Recovery Group Disorders Are Real
© Copright 2004, Jack Trimpey
The recovery group is an invention of Alcoholics
Anonymous (AA), which conflicts sharply with all of the
world's great religions, contradicts sound concepts of mental
health, and has no legitimate place in any of the trusted
helping professions. the 12-step program denies free will,
substituting its belief that the reason some people habitually
drink or drug themselves into oblivion is that they are
powerless over the desire to get high.
Other organizations, including Rational
Recovery in the past, have mimicked AA, and of course the
results are exactly the same as AA's. A safe guess is that
about 2% - 5% of those who try AA become consistently abstinent,
and even those refuse to consider themselves permanently
abstinent. The same figures apply to addiction treatment
programs, which are little more than expensive introductions
to AA, or exercises in pop-psychology, always with long-term
"aftercare."
For every person present at an AA meeting,
there are a thousand absent who dropped out for various
reasons. Did they all die of addictions? Are they miserable
dry drunks? Hardly. Self-recovery is far more commonplace
than recovery in RG's. About 80% of all who actually defeat
their addictions do it without RG's or addiction treatment.
They simply quit drinking/using, and most often become normal,
happy people.
RG's invariably define recovery as a group
project, a process involving social support. They present
some spiritual, religious, or psychological philosophy as
an essential element in defeating an addiction, defining
recovery as the outcome of a personal conversion to the
group's beliefs or preconceived mindset. In a strange twist
of logic, the disease concept regards addiction as a symptom
of philosophical error, either spiritual or psychological.
RG philosophies usually conflict sharply with traditional
moral precepts, such as right and wrong, good and evil,
or other original family values. Meetings focus entirely
upon philosophical matters, never upon how to efficiently
quit an addiction. In fact, the groups will prevent people
from taking aggressive, independent action on the problem,
labeling such behavior as "denial" or "dry-drunk"
or "pink cloud" or "stinking thinking."
It is pure folly to expect that a groups
of tentatively abstinent substance abusers would have any
wisdom of value to anyone whose well-being depends upon
abstinence from alcohol and other drugs. It should come
as no surprise that the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous
does not work with substance addictions, and poses serious
risks to your health, safety, family relationships, and
general well-being.
Recovery from addiction is nothing more
nor less than secure, planned, permanent abstinence. Recovery
groups actively suppress recovery by predicting misery for
anyone who simply quits as a matter of principle. They say
that, unless one replaces the glory of drunkenness with
a personal relationship with God-as-you-understand-Him,
you will become a miserable, angry “dry-drunk”
who cannot be happy, who yearns endlessly to resume drinking,
and will eventually self-destruct because life is so painful,
hollow and meaningless.
Recovery groups do not produce abstinence.
Abstinence simply means not drinking alcohol or using
drugs. When people stop intoxicating themselves, they stop
causing the related problems, and their other problems become
manageable. “Sobriety,“ however, means between
drinks, between fixes, between binges. Groupers rarely mention
abstinence, preferring the forgiving terms, “sobriety,”
"serenity," or "rationality." When people
do abstain, it is tentative, and the recovery group takes
credit. When people "relapse," the group accepts
no responsibility.
Rational Recovery urges you to avoid recovery
groups of any type like the plague, because that is what
they truly are. You can do much better on your own. To follow,
are specific risks to your health, happiness, and safety
posed by your government, the mass media, and by the health
professions. These risks have been compiled from the direct,
painful experience of hundreds of thousands of people who
have contacted Rational Recovery in the last twenty years.
Groupers pretend that “anonymity“
means the meetings are confidential. RG's are not confidential.
Recovery groups are public meetings, No group
meeting is confidential! Whether meetings are "closed"
or open, groupers are not trustworthy, and they will readily
use what they know about you against you. They value the
unity of the group above any individual and they care far
more for their program than for any person in the group.
Recovery groupers, by their presence at
meetings, expose the fact that they have not solved the
problem of addiction. In other words, they are irresolute
substance abusers, uncertain about whether they will drink
or use drugs in the future,who have a need to transmit their
own insecurity to newcomers. These are not people from whom
to seek help, wisdom, or guidance of any kind. The recovery
group is like a pool filled with non-swimmers. Whether you
can swim or not, they will pull you down in order to survive.
The groups serve to undermine your confidence
that you can remain abstinent without their social support
and the 12-step religious philosophy. They will predict,
"You will drink again," each time you object to
AA doctrine. The groups belittle self-inspired abstinence,
calling that solution "the dry drunk," or a "pink
cloud." AA does not believe in your ability to abstain
from alcohol, nor your ability to think wisely or manage
your personal affairs. Naturally, this supports your addiction
and not you.
If something doesn't make sense to you,
don't attempt to believe it! The more you attempt to "work
the program" of AA/NA, the more you risk lasting harm
to your self-concept and your familiy relationships. AA
is an identity change organization, starting with the label
"alcoholic" or "addict." AA fits all
the criteria of "cult," and should be recognized
as such, despite its use of the social power structure.
With time, you will likely develop a recovery group disorder
(RGD), which follows the symptomatology and etiology of
the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) very closely.
The RGD is a serious condition that can linger for years,
with any or all of the following conditions.
TYPICAL SIGNS OF RECOVERY GROUP
DISORDER
Increasingly frequent and severe "relapses,"
in which you drink or use drugs in spite of your better
judgment. For this, the groupers will implore you to attend
more meetings, take the steps more seriously, or check in
at an addiction treatment center where professional AAers
will provide intensive indoctrination in the 12-step program,
followed by ninety meetings in ninety days. If you continue
to "relapse," you will be directed toward a long-term
(6 months minimum) residential treatment program. The groupers
will tell you that you may continue drinking, but the group
experience will "ruin your drinking forever."
This is because the recovery group is the embodiment of
the Beast, and the step program is its human voice, professing
powerlessness over the desire to drink or use drugs.
Anxiety about the possibility of "relapse."
Urgent desire to attend meetings. Guilt over missed meetings.
Withdrawal from normal social activities where alcohol may
be present. Fear of travel or moving to a new home. Fear
of the desire to drink or use. Giving up opportunities for
education, career, marriage, or raising a family because
of your chronic disease. Sensing that relapse is inevitable.
Profound self-doubt. Doubt in your ability
to do things you once did with ease. Doubt of your own thought
processes. Uncertainty and indecision in simple matters.
Doubt of simple truths you always believed in. Doubting
your own motives, or the motives of others you know well.
Conflicted preoccupation with the meaning of life, the nature
of reality, the reality of God, even though those matters
were resolved satisfactorily earlier.
Guilt about not living up to the group's
expectations. Guilt about not attending enough meetings,
working the steps diligently enough, not creating a Higher
Power of sufficient stature, not believing in the AA concept
of "God."
Increasing depression. Feeling trapped
between addiction and recovery, rejecting both as unsatisfactory
or intolerable ways to live. Suicidal thoughts that invariably
lead to drinking or using. Feeling cheated in life, relegated
to a secondary existence in recovery instead of living as
a normal person.
Recovery groups entertain the "bottoming
out" concept, in which each person has an imagined
"bottom," or a limit of degeneracy and despair,
beyond which he will not go. "High-bottom drunks"
are those whose personal losses prior to getting sober were
only moderate, as compared to the losses sustained by "low-bottom
drunks," who sacrifice everything for the privilege
of getting drunk. This idea elicits a free-fall-to-bottom
among many newcomers who are incorporating ideas of powerlessness
and bottoming-out into their lives. The devastation of self-destruction
is a direct result of 12-step programming, and is completely
avoidable for persons who are encouraged to have higher
expectations of themselves.
Suicide is common among recovery groupers,
particularly while doing "fearless moral inventories,"
or while contemplating endless re-admissions to addiction
treatment programs. Often the suicide is "accidental,"
in that lethal outcome was not expected or intended. Suicidal
ideas are a natural part of the Addictive Voice, telling
people that life isn't worth living, so drink some more.
The recovery group experience often potentiates these naturally
occuring, morbid ideas of self-destruction.
Intrusive thoughts or preoccupation about
the step program, especially your inability to understand
spiritual teachings such as powerlessness, surrender of
control, the nature and existence of God, the disease of
addiction, turning your life over to a Higher Power, wondering
if you are in denial, backsliding, in relapse, on a pink
cloud ,or in a honeymoon period. Fearing your appearance
before treatment or therapy groups, recalling past humiliations
in recovery or addiction treatment groups.
Your doubt of your own ability to independently
and comfortably abstain from alcohol and drugs is a very
serious recovery group disorder, which is intentionally
induced by the 12-step fellowship. The Dry Drunk concept
predicts that you will struggle with desire forever, a living
hell.
Unwholesome dependence upon other individuals.
Sponsor relationships are always inappropriate and are always
detrimental. Sponsors accept the role of surrogate parent
in an attempt to salvage their own lives, and thus they
are extremely poor sources of guidance or wisdom. Sponsors
have no moral standing or authority because they do not
understand that their own past use of alcohol and other
drugs, including the “relapses,” of which they
speak of so eloquently, was simply willful, immoral conduct.
By calling a sponsor when you have the desire to drink or
use, you cannot learn to live comfortably or independently
with the occasional, normal desire to drink or use. Sponsors,
also, are afraid of their desire to drink, and cannot help
you other than to tell you to attend meetings, read the
Big Book, work certain steps, and refuse to drink in the
meantime. If you do not drink, your success is attributed
to your dependence upon your sponsor; if you do drink, it
is because you didn't call your sponsor.
You get feedback from others indicating
that you have changed in a negative way, even though you
no longer drink. Old friends, and relatives may notice you've
lost your sense of humor or comment, "It's great you
don't drink/use anymore, but you sure have gotten weird."
Your children ask why or complain that you spend so much
time at meetings.
Resentment toward others who criticize
or object to the 12-step program, even though you may agree
with them. Vaguely or clearly wanting certain individuals
to "relapse." When you have criticisms of AA or
the program, you keep them to yourself, even to others who
are not involved with AA.
The recovery group movement is the drinking
and drug culture of America between bingeing episodes, and,
as such, are poor places to form new relationships, especially
when attempting to rid yourself of an addiction. If you
feel you aren't one of them, or don't want to be like them,
then trust your feelings and get out of there.
Women, in particular, should avoid all
recovery groups. Women are not weaker or deficient in their
ability to self-recover from intoxicants. Neither men nor
women benefit from forming dependencies on others who are
struggling against addictions. Home-based recovery is far
more appropriate and efficient for women, who may then develop
other positive social affiliations. Women, however, are
quite vulnerable to expliotation by "thirteenth stepping,"
the AA tradition of groupers obtaining sexual gratification
from other members. In the recovery group, consensual sex
is difficult, since the members are there under duress,
and are taught that their lives depend upon assimilation
into the recovery group. When women are mandated into recovery
groups by courts, they are being subjected to rape. The
recovery group is a predatory cult in the first place, using
addiction as a lever to gain mastery over desperate newcomers,
so it is not surprising that sexual exploitation is prevalent
in RG's.
By calling yourself "an alcoholic,"
you are identifying yourself as one who does not know right
from wrong, who cannot learn from past errors and mistakes,
and who at any time may drink or use drugs inexplicably,
anti-socially, and self-destructively. You are describing
yourself as a walking time-bomb, whose word is not to be
trusted. You are saying that you are genetically inferior
in a way that exempts you from moral judgment and conduct.
This changes your standing in society, in your family, as
an employment or insurance risk, and before the law.
The 12-step recovery group movement is
anti-family, just as with any other cult. The self-indulgence
of alcohol or drug addiction is said to be a "family
disease," in which spouses and even children share
in the responsibility of a parent's substance abuse. Your
life's problems will be traced to your parents and ancestors,
and you will be told you are congenitally defective. You
will be expected to tell bad stories about your earlier
years, seeking perpetrators in your family who "abused"
you and caused you to suffer as an adult. You will be told
that your family cannot understand you unless they also
accept the addictive disease concept and become involved
in a 12-step program such as Al-Anon. If your spouse attends
Al-Anon, he/she will be advised to regard you as a sick
person even if you are abstinent. They will create mistrust
and emotional distance in your family if you don't attend
enough meetings, or don't submit properly to the 12-step
program. Al-Anon uses the disease concept as a lever to
keep you coming back to meetings, and to make loyal members
of your family. They are not interested in your abstinence,
which they dismiss as insignificant unless you attend meetings.
Families often break apart on account of AA cult loyalties,
just as religion sometimes comes between family members.
Children, in particular, are vulnerable to serious disorientation
from the disease concept of misbehavior, and to the demands
of social cultism on the family unit.
This is a partial list of risks to your
well-being posed by the recovery group movement. While the
12-step recovery group movement is the worst offender, all
recovery groups carry similar risks in varying degrees.
The psychological disease model of addiction is not substantially
different from AA's physical disease concept. Always, the
group's interests prevail over the individual's interests,
and the matter of permanent abstinence is, of necessity,
procrastinated in favor of theoretical discussions and interpersonal
matters. The recovery group movement has become popular
with the professional class, which sees the groups as a
feeder system into their private practices and treatment
centers.
If you are forced or intimidated by a court,
social welfare agency, employment assistance program (EAP),
parole board, the military, or other institution to participate
in the 12-step program, the above risks are compounded.
In spite of its "attraction-not-promotion" motto,
over half of the members of the recovery group movement
are involuntary, so the extent of harm to the population
is enormous. If you are forced to participate in Alcoholics
Anonymous, contact RR-PLAN, and we will help you resist
this unreasonable intrusion on your freedom.
