Where's the nearest group?
There are no Rational
Recovery groups, anywhere!
That should come as very good news to you, because you are already aware that recovery groups are not only bor-r-r-r-ing, and the group’s belief system doesn’t make much sense, but the people there amount to bad company — people with more and worse problems than yours, people you wouldn’t likely invite home for dinner. Strangely, you may feel uncomfortable, or even deprived, to discover that Rational Recovery is about self-recovery, and not a group project in which you receive the attention and support of others. Yes, in RR, you are on your own. Your desire to hang out with other substance abusers after dark is viewed just as your parents might have seen it long ago when they warned you to stay away from bad company. Your desire to mingle with other addicted
people, however, is part of being addicted.
Here are a few reasons addicted people love to attend recovery groups:
- You won’t have to actually quit getting high, but only “stay sober, one-day-at-a-time.”
- Your use of alcohol/drugs will not be regarded as stupid, self-indulgent, or immoral. In groups, getting high is a disease symptom, like having a doctor’s excuse for getting high.
- You won’t feel guilty about getting high, but only for the behavior resulting from drinking/using.
- You will have a guaranteed right to get high under certain, “perfect” conditions, as long as you call getting high, “relapse.”
- You will meet people less likely to criticize you or look down on you, on account of their own shortcomings.
- To others, you will appear motivated to change, attending meetings in the evening, trying to become a better person, making amends, talking about God.
- Evenings at home with the family can be uncomfortable, not drinking, and being with people who are mad at you.
- You can get a sponsor to look over you, to tell you how to live your life, and to make sure you don’t hurt yourself.
- If you have violated the law, you can make yourself look insane — well, kind of.
- You can hear fascinating and entertaining stories of drunkenness and degeneracy.
- You can isolate yourself from the mainstream where alcohol and other drugs are available. You can kill an evening without having to “stay sober.”
- You can meet other people like yourself, who love to get loaded and do wild stuff.
- Sometimes cute guys and nice babes turn out.
- Using your imagination,you can create a god of your own liking, probably one who only loves and tolerates your continued use of alcohol and other drugs. This, they explain, is, “spiritual, not religious.”
This list could go on, but here are some drawbacks to consider:
- Recovery groups are public meetings. Anyone may be there. What is said there does not stay there.
- Bad company is bad company. Exploitation in recovery groups is common, including crimes committed by members against members. Sexual and financial exploitation is common.
- Groupers have not resolved their own addictions. What can they know about addiction recovery?
- The abstinent outcome of recovery groups is near zero.
- More than 95% of newcomers drop out in less than one year, but not all continue to have problems. AA admits over 60% of successful recoveries occur without recovery groups, shrinks, and rehabs. We think that percentage is much higher.
- AA claims to be compatible with whatever religion or religious beliefs you have. That is not so; AA contradicts the world’s great religions, starting with its denial of free will, its bald idolatry, and its subordination of human will to bodily desire.
Think first, before you go to another recovery group.
You have known for a long time, probably from the start of your love affair with the buzz, that you will eventually have to quit drinking/using altogether, not on a conditional, see-how-it-goes basis, but for life. We think you have been on the brink of full recovery for a long time, even as your addiction became worse and your problems mounted. AA is the alternative to doing what you know you must do, and that is why recovery groups are so popular. They are the course of least resistance!
By attending groups, you are selling out on yourself, in exchange for a one-day-at-a-time reprieve from making that painful decision, “I will never drink again.” When you say, “Hi, I'm Joe/Mary, and I’m an alcoholic,” you are changing your identity from the original person you were in your original family. If that is your intent, then fine, but there is no virtue in saying you are powerless over the desire to get high, that you don’t know right from wrong, that you cannot assure yourself or others that you will abstain under all conditions, that you need adult supervision, that you cannot leave town without connecting with others “in recovery.”
One-day-at-a-time sobriety adds insult to the injuries you have already inflicted upon those closest to you. Instead of endless uncertainty, both you and they need a guarantee that the addiction is over, and then allow the ugly years become covered by the sands of time.
You are on your own, alone with your addiction,
all alone. There is no help for you, anywhere you turn.
You will find many experts on addiction, and many groupers
to invite you to their "special" groups, but none
of them will tell you exactly, precisely how to quit your
addiction once and for all. Many will counsel you, drug
you, and send you to hospitals for treatment. The fees are
high, and you may as well sign your check with a paw print,
for it is your Beast (your underlying desire to drink/use)
that is making you feel so helpless.
Rational Recovery offers no secrets for
making your life easier, happier, or more meaningful. You are a pioneer
in your own life, carrying the same burden that others have
to answer life's great questions, unravel life's mysteries,
and solve life's problems. We provide no surrogate family,
social fellowship, no way of life, nor any remedies for
your personal problems. We know that when your addiction
is over, your other problems will probably fade or disappear,
and that in a consistently abstinent state, you will find
solutions to the problems you face. You will be too busy
living to dwell upon problems!
None of the experts, groupers, counselors or
doctors expect you to do the obvious, which is to quit
right now for good. You will find information on how to accomplish
that only at this website, and in the widely acclaimed materials
produced by Rational Recovery®. If you aren't in a frame of
mind to learn by reading alone, or if want to take the strongest
action possible, or if you need to demonstrate to others that
you have taken concrete action, call for information on AVRT: The Course,
which is direct instruction on AVRT.
Rational Recovery has developed a new,
exciting modality for addiction recovery, the use of audio
and videotapes which allow you to completely recover in
the privacy of your home. This development is revolutionizing
addiction recovery, making direct instruction on AVRT by
its progenitor, Jack Trimpey, available to anyone who can
afford an alcohol or drug habit.
Be forewarned that our culture supports
charity for drunkards and junkies, as if they are disease
victims or disabled. In AVRT-based recovery, you will spend
money you would otherwise spend on your addiction in order
to defeat your addiction through moral action. This angers
your Beast, which will attack the character of Rational
Recovery and its founders, e.g., "Just in it for the
money." The Beast is a parasite, totally dependent
upon you for its survival, and in its grasp you are an extension
of its character -- dependent, resentful of moral leadership,
jealous of anything that competes for the money that sustains
your addiction.
Instead
of recovery groups, it is better to subscribe
to this website. Here, you can learn the essentials
of AVRT-based recovery, get started with your Big Plan, and interact
online without being in close quarters with people you would not
likely invite into your home. You are special, and should not
be subjected to the social cultism of the recovery group movement.
Historical
Background
For about a decade, Rational Recovery fielded a cadre of volunteers
who facilitated recovery group meetings. We accepted some of
the flawed concepts of the 12-step recovery group movement,
such as
- addiction recovery is a group project
- it is beneficial to congregate with other addicted
people
- self-improvement is an avenue to addiction recovery.
As the
architect of the now defunct Rational Recovery Self-Help Network,
I substituted some popular psychological concepts for the 12-step
program. In doing so, I did not realize that I was perpetuating
the disease concept of addiction in its psychological form. Thousands of RR groups sprang up, facilitated and attended
mainly by former members of AA/NA who transferred their dependencies
to Rational Recovery in the hope of finding a more "believable" philosophy of life.
All along, we possessed the necessary information
for anyone to independently recover without the use of groups
or self-improvement projects, but mistakenly diluted it
with pop-psychology and other feel-good activities. By 1992,
it became obvious that Addictive Voice Recognition Technique
(AVRT) is not only sufficient in itself for prompt, comprehensive
recovery from substance addictions, but also that it seriously
contradicted the use of the group format and the use of
feel-good psychology. AVRT is now incompatible with other
approaches to addiction recovery, all of which are less
direct. In 1994, due to the incompatibility of AVRT with
addiction treatment and the recovery group format, Rational
Recovery severed relations with the addiction treatment
industry, including the professions of medicine, psychology,
social work, nursing, and each of the counseling and guidance
disciplines.
This accomplished, RRSN groups tightened
their focus upon AVRT considerably, and until December 31,
1999, served only as a brief staging area for independent,
AVRT-based recovery. Participation was limited to only 2
- 3 meetings, after which it was assumed that one would
either choose to use or permanently abstain. Either way,
people were directed toward AVRT and given the opportunity
to take personal, moral responsibility for the use or non-use
of alcohol and other drugs.
Evolution and Change
We have
discovered what has always been known, that to survive, a group
must place its own interest above the well-being of its members.
Groups must have sustained, growing membership, or they falter
and cease. Recovery groups thrive allowing addicted people to
evade the painful, moral commitment to lifetime abstinence. For
this reprieve, they exchange their autonomy and identities as
free people.
Consequently, Rational Recovery cannot
recommend recovery groups that convene under our name. Thousands
who email or call Recovery asking, "Where's the nearest
group?" have received a word of caution about attending
any recovery group at all. Now, we urgently warn all addicted
people to avoid recovery groups like the plague, and we
have terminated our sponsorship of recovery groups altogether.
"Groupism," as AA forerunner
Rev. Frank Buchmann said, "is a phenomenon." Indeed,
many who have generously and enthusiastically volunteered
their time and energy to Rational Recovery Self-Help Network
for the last fifteen years have also brought with them their
AA hangovers and the persistent belief that it is good
for those struggling against the desire to self-intoxicate
to congregate with others who share that struggle. They
sincerely believe that this is "supportive" and
that by undertaking personal improvement, recovery may be
attained.
Consequently,
RRSN groups, like all recovery groups, underestimated the capacity
of each member by saying, "keep coming back." Because
members did keep coming back, they were prevented from making
up their minds about the use of alcohol and other drugs and shouldering
the responsibility for permanent abstinence. Each time a member
returned, it meant that the decision to permanently quit drinking
had been delayed, putting at risk the well being of oneself and
others. We heard from many individuals who attended "RR meetings"
for months, or even years. We finally admitted we weren’t
helping them, but only stalled them, and helped them look good
while doing absolutely nothing about the ticking bomb of unresolved
addiction.
We also
heard from people who had their court slips signed by a well-meaning
RR group leader or participant, a seemingly innocent gesture that
reinforced the government tyranny of institutional AA. For them,
we have since created the "Group of One" program, in
which individuals who are mandated to attend recovery groups may
meet with themselves in their own homes and sign their own slips.
A BBS folder now exists in the subscription area of this website
for persons forced to attend recovery group meetings.
By fielding our own recovery groups, we
inadvertently shielded AA from being seen as the Constitution's
rapist and the spectacle of self-interest that it is. For
example, I once complained to the Chicago ACLU about the
disgrace of court-mandated AA. Their response was, "Oh,
we hear lots of complaints about that, but it isn't a problem
now that we have Rational Recovery. When we get complaints
about AA being too religious, we just send them to RR!"
Thus, RR groups protect the AA syndicate against litigation
and administrative reviews that might otherwise occur. (Incidentally,
that meeting quickly ended when I answered, "So, if
an ethnic minority complains that the municipal bus driver
made them ride on the back of the bus, do you say to take
a cab?")
Our now extinct groups were successful!
They made American history, leading the initial charge against
the wall of AA solidarity, and made national news on many
occasions. Tens of thousands attended and received encouragement
and information on AVRT. Perhaps it was necessary to initially
take a form that was familiar to the public, particularly
the broadcast and press media which is rooted in cliché,
in order to convince them because people are turning out
for RR meetings, we are "really doing something."
Alas, that is the grand illusion that all recovery
groups perpetuate, and we will no longer be a part of it.
We have already severed relations with
the professional community across the board, because of
its intransigent adherence to the medical, nutritional,
genetic, and psychological disease models of addiction.
Now, it is time to end the confusion created by the existence
of Rational Recovery Self-Help Network (RRSN), which has
outlived its usefulness. It is over.
So, now what?
We hope the recovery group movement will
dwindle as its disadvantages become better known. There
are a number of legal initiatives under way that will test
forced participation in AA in the light of the United States
Constitution. Perhaps something big will happen that will
have immediate effects on social policy, and AA will go
the way of other popular follies, into extinction.
AVRT, under any other name, would probably
not have been developed if AA had not run amok as it has,
so we might conclude that some good has come of the 12-step
blight. As the recovery group movement and the addiction
treatment industry fade into oblivion, AVRT will stand as
an immediate, potent resource for every addicted person.
Although Rational Recovery does not manage
a network of volunteers, we know that many people will promote
self-recovery from addiction, i.e., AVRT, as the most sensible
approach in their home communities. We are interested in
hearing your experiences, as you disseminate information
on planned, permanent abstinence in your areas.
Jack and Lois Trimpey
Return to Sitemap
