- Joined
- Jul 13, 2017
I mean it is actually entirely fully possible to just stop addiction shit after repeated failure and just naturally arrive to the conclusion that its destroying you and your relationships with the people that you love and care about. Some people need the kind of structure/support network that AA and other programs provide and other people just outgrow it very suddenly one day. There are also psychiatric medications that can help a lot with shit.It really doesn't matter which tradition you adhere to, whether it be 12 steps, some kind of residential rehab programme or one of the recovery programmes that have a secular underpinning like Rational Recovery or Smart Recovery -- they all see recovery as a process, not a singular event that you go through, tick the box and you're cured. And of course, the reason why they stress this is because people who don't view it as a life long process invariably end up like Rekieta. "I'm cured now. I'm no longer banging the coke/drinking like a fish. I can start huffing Galaxy Gas and ranting on line at strangers until 4.00 am every morning."
I've always been very sceptical about the 12 step fellowships. It's always seemed to me that a doctrine based on religion that doesn't change at all and completely ignores the dramatic transformations in what we know about addiction that have occurred in the last fifty years probably isn't fit for purpose. But I'm dead serious when I say that the best thing Rekieta could do for himself and his family at the moment is get himself down to a 12 step meeting -- AA or NA, it doesn't matter which. Get himself a sponsor and start taking the process of recovery seriously.
Is that route advisable? I don't know. I don't think its advisable for someone who is not only married but has dependents (children).
I don't really like AA programs because they come across as a sort of cult due to the religious shit and not only that literally the first step of AA is this (this is quoted directly from their website):
"We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable."
Alcohol is of course addictive but just the idea that you're telling people to own the fact they are powerless is ridiculous. You can literally write your own goals and aspirations down without the direction of anyone else and start holding yourself accountable.
There's also other schools of thought that totally abstaining may not be the best immediate course of action, you can phase things out and try different strategies - there's billions of people on the planet and acting like some set of 12 steps written 100 years ago is gospel is like running around the world beheading people based on religious scripture that was written 2000 years ago.