- Joined
- Aug 21, 2022
Oh no no no, my sweet and innocent farmer. I think you're describing the 12th Step. The 12th step is when the alcoholic/addict proclaims that they have had a spiritual awakening and declare that GOD has communicated with them and forgiven them (so you should, too, as God is so much better and smarter than YOU are). The 13th Step in AA is a WELL ESTABLISHED TRADITION (although curiously omitted from 'The Big Book' and other offical AA literature). In fact, it's so well known, just typing in "what are 13th steppers" into any search engine will yield a SHOCKING amount of articles dedicated to this widespread practice.What are you talking about? You have never been to AA? The 13 step is literally "Now that I am sober, you can't throw my mistakes in my face. Don't you see how many meetings I go to?"
(For those who are fortunate enough to not have had any dealings with these monsters, they are members who more or less have their own shit sort of in order, and behave in a predatory manner to newcomers. It's most often predatory males seeking out vulnerable females to sexually exploit, but there are sometimes cases of financial exploitation done by and to both males and females. It's why they have a rule that sponsors and sponsees must be same-sex in order to avoid sexual exploitation (though I'm sure gay and lesbian exploitation still occurs - and financial exploitation can occur regardless of gender).
AA didn't die the hero, but instead lived long enough to become the villian. It was great in the 30s when nothing else was available, but AA uses their massive coffers to prevent any other (potentially better) treatment methods from being developed so they can maintain the monopoly and cash. There used to be a dude who ran "The Orange Papers" (dot com, dot org - he tried to get all the domains). He would document all of the really shitty abuses going on "in the rooms". Now, he had some wacky ideas, like believing that any alcoholic/addict can return to 'moderate drinking' with enough practice - which is universally rejected by BOTH AA and researchers studying addiction and habit formation as dangerous and mostly wrong. Yeah, so while being a good reference, he wasn't a PERFECT reference (and it also may explain why he hasn't been able to maintain his sites lately...) It looks like someone is trying to keep his work online and has produced https://orangepapers.eth.limo/ I haven't read *this* particular site, but if it is a true copy of his original work, it's worth a read and you may be shocked (horrified, disgusted) by what you discover.
There was actually a group that was exposed for twisting the "acts of service" tennant into turning newcomers into SERVANTS for the oldtimers. They had to clean their houses, mow their lawns, buy their groceries. The stuff he documented was pretty heinous. The stats on AA vs 'Spontaneous Remission' (aka getting your shit together by yourself) is actually surprising. And being an outsider obsevering this while suporting people who went through the program... I can say that a lot of things he documented were pretty commonplace from what I saw. There are also problems, such as people being COURT ORDERED to regular meetings. So potentially you get a sheltered young adult or a frail old granny in the rooms with a violent repeat offender who is ONLY THERE to get his paper signed because this was one of his parole or bail conditions. NO ONE who says that they want help is turned away - even someone currently completely wasted and potentially volitile, so violence can (and sometimes does) occur at these meetings. Some meetings are better than others, just as some parts of town are safer than others, but the risk is always there. And it's not like a treatment facility with security and a protocol for aggressive patients. It's just a bunch of strangers in a run-down church basement.
The fellowship of AA - having events you can go to where you know there won't be drinking, and something to go do so you won't just sit at home and think about drinking - IS very useful for the recovering addict (and is why so many also do well in fundamental churches that demand you to tithe and suck up all of your free time with bible study, and alcohol/drug free activites and events). And AA would be great... if it wasn't for the fact that IT'S FULL OF GODDAMN ALCOHOLICS AND ADDICTS! (I joke, but you know what I'm saying).
There was actually a group that was exposed for twisting the "acts of service" tennant into turning newcomers into SERVANTS for the oldtimers. They had to clean their houses, mow their lawns, buy their groceries. The stuff he documented was pretty heinous. The stats on AA vs 'Spontaneous Remission' (aka getting your shit together by yourself) is actually surprising. And being an outsider obsevering this while suporting people who went through the program... I can say that a lot of things he documented were pretty commonplace from what I saw. There are also problems, such as people being COURT ORDERED to regular meetings. So potentially you get a sheltered young adult or a frail old granny in the rooms with a violent repeat offender who is ONLY THERE to get his paper signed because this was one of his parole or bail conditions. NO ONE who says that they want help is turned away - even someone currently completely wasted and potentially volitile, so violence can (and sometimes does) occur at these meetings. Some meetings are better than others, just as some parts of town are safer than others, but the risk is always there. And it's not like a treatment facility with security and a protocol for aggressive patients. It's just a bunch of strangers in a run-down church basement.
The fellowship of AA - having events you can go to where you know there won't be drinking, and something to go do so you won't just sit at home and think about drinking - IS very useful for the recovering addict (and is why so many also do well in fundamental churches that demand you to tithe and suck up all of your free time with bible study, and alcohol/drug free activites and events). And AA would be great... if it wasn't for the fact that IT'S FULL OF GODDAMN ALCOHOLICS AND ADDICTS! (I joke, but you know what I'm saying).
This was all WAYYY off topic, but Amber's so boring that I figured no one would mind too much for a little off-topic stuff in the thread. And not like it matters. Terminally Unique-Lynn is so much better than all of those OTHER plebs suffering from addiction. And she has FOOD ADDICTION, which isn't a REAL ADDICTION to her (unless she wants attention for it, then she pretends it's the WORST ADDICTION you could have). And it's not like she has shown issuse with gambling (she has), or issues with drinking (she has), or issues with social media consumption (she has). She'll never get help. The most she may do is start the bare minimum of some sort of therapy to get her enablers off her case, and then drop it once the heat dies down. She'll never change, because she'll have to accept that it's her shitty self that has caused the overwhelming majority of her current problems, and Amber's fragile ego can't and will NEVER be able to handle that reality.
Oh yeah, and really, I'm just a derranged, bitchy, BOOLEEEEEEEEEN shitposter. So shhhh, you're gonna ruin my rep! ; )