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I can't speak from first hand experience or actual knowledge, but I've seen several articles over the years about AA being the only US court approved treatment,
by ergothus 8y ago
I can't speak from first hand experience or actual knowledge, but I've seen several articles over the years about AA being the only US court approved treatment, leaving some people with the choice of accepting only AA or jail. Atheists in particular have commented on this, but also people that take issues with certain other AA stances (such as "you will forever be an alcoholic").
I have no idea if this was federal, state, or local courts.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago> "you will forever be an alcoholic" That doesn't seem like an unjustified statement to me. I'm not an alcoholic, but I am a food addict and the experience of losing half my body weight and keeping it off for years has only reinforced, to me, the idea that I will always be a food addict.
- ergothus 8y agoMany agree with you. I've not encountered an addiction myself, (yet, at least, knock on wood), so I have no stance one way or another, but I've read accounts where many people have experiences similar to yours, and yet there are others that (claim to, at least) encounter it like an illness. They were sick, got treated, and now are not sick. Perhaps the Sinclair method that others discuss does that, breaking the longing for the alcohol, perhaps not. From where I sit, if you're in a place where you are no longer suffering and others are no longer suffering, you get to define how you relate to the problem you had. Having your only option be a group that insists you must be a victim when you don't agree feels wrong. Now, do we have real people in that situation - not a perma-alcoholic but somehow being forced to join AA or go to jail?. I don't know.
- wuliwong 8y ago>you will forever be an alcoholic I believe that this is the current medical understand of alcoholism as well.