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At what price soberity..
 antrim |
miscellaneous |
opinion/analysis
 Tuesday April 13, 2004 23:41 by nightnurse
Does Alcoholics anonymous/narcotics anon work, and at what price?. Why is it so hard to kick an addiction the Alcoholics anon/Narcotics anon way?. It is so hard because AA/NA insist you abandon a way of life which brings you into contact with drugs/alcohol/having fun, or a rebellious lifestyle which may cause depression, leading to drug dependency. Most rehab institutions/methods require you to adopt a set of engrained moralistic spiritual guidelines, substituting the craving for alcohol/drugs with spiritual happiness which will hopefully act as a barrier against full blown addiciton.
Addicts/alcoholics are broken down, laid bare and rebuilt up again through the couselling process, into a clean shiny new person, who must resist the cravings of their demon addiction forever more.
These rehabilitation practises are not perfect, because they do not empower the human being, at the heart of most rehab theories they believe the human being is weak, so weak it cannot control addiciton. The fact of the matter are human beings when empowered are masters of their own destiny, and placed in whatever environment will resist the temptation to succumb to full blown addiction and uncontrolled self abuse.
Mainstream rehab requires that if you are into eg the punk scene, and a heroin addict, you must abandon your interest in the punk scene/music/environment for fear of being tempted back into self abusing yourself by jacking up ect.
Even though you are a more likely to encounter hard drugs in mainstream society and everyday life, rather than in the punk scene. Or maybe it is the fact that rebellious, punk music is depressing, thus causing weak self pitying humans to turn to smack for happiness and relief from the worlds harsh realities exposed by punk music.
At the end of the day, heroin addiction/uncontrolled alcoholism is self abuse, an extension of the abuse the system dishes out to us, as we grow up in this society, in the end, people decide to abuse themselves through alcohol/drugs, so saving the system the necessary expense of having to grind them down and abuse them itself. One truth the AA/NA will never confront an addict with.
Many people turn to alcohol/drugs as a buffer and comfort against the ills of the world. There is another way other than addicton and self abuse to achieve a similar high to that of the oblivion of drugs and alcohol.
Our own bodies are capable of producing naturally similar endorphins to those artificially produced by drugs. A high we can all achieve,WITHOUT exotic meditation, and spiritual mumbo jumbo.
A champion kickboxer who became a heroin addict explains it simply, when asked why he became an addict, he says 'it was easier to achieve the same high, from heroin, than to achieve a similar high produced naturally in the body through extensive kick box trainnin'.
The same high experienced through heroin addiction, can be experienced and achieved through extensive kick box and martial arts trainning, or even trainning for football, which is the theory behind certain rehab institutions in Scotland, which substitute the self abuse of drugs/alcohol, with the self abuse of punishing physical football trainning regiemes in order to combat addiction.
Surely it would be better to empower addicts with realistic practical tools to combat addiction, and allow them to embrace their former lifestyles confidently rather than continually have to shy away from an environments and situations which may trigger relapses.
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Comments (8 of 8)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8This article is obviously written by someone educated well beyond the capacity of their intellect with a clear resentment against twelve step programmes. Alcoholism and drugs are not just society's fault but a deliberate policy of the system?
I don't suppose you might consider why alcoholics can behave just as badly after they stop drinking as they did before might (i.e., it's alcoholism as a symptom of one's spiritual deficit/ character resentment or personality defect and not inflicted by someone else) or that there's an element of narcissism/self-pity in the addict?
Speaking ass an AA member - you should really mind your own fuckin' business and keep your undergraduate students union polemic where it belongs - at home at the dinner table in Foxrock.
"Speaking ass an AA member - you should really mind your own fuckin' business and keep your undergraduate students union polemic where it belongs - at home at the dinner table in Foxrock."
Classic!
I agree – it was a good put down. However, the original writer dooes have a point. Every fucking dweeb in the country is in AA/NA now. These mindless morons are continuing with their complete self-obsession in the sanctuary of meetings and support networks and all the rest of the mumbo jumbo that goes with these distasteful cults. Obviously, a lot of people think that this somehow makes them more 'interesting' in the same way that these same misguided fools thought that not being able to handle drink and/or drugs made them 'interesting'. Wrong! Previously they were sometimes entertaining, now they are sanctimonious bores on a mission that probably originates in an L Ron Hubbard novel. The Irish seem especially susceptible to conversion – what with the lack of any spiritual dimension in the current ethos of greed and insanity. Future conflicts will not arise from battle lines drawn between Christians and Muslims but between 12-step programmers and Muslims. I mean, who can you accuse of being more delusional?
The bottom line is that the 12-steps programs work. They encourage mutual support and facing reality and they don't cost much. There's no buracuracy, they're not dependent on government funding, and they are accessible to everybody.
And they work. Not all the time, but more of the time than other programs.
Isn't it a sobering thought how sobriety is soberly spelt?
Thanx for that last insight, but stop hittin' the sauce dude. Go to a 12-step.
I've read all previous comments above mine. I understand all points. I came to this website because I understand that I am an alcoholic. I have a terrible time admitting that to people I know, save a select few, but I can admit it to a bunch of random strangers. I pose a question to all that read this...what do you do when you are "that girl"? (and not in the Marlo Thomas sense) For several years, of no volition of my own, I am that "balls to the wall" frontperson of that band that all the kids come out to see. To, not only those kids, but my friends that I' ve known and loved for 15 years, I'm lil' miss life of the party, queen o'the scene, can drink any man under the table, just dare her. and you know what? I'm tired. For the first time since I was 12, I went sober for 10 months..when I was pregnant, at 25 years old, I thought for sure that if I can quit anything for 10 months, I can quit it forever. Umm...no. Had an addiction and a reputation to uphold. I have a beautiful son, 9 months old, who I live and would die for. But 3 weeks out of the hospital, I was out and about, scotch and sodas abundant.
.......I live in a small city in Iowa. I sure would like to get sober and be the person I know I can be....I've already realized that the person I know I can be is not liked (or better yet, uninteresting) to the people in my town. I no longer want to be their personal rockstar. I just want to be a mother to my son. A good friend. A person that my son aspires to be.
ok, lets get this straight...anyone who wants to have group support in order to not only stay sober, but to face the reasons why they used drink/drugs/sex etc in the first place is a boring loser? There are more famous people who have cleaned up and use the 12 steps to feel good. Now surely feeling good is a healthy step?
Is the original poster such a moron that they can't see the bigger picture? Did a 12-step programme not work for you? What about the slogans? You know to make it work you have to want it to work. If you don't, it won't. Keep your small-mindedness aomewhere else. Its people like you who make society crap.
Keep it simple. One day at a time. Let go,Let god. And all the others.
You are obviously in a lot of pain and have a lot of resentment. Whatever your trip is, get eith the programme- be it for the addict(AA/NA) or for the addicts family(Al-Anon, Alateen , Nara-Non)