of my worth,
 one with which I may gullibly agree or rationally disagree.  I choose
 to love myself simply because it feels better than to dislike myself.
 In this matter, mine is the final word.
 
 6.  "Because I have committed certain acts, or behaved offensively, or
 harmed someone, I should therefore moralistically blame and condemn
 myself and feel worthless and guilty,"
 instead of the rational idea that
 as a human being I am uniquely fallible, and while I may feel regrets,
 remorse, or sadness for my alcoholic behavior, I need not conclude
 that I am a worthless person.
 
 7.  "Other people should not behave poorly, and when they do they
 should be blamed, moralistically condemned, and punished for their
 misdeeds," 
 instead of the rational idea that
 everyone makes mistakes and it makes no sense to blame others for
 their imperfections.  For me to think others are not as they should be
 is a failure to accept reality.  If I condemn others, I will apply
 similar measures to my own worth and end up feeling guilt.
 
 8.  "In order to feel like a worthwhile person, I must be competent,
 intelligent, talented, and achieving in all possible respects, and to
 fail in any significant way, such as having an alcoholic relapse,
 constitutes proof of what I have always suspected and feared -- that I
 am a defective, inferior, worthless person,"
 instead of the rational idea that
 doing is more important that doing well, trying is the first step
 toward succeeding, and accepting myself now as a fallible, yet
 inestimably worthwhile, human being is entirely possible.  Succeeding
 does not make me into a success, and failing does not make me into a
 failure. 
 
 9.  "If 'things' aren't the way I very much want them to be, then it's
 terrible, horrible, awful, and catastrophic,"
 instead of the rational idea that
 'terrible' and 'awful' are magical words meaning 'worse than most
 unfortunate.'  Since nothing can be more than 100 percent bad, or
 completely unfortunate, 'things' don't have to be any particular way
 for me to remain sober and relatively calm.  If I cannot change or
 control conditions, I can accept any misfortune, including, when
 finally necessary, death.
 
 10.  "The past is an all-important determiner of my present feelings
 and behavior,"
 instead of the more rational idea that
 I presenty feel the way I presently think, and I act largely the way I
 feel.  I may have learned to feel bad in years past, but I may now
 *change my mind* about past sorrows, losses, misfortunes, and
 disappointments. 
 
 11.  "Because I am sober, I absolutely must not drink, no matter what,
 because one drinkg would lead to my downfall,"
 instead of the rational idea that
 as time goes by drinking appears increasingly stupid because of the
 obvious selfish advantages of sobriety, but, if I every stupidly
 relapsed by drinking, it wouldn't be awful because I would very likely
 recover again -- selfishly, guiltlessly, and probably very quickly.
 
 12.  "Because I am an alcoholic, I need something or someone stronger
 or greater than myself upon which to rely,"
 instead of the rational idea that
 dependency is my original problem, and it is better to start now to
 take the risks of thinking and acting independently.  I cannot really
 'be' an 'alcoholic,' but just a person who has believed some of the
 central ideas of alcoholism.
 
 13.  "Because alcoholism once greatly affected my life, it will
 continue to affect me frequently and indefinitely,"
 instead of the rational idea that
 because rational sobriety is self-fulfilling, and because there is so
 much more to life than a constant struggle to remain sober, I can
 gradually close the book on that sorry chapter in my life and become
 vitally absorbed in activities and projects outside of myself that are
 unrelated to my former alcoholism.
 
 14.  "In order to feel like a decent, caring person, I must help
 others and become upset over their problems,"
 instead of the more rational idea that 
 helping others is not a moral springboard, and others are not
 benefited by the emotional disturbances of their helpers.
 
 15.  "Somewhere out there, there is a perfect solution for life's
 problems, and until I find it, I am doomed to a life of uncertainty
 and turmoil,"
 instead of the rational idea that
 uncertainty is the spice of life, and seeking a perfect solution is
 silly and a waste of time.  I will do better to view life as an
 enjoyable experiment, seeking my own pleasures and cultivating my own
 personal growth.

Richard
Newsgroups: alt.recovery