The Twelve Steps of AA: Code of the Beast
©2006 Jack Trimpey, all rights reserved.
It is often said that Alcoholics Anonymous membership is “like trading one addiction for another.” In reality, 12-step recovery is not another addiction, such as an addiction to meetings, nor an addiction to AA, nor an addiction to recovery. Instead, the original addiction is preserved in a peculiar state called, “in recovery,” tentatively sober, one-day-at-a-time.”
This is because AA is a fellowship of addicted people, with a program created by addicted people for addicted people. In recovery, one is truly living in the bubble of his original addiction, although in a momentarily (one-day-at-a-time) dry state. All of the priorities, values, relationships, social norms, moral codes, and even the mandate of addiction itself, is preserved in pristine, original condition from the day of one’s first AA meeting. Just beyond the pious veneer of AA, there is a remarkable convergence between 12-step recovery and the mandates of addiction itself.
Even the speech of people in recovery remains entirely in the idiom we call Addictive Voice, i.e., thinking that supports or suggests the possible future use of alcohol or other drugs. Any attempt to veer out of the Addictive Voice will be criticized by the recovery group as “denial,” “self-centered,” “delusional,” “dry-drunk,”or “your disease talking.”
By envisioning a future punctuated with possible “relapses,” people in recovery remain between using episodes. As long as an eventual relapse appears possible, that glorious event will cast a shadow over each day in the interim. People in recovery continue to live by the script written for them by addictive desire. From this vantage point, we can clearly see AA as the painted shell of one’s original addiction.
In recovery means in addiction.
In addiction, as in recovery, self-intoxication is considered an innocent act. One may apologize or accept responsibility only for behavior under the influence, but not the act of self-intoxication. The preferred company is other substance abusers, and evenings away from home are taken for granted. As any common drunk will tell you, his family is part of why he drinks; the same is so in recovery. In recovery, the family must be supportive and never confrontive. Because renewed drunkenness may occur at any time, life must be structured around that possibility.
While abstinence appears to be the desired goal, no such thing is so in the group, which esteems “sobriety” and looks askance upon “willful abstainers” who deny their powerlessness over addictive desire. Sobriety is said to be in accordance with an enlightened state of being in tune with one’s higher power, a state of grace, a spiritual dimension unknown to those who abstain by excercising self-restraint.
The recovery group provides no information at all about recovery from addiction through abstinence from alcohol and other drugs. It is likely that AA has no such information to give, for that information would quickly emancipate most of its members from its obligatory meetings. No one ever recovers while “in recovery,” and those who leave AA are actively discouraged (jinxed) from success through their own efforts and integrity. Members warn those intending to leave AA that relapse is practically inevitable, because without the saving grace of AA, alcoholics become “dry-drunks.” AA lore is full of stories of dry-drunkism, tales of alcoholics who tried to go it alone and became miserable, irritable people without the capacity for happiness, yearning to drink every day until finally the struggle to stay sober became so painful that they drank again, always with catastrophic consequences or death.
The step program is enigmatic, full of counter-intuitive advice such as the idea of powerlessness over addictive desire. To survive the onslaught of an irresistible desire and imagined disease, members are required to form a profoundly dependent relationship upon another member who also is bereft of independent judgment in his personal affairs. Together, they strain to believe a creed that contradicts their native beliefs and original family values, and cultivate fear of the bodily desire for addictive pleasures. This condition should be called, “recoveryism,” for that word is far more descriptive than the pretend disease of problem drinkers, “alcoholism.”
Deep structure
The key to understanding the basic dynamic of recovery group dependence is in the deep structure of the 12-step belief system. AA intercepts newcomers who are on the verge of recovery — aware of the problem and ready to take strong action — and disables their problem solving abilities with the disease concept of addiction. Prepared to get a grip and summarily quit drinking for life, newcomers rightly expect they will meet recovery veterans who will encourage them in their quest for secure, permanent abstinence. Instead, the newcomer is met with a bewildering flurry of inverted thinking intended to discourage willful abstinence and encourage continued attendance.
- Recovery is not an individual responsibility, but a group project.
- Your religion, native beliefs, and family values are insufficient and part of the problem.
- You are a comprehensive victim, from womb to tomb.
- Drinking is not a moral issue! It’s an innocent symptom of addictive disease.
- Free will does not apply to people suffering from addictive disease.
- You must not struggle to gain control, but surrender control.
- Only if addictive desire abates, may you confidently refrain from drinking.
- Dependence is good; independence is bad.
- Groupers exist on a social and philosophical plane above others (normies).
- The 12-step program is divinely inspired, inerrant, and Bill W is a saint.
Code of the Beast
I have presented the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous below, not for the purpose of derision, but entirely to provide informed consent to recovery group participation. Naturally, professional services that reflect any of the elements of this system of thought, such as addiction treatment and substance abuse counseling, will be similarly at odds with reason and common sense, and will reflect the inverted nature of the 12-step program itself.
Keep in mind the following definitions, which are keys to understanding:
The Beast: Addictive desire; the desire to drink/use, to get high. The animal (party-animal) desire for the pleasure produced by alcohol, drugs, and other vices.
Addictive Voice (AV): Any thinking, in language or imagery, that supports or suggests the possible future use of alcohol or other drugs.
AV —> Beast = Bark —> Dog
The implicit Addictive Voice appears in italics below each of the numbered statements of stepcraft.
Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.
Before Thee, O Mighty Beast, I am powerless.
Step 2: We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Because I am without free will, morally and mentally incompetent to quit my addiction, I must become dependent upon recovery group wisdom and doctrines.
Step 3: We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understand him.
I submit to thee, O Mighty Beast. Thou art cunning, powerful, and baffling, and I will call you God. You are a loving God who absolves my guilt and cleanseth my soul with the sacrament of alcohol. My soul is Thine, and I will shape my life according to thy rules. I will discover thy sweet and tender mercy, O Mighty Beast, in the sacrament of wine and other powerful drugs.
Step 4: We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
I will admit to any wrong, to any crime, or any misdeed, but I will never admit that, for me, the act of self-intoxication is immoral conduct.
Step 5: We admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
I will grieve my drunken deeds, but never apologize for drinking. I will call myself by thy holy name, “I am an alcoholic,“ and by thy name I am forgiven for the act of self-intoxication.
Step 6: We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
I was ashamed, O Mighty Beast, before you graced my life with the perpetual innocence of disease victimhood.
Step 7: We humbly asked Him to remove these shortcomings.
Fix me, O Mighty Beast, so I may appear human in my daily affairs. By turnng my life over to thee, I am exempted from common standards of character, morality, and decency.
Step 8 & Step 9: We made a list of all the persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. We made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
I will openly submit my regrets to those who were harmed as I submitted to thy will, O Mighty Beast, and I will even offer repairs, amends, and other reparations. I will never apologize for my past self-intoxication, nor for my future relapses, for an apology would mean I am morally responsible for my self-intoxication. I will never apologize for the self-intoxication you have inspired in me, O Mighty Beast.
Step 10: We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
I will accept criticism by others and I will criticize myself, O Mighty Beast, but I will never summarily quit the sacrament of self-intoxication.
Step 11: We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understand him, praying only for knowledge of his will and the power to carry that out.
I will walk with thee, O Mighty Beast, and I will meditate with a blank, unguided mind to hear thy holy word, so that my thoughts will always conform to thy commands to (1) never condemn self-intoxication as immoral conduct, and to (2) never say never to the sacrament of self-intoxication, and to (3) hold this Fellowship of Addiction as my first and highest loyalty, before family, before my profession, before my country.
Step 12: Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Having entered thy spiritual realm, O Mighty Beast, and left the human spirit behind, I will build a new world free from the stigma of moral injunctions against carnal desire, a world that is infinitely tolerant of self-intoxication. I will find others already following your directions in their daily lives, needing only thy redemption to enter thy Fellowship of Addiction and spread your gospel throughout the world.
Final notes
The 12-step program came to Bill Wilson by automatic handwriting during a meditational trance, as in Step 11. When addicted people engage in unguided meditation, they cannot possibly escape the reach of the Addictive Voice, which will assume any form or shape it must to preserve the mandates of addiction. Indeed, that is precisely why addicted people remain addicted, as the founders of AA did until their addiction-related deaths. It is both ironic and tragic that the shared Addictive Voice of Bill W, Dr. Bob, Marty Mann, and other AA founders have been enshrined and become the de facto state religion of the United States of America.
“The only requirement for membership in AA is the desire to stop drinking…Without AA we will perish.”
Bill Wilson, et. al.
“The only requirement for addiction recovery is abstinence, backed with moral judgment. Secure abstinence marks the beginning of one’s return to the human fold. Anyone can do it, and it’s easy.”
Jack Trimpey, Founder, Rational RecoveryRational Recovery makes information on independent, speedy recovery, based upon one’s native beliefs and original family values, available through this website.
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August 18th, 2006 at 12:13 pm
What is the “beast” stuff all about? I can remember a boy in high school talking about Al Anon. How it helped him when his parents’ were drunks when he was growing up. Gave him strenghth,gave him understanding. Later in life I was to attend 2-3 meetings. It gave me a sense of people who were “dry” that had a hard time of it, (but had the support of others like them). How is that bad? , in the sequence of things??? They were still “dry” at a time when I wasn’t. How many meetings did you attend? And, how much money are you making out of “alchoholics” NOW!!!!
To Readers:
Notice the progression of Kim’s message from inquiry, to contradiction of Rational Recovery, to a personal attack on my character. This is one facet of the condition we call recovery group disorder.
Jack Trimpey
August 22nd, 2006 at 1:04 am
I have to tell you, just from my personal experience that you are doing a grave injustice to AA. I have been around AA for over 23 years and I have no desire to drink. I married a man who I met inside those doors and he had good sobriety. We moved out of state due to him becoming ill and shortly after he asked for help, because he wanted to drink. Unfortunately, he asked someone who was not working the the Program as it was intended. His plea was refused, so he relapsed and was out for a year.
Then he stopped, using the tools that AA had taught him. That was 17 years ago and last week, out of the blue, without any thing to cause it, he wanted to drink again. He followed that desire with 4 days of drinking, which nearly killed him. He is back in AA and he knows, and I know, that there is nothing but this program to keep him sober. He knows when he hears other alcoholics tell their stories, its something that he can in most cases identify with. When someone goes out, and he can help them, then he does not have to go out again. He had good sobriety and worked the program, he carried the message to prisons and institutions, he was a very good speaker. So what happened? Alcoholism happened. Its cunning, baffling and very patient and if you get too lazy or complacent then it there waiting..
So please don’t tell people to ignore AA, even most of the recovery houses use a 12 step program, which was started by Bill W and Dr Bob… in 1935.
If its been around that long and has brought literally hundreds of drunks perhaps even a million or more off the streets and help make them useful members of society, then it has my vote. Today most medical doctors will tell you that AA is the way to go.. I am grateful to my higher power who I choose to call GOD that my husband was willing to walk in those doors again after that many years, but he did so knowing that he would find understanding, compassion and hope.
To Readers:
I rarely get such a vivid portrayal of life “in recovery” as this one.
After 7 years “behind those doors,” Charlotte marries into addiction, choosing a habitual drunk from her home group. When they move away from Mother Group, he wants to drink, so he asks another grouper for “help.” His plea was mishandled, so he went on a year-long bender. Because of a mysterious disease, he is powerless over his desire to consume his favorite drink. Therefore, he is innocent, and the clumsy grouper is to blame for his drinking.
Charlotte candidly implies that, by criticizing AA, I am causing others to suffer and die, just as the clumsy grouper nearly killed her husband. This is the arrogant, dependent posture of every, single alcoholic. “Stop me before I drink again! I need support, or I’ll drink again! If you don’t support me, I’ll drink again. If I don’t have AA, I’ll drink again. If I hear criticism of AA, I’ll drink again! If I don’t get my way, I’ll drink again!”
Charlotte imagines that most physicians believe that AA works. In reality, physicians refer to AA only because the 12-step syndicate has used Charlotte’s bludgeon on the medical profession, implying that failure to refer to AA is negligence, akin to a death sentence. In reality, few physicians believe addiction is or is caused by a disease. Anyone who pays attention to research on addiction knows AA doesn’t work. Even AA admits that only 5% of newcomers are consistently sober at the 5-year mark, and that most recoveries occur independently.
Moral of the story: Charlotte and her spouse are moral imbeciles, a trait inseparable from addiction, a trait perpetuated by recovery groups of all kinds.
Keep in mind that “alcoholics” are like Big Foot — stinky and mysterious, but fictional characters just the same. Inside the costume of every “alcoholic” is a self-excusing drunk, biding time until the next full moon.
Jack Trimpey
August 22nd, 2006 at 11:55 am
I found you comments insightful and somewhat alarming. Crack, sex, and pot were and as of late my gods. Maybe I misunderstood you but asking or praying to these cruel spirits will net me nothing at all. Asking for a repreve from them is useless. The God of peace, love, hope, and joy is the one who needs uplifting and praise
August 22nd, 2006 at 5:50 pm
As a religious studies minor in college, I quickly learned that systemopoeia, or the creation of a system is always defined by a previous system. System B says first we are not like system A. Then they proceed to destroy system A without really defining or providing evidence for system B before they ever define who they are which comes next of course. Every religion is created in this fashion. Christ’s followers said we are not like the other Jews so there fore now we are Christians and so let us move forward and define who we are. Lutherans first said we are not like those greedy catholics and so who are we, oh we are protestants, now uhhhh what does that mean. And now we have Rational Recovery, the protestantism of Alcoholics Anonymous.
One thing I like about AA is they really can’t enter into your controversy, and nor does it wish to engage. IF Rational Recovery Works for you then great. Our hats are off to you. We needn’t be concerned for you then, and so enjoy your life as a Gentleman. If it doesn’t work for you, we will always be here for you because of our 3rd tradition.
You do not need to beleive in God to become a member of AA, just a desire to quit drinking. However, we have found that we have become better men as a result of these steps. Good Luck with the rational method and I’ll pray to my higher power that it work for you, Jack.
Ken,
I like the analogy: RR —> AA = Protestant —> Catholic
Principle vs ritual?
Thank you for speaking so well for Alcoholics Anonymous! I know, I know, you’re not really speaking for AA when you’re speaking for AA, “Our hats are off to you!” but you have spoken for AA better than most I hear from. However, your systemopoeia seems beyond my level of comprehension, way too deep for me.
By the way, AA doesn’t requre a desire to quit drinking. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. One-day-at-a-time. If groupers quit drinking, why would they keep coming back, as about 5% do for more than a year.
Pray to a higher power? Not God? Exotic religion, no doubt.
Jack Trimpey
August 22nd, 2006 at 8:20 pm
Wow! I’ll skip the “natural progression” of inquiry, contradition, and attack and go right to the personal attack. You are crazy! You accuse others of attacking your program yet you are attacking Alcoholics Anonymous. Your program is good for those it helps. But, like everything in life, different things work for different people. Variety makes the world go around and we all have different personalities. Therefore, your program may work for one where it does not work for another. The same can be said for Al Anon.
You should never attack something that has helped so many people get sober and stay sober.
Terry,
The problem is, AA has helped no one. Many give AA credit, but that’s an evasion of taking personal responsibility, just as they evade responsibility for self-intoxication. I don’t think they’ve been helped in any way. They’ve just been made weird, and somewhat annoying to normal people.
If you can think of someone who has been helped, even you, I will ask,
How has he been helped by reserving for himself the privilege of self-intoxication, i.e., “relapses?
How does his family feel about the imposition of one-day-at-a-time uncertainty?
How does calling himself by the name of a pretend disease help him?
How does feeling powerless over his desire to drink help him?
If he calls a sponsor or runs to a meeting every time he wants to drink, how does that help him learn to resist the desire to drink?
How does centering his social life around other substance abusers help him?
How does shifting resonsiblity for drinking onto codependents and enablers help him?
How does choosing tentative sobriety over secure abstinence help him?
How is he helped by the idolatry of God-as-you-understand-him?
I could add a hundred more questions exposing the harm done to every member of AA. The idea that there are many roads to recovery, or “whatever works,” is lame rhetoric for hiding A.A.’s claims of exclusivity and universality.
AA forces itself upon millions of men and women through our courts and other coercive social institutions; to defend such an aggressive oppressor against criticism is tyranny. By the way, I don’t accuse anyone of criticizing Rational Recovery. I welcome it. Controversy is one of our great contributions to the addictions field, so long in bondage to 12-step social cultism.
In the last analysis, there’s only one way to defeat an addiction — knock it off!
Jack Trimpey
August 23rd, 2006 at 4:40 pm
I was trying to make sense of your assessment of the 12 steps. I definitely want nothing to do with the mark of the beast. My daughter is in recovery, and I know of others who attend daily AA and remain sober, however they do believe that if they did not attend that they would slip backwards. There have been concerns by others that if my daughter does not get a sponsor that she will not succeed in sobriety. I am interested to know more. I don’t suffer with this problem of substances, however I have felt that “personal free will” was involved, but after going to treatment education training for the family of alcoholic, I was told that it is a “disease”, and completely inherited and out of the person’s control. This was the mantra at training center. Thank you, DCI
Doris,
Sometimes I call AA the Fellowship of the Beast because every word of the “Big Book” of Alcoholics Anonymous fits the definition of the Addictive Voice:
Any thinking that supports or suggests the possible future use of alcohol or other drugs.
What could be a better example than the disease concept of addiction, which absolves her from any responsibility for her immoral self-intoxication, and removes the means for her recovery, free will.
I hope you are waking up that “in recovery” simply means in addiction, although in a momentarily “sober” state. Because AA denies free will, its members become progressively more dependent and remain vulnerable to periodic downfalls, “relapses,” for the rest of their lives. You uneasy feeling is because AA contradicts your native beliefs and your original family values. You sense, quite correctly, that 12-step recoveryism is pernicious, in effect, evil.
Ironically, you feel obliged to support that which is a direct threat to your family, as if she would suffer harm if you were in any way critical of her recoveryism. The Rational Recovery website is a rich resource for people who want their lives back from addiction and from recoveryism. Be excited when you tell her about AVRT®, and make sure she has every opportunity to have her original suspicions, that AA is backwards and upside down, confirmed.
Jack Trimpey
August 25th, 2006 at 5:41 pm
I am a mother of a drug addict. That is not the way I wanted my son to turn out in life, but I do realize that this is his choice and he is the only one who can stop his cycle of irresponsibility. However, I have been in a support group for several years to help me learn to cope with the stress and guilt that I feel for his choices. The group I attend is patterned after AA and Al-anon. I have learned from this group that my son has made his choices and that if I enable him or help him that I encourage the bad behavior.
My question to you, is how can you guarantee permanent results with your program, no temptation to sin again? Are we perfect beings? Are you? I sincerely doubt that you are. I know we all make bad decisions which we must be responsible for and pay the consequences, but how can you guarantee with your program that no one will ever make a bad moral choice again?
August 26th, 2006 at 7:43 am
Margaret,
With Rational Recovery a person guarantees him/herself that he/she will never drink again by making a very simple decsion and then sticking to it. Jack’s technique shows one how that is done by recognizing that part of oneself which encourages one to drink/drug (addictive voice recognition). The technique also teaches what to do when one experiences the addictive voice. It is actually quite simple and not at all mysterious.
Many people have harmed others by their drinking/drugging. It is not possible to guarantee family and friends that one will never drink again because trust has been broken. It is only by behavior and the dedictaion to one’s commitment to abstinence, that one may be able to regain the trust of others.
To Readers:
AVRT® comes with a guarantee, the Big Plan. Once the Big Plan is established, one may guarantee others he will never drink again, without expecting trust. That guarantee is the foundation for zero-tolerance in the family, whereby the addicted person quits for life to accommodate the family, instead of the opposite. In 12-step recovery, the family must accommodate addiction by accepting the uncertainty of one-day-at-a-time sobriety along with the progressive weirdness of the member “in recovery.”
Jack Trimpey
August 27th, 2006 at 7:18 pm
Margaret,
I guarantee my own perfect abstinence for the rest of my life, and so can anyone else. We are endowed by nature and/or by God with free will, which means that we may act independently from our bodily desires if we so choose. We may also decide that certain acts are inherently immoral, based upon the predictable outcome of those acts. Addiction is voluntary and and for the purpose of deep, physical pleasure, at the expense of others. That fits the definition of “immoral” in the ordinary sense of the word.
The Big Plan of AVRT-based recovery is a personal commitment based upon the moral judgment that, because self-intoxication is immoral, “I will never drink again.” Refraining from immoral conduct is much easier than trying to get rid of a desire over which you believe you are powerless.
We live in a culture that has accepted the disease concept of addiction, which makes self-intoxication by addicted people appear to be an innocent act. As part of family counseling, addiction treatment centers often compare drinking with diarrhea, “If your father had colon cancer, would you blame him if he soiled the couch?“ Families struggle with this paradox, because addiction and its treatment are highly destructive of original family values. A better question would be, “Suppose you discovered your father was soiling the couch for the sheer pleasure of it. Would you blame him then?“
The Big Plan is about zero-tolerance for any further self-intoxication, and uses strong moral exhortations. AVRT® comes with a guarantee that each addicted people first administers to himself, and then to his family, and then to society, and possibly to God. This is quite different from the dependent posture in addiction and in recovery.
August 27th, 2006 at 8:52 pm
Hi Jack,
Thanks for putting out this perspective. I attended Overeaters Anonymous quite a bit until I realized that I was using it as an excuse to eat more because I kept telling myself I was powerless- and that seemed rather silly. So I left the group and committed to my own self. I think when we look to others to help with addictions we’re not giving ourselves enough credit. Support is important, but so is personal power. For what it’s worth, I’m happy for anyone who can improve their life.
I think you have useful material on your site. I find some of the words here exclusive like, “The Beast,” and “morality” since I’m not familiar with what that means in this context.
I agree that taking personal responsibility is very important in creating our lives consciously. As far as Higher Powers go, we as people are also Higher Powers.
August 28th, 2006 at 10:13 am
Although I’m a fan of your work, I do have to point out that those who can say you don’t know how you’ll be 20 years from now do have a valid point. After all, the rock singer Melissa Etheridge once thought she was completely heterosexual - until she kissed one of her girlfriends full on the lips. It was then that she found out that her true sexual orientation lay outside what’s normally expected for women. Say what you will about alternate lifestyles, but that does seem to mean that just as Etheridge was suprised when she discovered her true sexual orientation, so you may very well find yourself drinking / smoking again in the future. Granted, I may have been inaccurate in my account of Etheridge’s discovering her sexual orientation, but the principle remains the same - how, exactly, do you know your status as a teetotaler will last for all time?
I am neither an AA supporter or RR basher - I’m very much in your camp - but I’d still like to know how you’d answer that one.
Jim,
Melissa’s sexuality notwithstanding, I know I will never drink again because, for me, the use of alcohol is profoundly immoral conduct. In this respect, I don’t allow my bodily desires to shape my moral principles. I will never “find myself” in the immoral act of self-intoxication. I guarantee it.
Jack Trimpey
September 1st, 2006 at 4:39 am
I could not define nor accurately defend, explain, analyze nor provide any logic as to why or how I quit drinking and stopped going to AA meetings. It would appear you have the words put down in writing that describes the path I chose to take. For me, it was an instinctual and logical procedure known as “Taking Responsibility for My Actions.” That is inclusive of keeping the world that I have and/or can influence, keeping it calm, providing the path for it to stabilize. In so doing, knowing that it was and is ME and MY ACTIONS that cause the ground to move. I also know beyond a shadow of doubt that there are results for my actions, that it’s pretty much a sure thing that I won’t like what will most probably happen should I choose to imbibe. I’ve proven this to myself time and time again. Bottom line: I affect the world by changing my own internal world and I accept the responsibility for the outcome. I found parts of AA useful, phrases like “Keep it simple”, that by analyzing all the stuff we really know nothing about, pretty much mucks up the obvious. Another one, “Insanity is using the same tools expecting a different result” and there are others that I took and continue to use as necessary. I think the one problem I had with AA is that according to that doctrine, I received absolutely no credit for my sobriety… like I didn’t do anything. Maybe that sort of balances out taking the blame for what happens when the drinking starts, a.k.a. a relapse. No responsibility there either. I know this is crap because I know and have always known that I AM THE REASON for my reality, it is ME that decides to drink, it is me that decides not to. I also know that by not drinking I’m treated with a certain degree of respect and common courtesy that others also enjoy simply by being a sober person. It’s good to know this elementary and fundamental law now has a name and it is (finally!) being written about. Someone has finally said Yes! Dammit, it’s your own damn fault for what you’ve done. When I choose to not do this any more, something different will happen. It’s really OK to give myself some help. I am glad there is a formative group that also knows that things change when a different choices are made. I believe I have the responsibility to myself to try, to test, to check it out and find out for myself if doing things a different way maybe might work because I do not like what happens when I do that the same old way. Whatever tools or rules that have to be used or borrowed or refined were and still are done as I see fit. Another AA saying, “One day at a time”, helped me out by maintaining sobriety for a short while. Looking at it in the forever sense, even one year down the road was/is, at times, quite an awesome task. I haven’t taken a drink for 5 years now and while I still consciously decide not to drink, I’m a bit more at ease because I keep on choosing not to drink. It feels pretty good to give myself credit for what I’ve done so far, knowing that I’m not done yet. If there is any gratitude to be had, I thank myself for it, not God, not AA, not a group, no one but me. This is really a simple truth, basic common sense (but so many marvel at !?!), a law of nature: my action(s) will have a result that will affect my reality. Only then does it effect the world outside myself. When this simple truth is replaced by blaming it on disease or some mystical creature known as alcohol, this is perhaps the reason why rediscovering sobriety and living it can be so complicated. I think AA has failed to emphasize an individual’s strength and sense of self. I have found and build on knowing that I did, or chose not to do and I’m better for it.
September 1st, 2006 at 10:15 am
In order to understand why Jack Trimpey criticizes AA and the “treatment” industry so harshly, it is very helpful to read “Rational Recovery: The New Cure.” Before picking up this book, I too was somewhat uncomfortable with the uncompromising tone Mr. Trimpey uses toward the 12-step movement. I have realized, however, that in addition to simply introducing AVRT (as the Crash Course does), the book functions as a very effective tool for recognizing the primary sources and guises of the Addictive Voice - and one of these is the 12-step industry itself.
In my opinion, a great deal of our common belief that we cannot simply choose to quit an addictive substance stems from the omnipresent programming of the recovery group movement. To keep new clients (and dollars) flowing through the door, the 12-step movement ensures that we are heavily exposed to the idea that without their “help,” there’s no escaping our addictions. Jack’s book does an excellent job of gradually and effectively deprogramming us out of this belief, and giving us the tools necessary to realize secure abstinence in our own lives - something which the “treatment” industry would have us believe is impossible or the result of self-deceiving “denial.”
What kind of “treatment” consists of insidiously robbing people of the option to avail themselves of simple and direct relief? Well-intentioned or not, it would be like “treating” a headache by taking away all of one’s aspirin and telling the bewildered patient to pray to God for deliverance from this “incurable disease.” If you want to quit drinking, go ahead and quit drinking. In my opinion, the only reason this statement raises so many immediate objections is that the recovery industry has ensured (to is own clear financial advantage) that we instinctively reject the idea that it is that simple. But for millions, it IS that simple - and if one needs better tools to get the job done, AVRT is available.
If the goal of recovery “treatment” is to totally eradicate the addiction in the sense that we never again desire to have a fix, it ain’t gonna happen. According to AVRT, Beast activity persists for a lifetime, although it becomes less than an occasional annoyance relatively quickly. If this is the case, “treatment” would be of no help in this regard even if it did not fuel the fire by actively embodying the Addictive Voice - which it does. Conversely, if the goal of the 12-step approach is to simply quit using the addictive substance, one can do that on their own, whether with AVRT or their own native resources. Again, it is a simple matter to conclude that for most people, there is no logical way that “treatment” can be of help, especially when it discourages us from believing that secure abstinence is even possible.
After reading “Rational Recovery: The New Cure,” it seems to me that the recovery group movement is the primary roadblock that keeps people from believing that they can achieve secure abstinence. And for ensuring its own growth and financial gain by promoting the belief that individuals are powerless over their addictions, the treatment industry deserves all of the scorn Jack Trimpey heaps upon it. After all, if Jack and others sincerely believe that the treatment industry is a huge impediment to the secure abstinence that would await many struggling addicts otherwise, why would they keep silent about it? In reality, they would not and should not. When lives are at stake, to sit down and shut up in the interest of mutual tranquility is wrong.
September 4th, 2006 at 12:42 am
I have just discovered this site and am extremely happy to have found it. My situation or committment to self has just begun as of this writing.
I have been through the AA meetings and rehab in the past due to the request of the court system and my attorney only. Frankly, I was extremely uncomfortable (with respect to the entire structure and concept) in those collective settings. For me, much of what Jack has said is what I had felt, but never put it into words as well as he has done.
So, I plan to buy the book tomorrow September 4th, 2006 and get started with my comittment to self. One thing for sure that I know is that I have the power to make a committment to self and family. Until now, I have never made that promise to me or my spouse.
All I can say from this point is I look forward to getting started with the book tomorrow. I’ll be happy to making additional comments in the future and share my thoughts and opinions moving forward.
Thanks in advance to Mr. Timpey.
Jim,
Welcome to AVRT-based recovery! At last you have the information necessary for complete recovery, based upon your own native beliefs and original family values. As you may have suspected all along, addiction recovery is nothing more than secure permanent abstinence, and independent recovery is commonplace, far more frequent than with the use of groups, shrinks, and rehabs. Moreover, recovery through planned, permanent abstinence (AVRT®) is easy, and take only as much time as you choose.
Sad to say, but many people who read your happy post will hope that you fail. They are your former group mates, in recovery, who do not want you to surpass their meanger achievement of one-day-at-a-time sobriety. Their hats are definitely not off to you, because they will see you as a dry-drunk, deep in denial of your disease, doomed to misery, irritability, and a constant yearning to drink. Only in that fashion may they justify squandering their own lives on 12-step recoveryism.
Your good feelings are not a “pink cloud” or a “honeymoon,” and you are not setting yourself up for a great fall. Those are the jaded jabs of the Beast heard in the fellowship of addiction. You are now re-connecting with your original family values, which are incompatible with addiction and recovery doctrines. Only your native beliefs, which you knew very well by the age of 5 or 6, will suffice to restore your original identity and grant you freedom and dignity.
I am sorry that it took so very long for you to accidentally learn about Rational Recovery®, but we are working hard to make our presence known to addicted people everywhere. Here is the informed consent that has been suppressed by the 12-step syndicate and our social service system. Considering what’s at stake, you might want to subscribe to the website and participate in the Rational Recovery Discussion Forums.
Cheers,
Jack Trimpey
September 4th, 2006 at 11:03 pm
Wow!
Thank you so much for that eloquant response to my inital post on behalf of this absolutley wonderful site and solution. I was able to find your book today. After discussion with my family and my commitment to take my life back we all agreed this was exactly what I have been searching for over the past….well several years.
My AV is talking to me as I write this. I wish I could utter in words what is off of my shoulders at this early point. It is really incredible to know that I am not off my rocker and doomed to a disease that I never felt I had in the first place. The other approach is more of a business than most of the country realizes (from the healthcare, legal and criminal justice standpoint). This commitment to self is one of such common sense that I wish I would have considered earlier in my life. The AVRT is such a great tool for me and I look forward to refining it as i move forward.
My only question is finding out if there is a RRSN in the Chicago area?? Perhaps it was an oversight on my part, but I am curious about the network and communicating with others on technique.
Jim,
There are no Rational Recovery groups anywhere in the world. If you aren’t going to drink any more, which is what you have implied, what purpose do you have “communicating on technique?” Are you reserving the privilege of relapse? Is there some part of “never” that is unclear to you? Who do you think would turn out at your imagined Rational Recovery meetings, other than disgruntled 12-steppers and other riff-raff. The last thing you need is to hang out with a group of insecure substance abusers after dark. Stay home with your family, where you belong, and enjoy your newfound freedom and dignity. You’re the man, Jim!
Cheers,
Jack Trimpey
September 6th, 2006 at 8:19 am
How could RR be a money hoax when AVRT isposted right on the web page for free?
I believe, from years of AA and NA, that RR has saved me more money because it actually works. AA and NA didn’t work at all and I chose to get loaded. AA has cost me tens of thousands of dollars. RR is making my savings account bloom.
AA and NA people are scared to think for themselves. Trying to go your own way in my town is impossible. Everyone always asks me “why don’t you go to meetings?, are you using?”. I could tell them “no I dont believe in NA or AA” but that would be like telling a Mormon that Joseph Smith is fraud.
September 8th, 2006 at 10:05 pm
First have you ever read the BIG BOOK. Next have you ever had an obsession so strong it motivated every thought, till it was acted on? The 3rd step states a god of our understanding, liquor was not a god to me. You obviously have a fear of relapse, or why slam the solution? If I could stop without 12 steps I would not waste life on slaming recovery programs.
In closing I pray your feelings of irritablity,anger & discontent are one day relieved. (God does that not beasts)
Dave S. (alcoholic of the hopless, helpless variety)
September 9th, 2006 at 7:16 am
“Next have you ever had an obsession so strong it motivated every thought, till it was acted on?”
Well, yeah, everyone who is addicted has this obsession. The point is that you don’t have to act on it. AVRT gives you lots of great practical ways to accomplish that. But one can get over these feelings (and the addiction, by the way), by recognizing them and seperating from them and yes, ignoring them. The obsession becomes like a dog barking in the distance, not some scary monster you have to turn your life over to AA to overcome. They do go away and then you go on — with no purpose in attending meetings.
“…alcoholic of the hopless, helpless variety?”
Now isn’t that attractive? Is that what your precious association has done for you? No wonder Jack Trimpey is so fed up with it. It’s a cult.
September 10th, 2006 at 7:54 am
I just looked up your website this morning. It’s intriguing; I will keep it in mind. I have several decades of alcoholism/compulsive gambling in my life–drinking mostly during the gambling binges. I was in a problem gambling program and then went back out. I’ve signed back up to go back tomorrow. They require 3 GA meetings a week, as well as 4 nights of 2 hour out-patient sessions. I can’t risk not going.
I would like to think that RR could work for me, and as I said, I will keep it in mind. I agree with the concept that these addictions are behavioral choices–not a disease. It just sounds too simplistic to me.
Also, I don’t see GA or AA as being a money making racket. If so, for whom? They don’t even require that you give–you could go for years and never give a dime, if that’s your choice.
Whatever works for people, that is what they should do.
As I said, I’ll keep RR in mind.
Stephanie W.
==================================
The reader must decide if there is a disease consuming this woman’s life, or chronic recoveryism. To her, idea of refraining from alcohol and gaming on moral grounds is “too simplistic.” However, she is enthralled that AA is charitable toward persons given to profound financial irresponsibility.
Jack Trimpey
September 11th, 2006 at 1:01 am
I find your replies to those recoverering in A.A. entertaining.
[Then laugh at this!]
I think it is amazing how you can analyze people so fast. I go to help those in A.A. who ask for help. I have been sober for 15 years, I have a happy home life, will you analyze that and tell me how bad the “beast” has been to me?
[I remember you from the days I still suffered from recoveryism. You had been in recovery for decades, with nothing better in life than Step 12. It was very depressing, to think my life was either addiction or AA. I think your life is still organized around your original addiction, fifteen years later. I think you have learned to love something that was forced upon you by unnecessary fears of your bodily desires, by an imaginary disease that forgives the immorality of your self-intoxication, and by suppression of informed consent. As for how bad your Beast has been to you, very bad. There is no reason you should now be evangelizing the doctrines that harmed you, surfing the Internet to interact with other substance abusers.]
I disagree with your method, but I might be doing somone who could be helped by those methods if I said like you do “stay away”, a disservice, like you so freely do with A.A.. Why don’t you attack religion?.
[I think religion is fine, but should not be imposed upon people in the throes of addiction, especially as a condition of survival or as a turnstile to a better life. Religions contain the necessary information for prompt, total recovery, information that Bill W corrupted with his personal spiritualism/occultism. AA is bad religion, which is why I attack that approach to addiction recovery. I should point out that you are suppressing your own dissent for fear that open criticism of AVRT® might do someone a disservice. This is part of your recovery group disorder, which suppresses dissent in the service of social cultism. Censorship is a disservice, ugly to the core, but to you is seems life-giving. Because your attitudes are the foundation of the 12-step syndicate, Rational Recovery exists.]
I do not diagree with those who can seek religion and not drink again.
[I hope you can look objectively at this last comment and see how far you have fallen into the abyss of 12-step recoveryism, possessed by doctrine-bound arrogance.]
A.A. clearly states “we do not have a monoply on the way to quit drinking”, that is what you say. It worked for me and taught me some principles that I have used successfully in other areas in my life, is that so bad?.
You chose to compete with A.A. we did not. Drinking or not, no one person can live more than one day at a time. I wish you well.
[Here again, you imply that competition or criticism of AA is wrong, inappropriate, undesireable, dangerous, and so on. Who do you think you are, to exempt yourself from criticism? Do you watch the news at all, to witness religious intolerance like yours? I think you believe that criticism of certain doctrines is a form of intolerance or bigotry. That wouldn’t surprise me in the least. — Jack Trimpey]
September 11th, 2006 at 3:32 pm
To Dave S.:
Yes, I have read the book “Alcoholics Anonymous”. To someone who has recovered independently, it appears totally different from how it was intended. It shows how complicated and conditional one-day-at-a-time sobriety is, as opposed to just knocking it off, once and for all, for good, for life.
What gets me is why didn’t I see it as it was when I was “in recovery” in my rehab phase. But then the answer is so obvious: Addiction is the ultimate blindfold and desperation makes sure that blindfold is on very tight. The cult will do anything and everything to wreck one’s own self confidence to abstain under all circumstances.
Anyhow, pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living: Quit now, separate from the social cultism of A.A., learn and tell others how simple lifetime abstinence really is. That’s real experience, strength and hope right there and available right here. Right now.
It all begins with this question: What’s your plan for the future use of alcohol? Knowing full well what trouble you got yourself into while fully loaded, are you going to drink again or not?
September 12th, 2006 at 1:24 pm
I absolutly agreee with everything I read! I am An addict who has struggled with the AA’s 12 step recovery program for several years. I beleive that I can quit on my own, because I want to. I had to laugh several times throught your aritcle, because I have similiar thought. At my first AA meeting, I asked the question whether or not AA can be an obssesion in itself. I was brutely critisized for this question. The members are so arrogant, far above the newcomer.
Of couse I relapsed, as I was expected to do this, and the door will be open IF I return. I am in college now, and have already determined that I will not endorse AA’s cause. My main problem with them is, when are you ever again? When does this end? And why are these peeople still going to meeting 20 years later?
I am currently in a outpatient program mandated by my probation officer. AA tells me I must continue to go to meetings, because I WILL relapse if I don’t. The outpatient treatment center here is cutting back on services and everyone is terrified about it.
September 20th, 2006 at 8:23 am
Hello; my name is Ruben, and I am an alcoholic.
I found your insight most disturbing; you assert your program is the answer to all, if you had attended AA, you know that there is no answer that works for everyone the same; I congratulate you for have found your answer; but please do not push it down our throats; I am glad that you are making good and that you are making a living out of this; if you really know addictions, you know that if you are down in the gutter or on your hands and knees, there is very little you can do, your senses and desires force you to continue using or drinking and many of us have come from there; maybe your program can work with people who are already working some type of program, you seem to target on them, why don’t you go where the real drunks are, and present them your program; probably they do not have money to pay your fees.
Ruben R.
Readers:
Ruben is a pathetic, tortured soul, trapped by fear of bodily desire in a tiny world called, “in recovery.” He is disturbed to hear his original suspicions confirmed years after he sold his soul to AA in exchange for a daily reprieve from lifetime abstinence. Although AA forces itself upon millions through social authorities and lack of choice, he wants this private website to be shut down, so he does not feel I am forcing my opinions down his throat. Ruben would dim the sun to control the weeds, and would suppress AVRT® so that no one can escape the prison in which he lives. He attacks my character, as the Addictive Voice always does, but identifies no error or falsehood associated with AVRT-based recovery. Ruben is the voice of millions who speak for Alcoholics Anonymous, all saying the same, resentful things to people who criticize Mother Group. God bless Ruben and may he and all who still suffer in AA find the moral judgment to abstain from alcohol and other drugs. From that will come their freedom and dignity.
Jack Trimpey
September 25th, 2006 at 3:07 pm
I refuse to debate the fact that the 12 steps actually work but I will tell you that there is a God and I will pray that he finds you all well.
If A.A works leave it alone! If Rational Recovery works then Leave it alone!
The only thing that really matters here is that someone somewhere might need some help and if we can stop bickering here long enough they might get the help they so desperately need.
Remember If you dont get help from this site get help somewhere.
Thank You,
N.D.N.II
==================================
NDN II,
Your message above is essentially a polite way to suppress informed consent to recovery group participation. You know very well that very few newcomers last for long, that 95% drop out before a year is up, and that only 2% of newcomers are consistently sober at the five year mark. Yet, you want to silence one of the very few sources of information that contradicts 12-step doctrines.
Have you no compassion for the huge majority who enter your rooms and are so offended by what they see and hear? Must you expect them to keep coming back trying to live in violation of their original family values, while their families disintegrate under the burden of one-day-at-a-time sobriety? Why must you justify selling out on yourself by making sure no one else gets better without AA?
Read your own Grapevine publication, and see that the majority of succcessful recoveries occur without groups, counseling, or addiction treatment. Most importantly, understand that when people contradict 12-step recovery, all of it, they very often defeat their addictions in short order, without the occultism of Bill W and his friends.
By the way, you are speaking for AA when you post your objections to dissent. AA is intolerant of criticism, hence its ban on controversy. You are as much a representative of AA as Bill W himself when you parrot the incredibly parocial viewpoints as you have.
Jack Trimpey
September 25th, 2006 at 5:26 pm
I believe AVRT has saved my life! I entered ER last Wed witn a blood alcohol level of .438 and almost died. My daughter got me a copy of Jack’s book and what an awakening!
I read it in the hospital in one day. I made my BIG PLAN in the car on the way home.
I heard the Addictive voice numerous times Sunday. The Beast cowered down and away when I affirmed my Plan. This occurred during football games and the NASCAR race which I am usually hiiting the Vodka real heavy.
The Beast made a final attempt on my emotions yesterday at 5 PM when it induced severe depression on me….doom, gloom and suicide thoughts.
Although briefly unpleasant, I stated my plan to the Beast, then took a nap. I woke up 2 hours later refreshed! Thanks Jack for saving my life!
Vern,
In your comments above, first AVRT saves your life, then I save your life. Then you seem to think your Beast has made its final attempt on your emotions, on you, on your Big Plan. The truth is, you are responsible for your successes and failures, and the Beast will be with you the rest of your life.
You appear to have a recovery group disorder, resulting from long exposure to Alcoholics Anonymous. Although AVRT® is very simple, and independent recovery is quite easy, it will take some effort on your part to defeat the lasting effects of 12-step recoveryism.
The slogans and mottoes of AA, as well as the strong attitudes of group dependence, will persist in your thoughts for many years. AVRT® can help you to recognize 100% of 12-step recovery as Addictive Voice, and you will be able to live comfortably with Beast activity, and regain your freedom and dignity. Considering what’s at stake, with your blackout drinking, you might subscribe to the website for monitored learning.
Jack Trimpey
September 30th, 2006 at 8:32 am
Please reconsider your harse remarks…some have had great success and some have died..like everything in life, your philosophy may be better for many and the other may work. Lead your followers. let AA lead theirs.
Thu ultimate goal is to live and be productive.
Readers,
Who do these people think they are, lining up in an endless procession to silence any criticism of their social cultism? They are everywhere, and they’re all the same, almost like wind-up dolls reciting 12-step doctrines. Anonymous “Angel,“ is the quiet, parental type, “Why can’t we all just get along?” Not so obvious, is that he/she is suppressing informed consent to recovery group participation, i.e., criticism of AA. Such discourse is regarded as AA-bashing, a serious breach of taboo. Even less obvious is that 12-steppers are among the angriest, most ruthless folks on earth. Most would rather see a substance abuser die than see him get better without the blessings of AA.
For the record, AVRT® targets the Addictive Voice, regardless of its source. It can’t be helped that recovery group slogans, mottoes, and doctrines – whether AA, psychological, logical or astrological – fit the definition of the Addictive Voice, which is any thinking that supports or suggests the possible future use of alcohol or other drugs.
AVRT® is little more than a parlor game, screening sentences for suggestions of continued substance abuse, but it is mightier than all of the science that has ever been generated surrounding addiction and recovery. Any 10-year-old can do it, but licensed professionals cannot comprehend the embedded concept of free will. As a licensed counselor, I get blank stares and impatience when I suggest to my colleagues that addicted people summarily quit drinking/using.
Jack Trimpey
October 1st, 2006 at 5:20 pm
It is so refreshing to hear such a clear voice of reason!
My spouse is heavily involved in a 12-step recovery group called
Food Addicts Anonymous. FA is so far over-the-top of any other
12-step program I’ve ever known, and it is such a trap for so many
people. Our family is struggling to endure the effects of FA in our lives.
You hit on many of the problems with 12-step recovery groups and why
they really are hopeless. And one aspect that is especially troubling is
that they feed on a self-centered, self-oriented, narcissistic approach to recovery, which is such a significant part of the problem.
As my spouse has stated one of their premises, “program above family”.
How can a philosophy like this help anyone?
It just sounds like another addiction.
Jim,
What that translates into is that 12-step recoveryism is anti-family, for all participants. The 12-step program is a direct contradiction of every family’s original family values, requiring families to accommodate addiction rather than have the addict accommodate family standards and values. It’s so easy to see once you know what to look for, but sadly, most Americans have an AA-shaped blind spot and cannot see the evil in our recovery group madness. The incredible thing is the the medical profession has bought into this horrible scam, and our courts are actually forcing people to participate against their will. This means that the state is now in the business of replacing family beliefs and values with the beliefs and values common to addicted people.
I’ve often said there’s no problem a government can’t make worse, and this one certainly takes the cake.
Jack Trimpey
October 24th, 2006 at 3:58 pm
Well, Jack, I’m back. I wrote to you on September 10th, saying I would keep an open mind. Having spent countless hours in my recovery program, as well as meetings, not to mention all the brainpower wasted on thinking of my addictions, I looked this website up again last night. I went through the short course, again. This time I really thought about it and meant it. I love the people I have met in GA rooms, but I have read through your website and it all makes sense to me now. I felt good going through my day, as if I can finally live. I am going to join RR as soon as I can clear up my credit card. Thank you. I finally have hope. And you were right. I was addicted to chronic recoveryism–and abstaining on moral grounds does make sense.
Stephanie W.
November 13th, 2006 at 1:05 am
I attended some AA meetings because a friend of mine was exhibiting some strange behaviour, not drinking but acting like people I have known who were addicted. In order to make myself a little more knowledgeable about the condition..I attended quit a few meetings. I was totally depressed at these meetings, in part, because they did not offer any hope for these people and their members appeared like victims…victims for life. Their lives seemed to be half empty…and they accepted that. I attended 5 AA meetings with despair and then attended one AA meeting…all at different locations, thinking that perhaps I’d find something a little more up-beat and positive at one of them….I did not. I will have to agree that AA is definitely not the answer as far as I am concerned.
December 1st, 2006 at 4:46 pm
I’m a Christian and I see that is a cult. I have read the Big Book {of lies} .AA is a counterfeit religion, the biggest fraud of this century. My husbands family lives and breathes it, now my husband is in it, and I’m soon to be a single mom because of it. AA is NOT family friendly! The family is expected to conform to the AAers needs; if they don’t, then they are labelled “bitter” and “angry.” They can see no reason for the wife of a brainwashed AA drone to be bitter and angry.
AA is a national disaster and the more this cult is exposed the better. It has destroyed countless relationships. AA is nothing but a crutch for pathetic people who have been brainwashed to believe that they can’t live without AA.
There is absolutly no evidence that there is an alcoholism gene; alcoholism is not a chronic, lifetime disease. There is no such thing as a “dry drunk”. That is another made up fairy land word, having no scientific basis whatsoever.
ADDICTION IS A CHOICE! AA people all talk the same, act the same, and speak in a flat, programmed tone like the Heaven’s Gate cult members. The Heaven’s Gate cult was originally called “Total Overcomers Anonymous,” a connection that is not coincidence. If we told all the AAers that Bill wilson was in a spaceship at the end of a comet I wonder if they would drink poison. I can dream can’t I?
I love to quote something weird directly out of the Big Book and then have AAers tell me that I’m lying. It’s too funny!
December 7th, 2006 at 7:14 pm
My husband and I became crack addicts back in 1987, continuing to smoke it despite losing almost everything we had. In 1990, we were sent to AA meetings and “rehab” for six months; after every session we went by the drug dens and got our supply of crack. All the talking about drugs just intensified the need to do it.
In 1991, I went next door to my mom’s house, in the middle of the night with some ridiculous story of why I needed to use her bank card to get some of her money out of her bank account and it could not wait until morning. In all my 50 years, I hadn’t lied to her and seeing that she was buying my story broke my heart. I still took the card and got the money and the dope, but later told my husband that if it was going to take lying to my mother then it was not worth it and the only way to stop doing it, was to not do it.
We made the decision that our lives were more important than that brain buzz that we worshipped. We quit, we stopped seeing anyone who even mentioned cocaine. We never relapsed, knowing that one hit would start it all over again. That was our experience. No AA meetings or rehab could have stopped us from doing the dope that was ruining our lives and actually killing us. We were at the point that if God himself came down and told us that the next hit we took would kill us, we would take it anyway!
All it took was each of us deciding that it was just not the right thing to do, that it was morally wrong and it was demoralizing us. We stopped using it by not using it. Period. Nobody thinks that their addiction is a good thing. They just need to make the right decision, to quit, and the only way to quit is to completely “knock it off”!!
December 9th, 2006 at 6:48 am
Great post, Carol and Jack! Thank you.
CTMS
December 10th, 2006 at 5:23 pm
What would you say are the positive aspects of the 12 Step programs? I haven’t heard you address that? It’s difficult for me to believe something like this could be all bad, all evil, all wrong. That doesn’t make rational sense to me. There must be some goodness to it somewhere, don’t you think?
December 11th, 2006 at 2:08 pm
you mention rr meetings in the small book. i cant find them, please help—i am in houston, tx
December 11th, 2006 at 9:28 pm
I have read your book and studied your website and have come to the conclusion that you are a total moron. Both your book and website are filled with misinformation and half-truths regarding the program of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Alcoholics Anonymous has been instrumental in helping millions of people to the road of recovery from alcoholism. It has been effective for over 70 years, as it focuses on only one thing, recovery from alcoholism. It does not deal with drugs, gambling, overeating, computer addiction, etc.
You might take a look at the demise of the Washingtonians in the mid 1800’s. Their end came quickly after they tried to become an all encompasing recovery program, as you are trying to do.
I wonder if 70 years from now, anyone will remember Jack Trimpey, Rational Recovery or The Small Book?
As a grateful 19 year member of Alcoholics Anonymous, I take great offense to your half truths and misconceptions regarding the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous.
December 17th, 2006 at 12:43 pm
Your well-reasoned and articulate post entitled “The Twelve Steps of AA: Code of the Beast” gives further evidence that AA isn’t “right” for everyone and doesn’t “work” for everyone. Your post makes me think of my Mom’s religious beliefs. I can state reason after reason why her belief system is a “cult,” how illogical it is, and how “out-of-touch” it is with reality. Yet the bottom line is this: as problematic as her religious beliefs are to me, her faith “works” for her. And since she is in her 80s, I see no reason to upset the religious apple cart now.
It’s much the same for those who “owe everything” to AA. Perhaps unaware of other forms of recovery that have a better “track record” and are less “cult-like,” these “true believers” see AA as their only path to alcohol salvation and really do not want to discuss any other forms of treatment or recovery.
http://www.about-alcohol-rehab.com
January 5th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
After discovering this site and remedy for abuse, I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t know there was much more than AA. I’ve attended meetings for a month if not more. Sometimes more than one meeting a day. After a couple weeks I still felt hopeless. I was sober for that hour of the meeting atleast.
I would sometimes drink before the meeting after those first two weeks. I didn’t take it seriously. I was skeptical. I felt creeped out by the chants, the overlly friendly strangers. I know they want to help. So I went sober for a few days. Called people who would ‘help’ me. Rarely got calls back. The calls that were returned were pointless babble. I asked questions and got no answers. They would say “stick with it” or pat you on the back garbage like that. So, I went back to drinking. Atleast I can say I gave AA a good month to help me. It didn’t.
I know AA helps people. I don’t know how getting a poker chip for staying sober helps anyone. It’s not for me. That is how I found RR. LOGIC revolves around RR in most ways. It can be done.
February 7th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
I must say, all I hear on this site is negativity. Although this program RR works, and I have made my Big Plan, I think that you Jack are a pompous ass! Anyone who decides that they are “GOD” which you have done is one. You wield a sword of finality over people who buy your book and subscribe to your web site. You are doing the exact same thing that AA and all 12 step programs are. You are pretending to have all the answers. Be a man, have humility, and stop playing the role of the all knowing powerful being. I have a problem with the world cult just being used in reference to AA. All organized religion is a cult. If a group of any kind demands that you believe what they do or you are cast out and looked upon with disgust is a cult. I truly feel remorse for the people who cannot see what you and all others who demand they believe are doing to them. You promote Self choice yet you say there is only one choice, your way. Sounds a lot like AA to me.
May 6th, 2007 at 4:06 am
Thank you so much. I have battled with the beast and even though not a member of AA have been affected by what they spout ‘its a disease’, ‘one day at a time’, ‘inherited’ etc. I have wanted to give up drinking and tried and tried, but my AV (which I didn’t recognize before reading this site) would always talk me into another drink, and of course another one!
Finally, desperate to stop, I decided I must go to AA. After all I wasn’t succeeding on my own. Why hadn’t I chosen to go before? Because I really didn’t want to hang out with a bunch of people who told drinking stories and defined themselves forever as an alcoholic. So, 2 days ago, I decided to go to AA. I stopped drinking but just couldn’t bring myself to go to a meeting. I was scared that if I didn’t I would lapse etc.
Then I stumbled on to your website. I am so glad I didn’t go because I was full of resolve just as you described and I believe I would have been talked out of it.
I went to Al-Anon for some years as, I was married to a problem drinker. I know all the lingo etc. They were kind and helpful, but eventually I left the marriage and said goodbye to dredging up the misery at weekly meetins. I was happy.
I understand your ‘pleasure principle’ as the basis for addiction. I wanted to enjoy life after an unhappy marriage and have allowed my party animal to run rampant, causing many problems. Tonight I made the Big Plan. I know lots of people will be cynical about my hope for success, just like my Beast, but I feel really confident in it.
I will immerse myself in the ‘bullets’ and probably go on to back that up with your other course and material.
A really big thank you. I am so glad I got to your site before I got to a meeting. I will keep in touch with my progress.
Bronte,
Thanks for the wonderful feedback! Bravo to you for finally taking control!
You have taken strong, effective action, and you are functioning as a normal, healthy woman who abstains from alcohol and other drugs based upon her own native beliefs, personal intuitions, and sound, moral judgment. Now you stay at home in the evenings, where you belong, and form relationships based upon your actual preferences rather than the obligation to associate with nocturnal lowlife in recovery. Your recovery has cost you nothing, not even AA dues for the basket.
If you want further learning on AVRT-based recovery, it will always fit your budget. The book, The New Cure, is inexpensive, DVD’s are good values, and a website subscription may be the best all-around value other than going on auto-pilot, as you are doing. You have a 100% chance of success!
Your experience is exactly the intent of this website, and the founding purpose of Rational Recovery®.
Be sure to let others know about AVRT® so they can avoid the difficulties you had to face.
Cheers,
Jack Trimpey
May 6th, 2007 at 4:20 am
I don’t see what you are doing as AA-bashing, but rather unraveling the beliefs that we all hold as a result of AA. I think we have begun to believe the AA line right across society, and I think those beliefs are what often what keep us trapped in our addictions. You obviously cop criticism for this, but I see how necessary it is to thoroughly debunk the AA mythology so that we are not held captive to the self defeating belief system that allows our Beast to rule. Thanks again.
May 15th, 2007 at 10:13 am
My father abandoned my mother and I in order to become sober. I’ve struggled with AA ever since because they put emphasis on my father’s recovery and feel it perfectly okay what he did to us to achieve it. In short, I’ve been a victim of AA-abuse.
On my own, I’ve struggled with addiction (not, ironically, to alcohol) and have nearly been consumed by it. Learning that not only is a 12 step program not the only answer but the wrong answer has lifted a great weight from me. The 180 degree reversal from being powerless to being empowered is all anyone really needs. AA is for people who still drink, AVRT is for people who want to quit.
July 9th, 2007 at 2:37 am
Hello,
Thanks for this great site.I am pleased to have got to it.
I am a recovered alcoholic.AA helped me recover because i chose to recover. The key word is CHOSE.
I have browsed thru just a few comments on the article-and i find it typical of aa members.You either agree with the majority or u r branded anti aa.
My take on aa is as follows
It is a place that can be used to recover and then get away from it. Do not get addicted to aa.The aa addcition is dangerous
The shepherds of aa-and there r many keep the folks in aa sick and scared so that the herd does not stray.Anyone who questions them is anti aa.aa IS NOW IN THE HANDS OF SICK CONTROL FREAKS WHO ARE IN DENAIL.
AA now passes on the message thats says-U WILL BE SICK FOR LIFE AND U WILL GET SICKER.SO STICK TO AA AND MAKE MEETINGS ELSE U WILL DRINK AGAIN AND BE MISERABLE.
I have personally experienced many in aa who are not drinking but they sure do have many other problems for which medical help is required but they arent seeking that help.Many in aa are a dangerous lot.
AA is used to try and get free sex, swindle fellow members off some cash or swing deals.Besides this, aa is used or should I say abused to keep folks sick and get them sicker. How can aa pass on a message that helpes newcomers when the old members exude sickness themselves.
The 12 steps of AA are talked about but hardly walked by most in AA.
There are a minority in AA like me who use it to recover and then scram so that the sickness in the meeting rooms does not engulf us.But then these folks are anti aa-because they beleive we will not be sick for life.
This is the sad truth about aa.The AA 12 steps are talked by all and practised by a rare few.
Friends use AA to recover-DO NOT LET THE AA SICKOS USE AND ABUSE U.
WE CAN ALL QUIT DRINKING AND STAY QUIT AND BE WELL-AA IS NOT THE ONLY ANSWER-IT MAYBE A GOOD PLACE TO START BUT DONT STAY STUCK IN THERE.AA CAN GET U TERRIBLY SICK IF U GET ADDICTED TO AA.
When I land up at an aa meeting and am asked to share-which is very rare, I introduce myself as a RECOVERED ALCOHOLIC.And beleive me the folks in there do not like it.
Cheers,
AN EX ALKY
July 21st, 2007 at 7:14 am
You my friend do not know what you are talking about. Have you ever been to an A.A. meeting? Your writing sounds as if you are talking from a vantage point of a person way, way on the outside looking in that has never really learned the true program of Alcoholics Anonymous. There are no “Obligatory” meetings. True A.A. does not point to the “Group” as the Solution but points to God who has all Power. I will read more of your material out of curiosity, but I have to say you are gravely misinformed. If you want information on the Real AA and what it means to be RECOVERED, not in recovery for the rest of your life from alcoholism I’d be glad to oblige.
October 4th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Thank You so very much for helping to expose this dreadful organization{AA}. I was caught up in their nonsense for several years,caught on that terrible merry-go-round of relapse and meetings.I have freedom today and I can’t help but feel sorry for those many people I still know who are still caught on the addiction wheel. I’ve tried explaining to some of them the dangers of the 12 step syndicate,but to no avail;even with all the evidence of failure they still cling on.I want to thank you and Agent Orange for helping me break free.Garry
October 10th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Wow, sounds like I’ve got some work to do. I’ve been on the AA track for 2.5 yrs and it’s never felt comfortable. Jack, I stumbled on your site a couple days ago and can’t wait to get your book. The crash course on AVRT® immediately struck a chord. Zero tolerance… it’s MY responsibility… DOMINATE the beast, then move on.
I mentioned your site to one of the guys in a book study and you would have thought I said, “Hey, let’s go boozing!” He looked at me with equal parts distain and contempt. These “friendships” I thought I had developed obviously come with a big string attached. I thought I might get a “Sure, Keith, keep in touch… explore all avenues… we know you can do it!” Uh,.. no.
Looking forward continuing my sobriety happy, joyous and free from AA!!!
November 7th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Hi Jack,
I’m back after a month now, read your book and feel more empowered than ever! I honestly can’t believe this. It’s like a veil has been lifted and everything’s so clear… so simple. I’m a bit concerned as I’ve quit meetings cold turkey and must admit that my Beast has hinted that I should return to “check in”. I’ve resisted that as I now know my addiction is a private, personal matter… between me and Beast.
Excellent, excellent work! A thousand thank you’s!!!
December 20th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Hello from Vancouver BC
How many times have you been to a meeting, and at the halfway point 75% of the room runs outside for a quick smoke and a cup of joe? The irony in this is inescapable.
I too struggled with “the program” and especially step 1 where you give up your personal power and free will. Isn’t that the goal of interrogaters and cultists everywhere? Break down the core beliefs and personality so the subject can become dependent on the group/cult/system/whatever? It is so frustrating to go to a “professional” for help and know more about addiction and how to get well than they do. “How many meetings have you been to” seems to be all many of them are interested in. I have been to hundreds, probably thousands of meetings and I don’t think any of it helped me at all. The last couple of years when I was going to meetings, I used to suggest things like “free will” or “self responsibility” as a topic just for a laugh. Or I would introduce myself and say “Hi my name is Dee and I am an idiot” The dirty looks I got…. The tenacity with which people hold on to the program is quite fierce. I used to attribute it to the fact that they were commited to staying sober and this was the only way they knew how, but I think it’s more likely that the fear mongering tactics used on “the newcomer” is to blame. Thats another thing that drives me nuts. Who wants to be singled out as a “newcomer” when they are feeling fragile and vulnerable in the first few days of being clean and sober? That almost guarantees dishonesty and confusion right from the get-go.
If anything helpful can be gleaned from the “program” I would love to hear about it. “The triangle of self obsession” is a pretty good pamphlet, seems to hold some water, but by and large the “program” as well intentioned as it is, does nothing to encourage people to stay clean, and in fact does encourage them to hang onto their addiction or whatever they think is bothering them, and leave the open ended possibilty of getting blasted looming front and centre.
Bah humbug to Bill W. and friends. At least be open to debate and the possibility that there might be another way, eh? Thats the only way to adapt and survive and thrive.
Love and respect from the True North Strong and Free
February 21st, 2008 at 10:09 pm
I have been a member of AA for several years. I was addicted to everything that I could get my hands on. AA has saved my life. I love the people in AA and I hang around with people who enjoy life. We do not sit around and talk about how much we drank and how much we used. We talk about family, our jobs, helping others, you know RECOVERY STUFF. Maybe you don’t know??????????
I have read all the post and you do not like people who have their own opinion. You have slammed everyone who does not think the way you do. And you call AA a cult and evil.
I feel sad for you. You must be a miserable, lonely person. Maybe not. I suppose you hang out with people who worship you.
Can’t wait to get a reply
March 16th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Hello Jack, interesting reading your views.
I attended AA for a while and have read the Big Book a couple of times, and even though i liked the people there it didn’t sit comfortably with me.
If i could have gone and sat on the fringes that might have been okay but it was clear that a lot more is expected. With big doubts i felt that it had to be all or nothing for me and therefore i pulled out.
Firstly i am not helpless and secondly i believe strongly in free will. Since i stopped last year, there was no bottom( i ignored all those) just a sense that i had had enough. I find some of the slogans such as “Dry Drunk” an insult as i am living a good life in which alcohol plays no part.Maybe those who are working these programmes are not doing as well as they think they are. When i raised a few questions i was asked if i was really an alcoholic, been there and done it all for nearly 30 years- i think i know.
I have a full life and i don’t need to constantly meet up with a group of people to talk about these issues.
With regard to the meetings, the share meetings were quite interesting but the Big Book meetings were weird. Analyzing every word as though it were Gospel. It seemed to me like a Bible meeting and the people there believed every line and had tunnel vision and were not in any way accepting of genuine questions.
March 22nd, 2008 at 8:16 am
Bill W.s biggest mistake was to adopt the 12 steps from the Oxford Group which was Buchmans idea of a fascist style Christianity movement, a man who was in praise of Hitler because he thought he could force God on mankind. Of course Hitler, was not interested in Christianity like the KKK, because of its Jewish roots. Instead he opted for Norse mythology and Black Magic. Please comment on these issues so we know where you stand. I am a non religious man half Jewish and half Scotch Engligh.
April 24th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
“If your not looking for a solution to addiction, you can just assume the worst about me and move along.”
The issue now is to me is one, you don’t care to comment on these issues because you will end up putting your foot in your mouth.
You, in my opinion are like the character in the movie Amadues. The composer who spent all his life in a jealous rage of Mozart. Bill Wilson is your Mozart. Now I never accused you of being any kind of racial extremist/paranoid nut, but I simply wanted to give you a snapshot of the crazy theorys and real fears of reality. Now I’m not a paranoid Jew like the depictions the very funny Woody Allen created. But at the same time, what in Gods name are you creating. What wierd pseudo religion are you promoting, reading between the lines. How can you criticize Bill W. for promoting a Higher Power according to your understanding, when even within the Christian faith that is what each sect, denomination, individual is doing anyway. For example Some white rascist Christians believe that slavery is from the bible. Sick, but true. While on the other hand the very devout Black Christians do not adhere to that at all, (and with good sense)
So I ask you what is wrong with a higher power according to our understanding. If you know the correct higher power, I suggest you start marketing your personal idea to One The UN, The Vatican etc…
But all this insanity that I am spelling out could have all been avoided if you had kept your sinful nature in check.
The sin- Envy Thank You for your time,Julian Paioff