From: suhre@meltami.dsd.trw.com
Newsgroups: alt.recovery
Subject: Untitled
Date: 27 Jul 92 21:33:09 GMT
Reply-To: suhre@meltami.dsd.trw.com ()
Distribution: alt
Organization: TRW Space & Defense
Originator: suhre@meltami.dsd.trw.com


=====Begin post for Adria=====
Right on HOLLY!!!!
     Yes, we are all RECOVERING--I have been in the following
RECOVERY groups:  NA, AA, ACoA, AlAnon.  I have recently quit
smoking.  I do not gamble with money because I have never HAD
enough money to gamble with.
     I have an uncle who is in EA.  He is the only relative I
have in recovery.  He is the only relative I consider myself as
having becuase all the others are sick sick sick and on
occasion try to get *to* me by mail or phone.  Hence, he has
promised to me that he will not tell ANYONE where I live or
what my # is--including my own sister, and my parents.  The
way of life I lead is one of recovery...not recovery from
a specific substance.
     The 3 principles in AA that we cannot live without,these
are honesty, OPEN-MINDEDNESS, and willingness.  I resent
anyone in any 12 step program (mostly AA) who are not
open-minded about recovery in general.  I would never subscribe
to anything that is specifically AA related to the exclusion
of all other areas of recovery.
     I have not had a drink in 7 years.  I have not had a
mind/mood altering substance in 6.5 years.  I have not had a
cigarette in almost a year.  I have not let anyone abuse me
sexually in almost a year.  I have been eating normally for
almost 4 months.
     AA did not help my problems.  AA promised me one thing and
one thing only--sobriety.  AA is not supposed to be a religion
or a cult even though I see it changing to be that way more
and more.  The book AA is supposed to be a text book, not a
bible, even though it's changing to be that way.  I had no
self esteem when I got into AA, and the point of AA is to
eliminate self-deitization...most of the stuff aimed at
AA's is self-deploring in order to knock down the ego.
     I needed building, not destruction.  Now that I have
finally understood the difference between poeple saying what
they want to say to make them look and sound like the picture
perfect AA's, and what they actually DO...it's easier to not
have to go to so many meetings.  And, frankly, the more
meetings I stay away from, the soberer I am because the more
comfortable with myself I am....finally.
     If someone's sobriety is so fragle and borderline so that
they need to defend THEIR program as being the RIGHT one
over anyone else, than this person needs some serious help and
no one specific program is going to help them STAY sober.  AA
gets us sober, but if we don't work the program AS THE BOOK
SAYS TO, not as we decide the book says to, we ain't gonna have
good sobriety.  This holds true for doing what we want to do
and lying about it so that we SOUND like we're doing what our
local area has decided the right way to do it is (again...
totally ignoring what it actually says).
     I put down no one's program.  But I do feel like putting
down people who are so week in their program (note: NOT SOBRIETY)
that they must degrade anyone who has a problem other than
their own, or who finds a better solice doing something other
than what they are.  That itself goes against everything AA
stands for.  And NA.  And AlAnon. And ACoA.
     I couldn't agree with you more Holly.

   ----Adria (dog@cornellc.cit.cornell.edu)
=====End post for Adria=======
-- 
Maurice Suhre
suhre@trwrb.dsd.trw.com
Newsgroups: alt.recovery