It was when I stopped AA that I was able to stop drinking, 6 years sober in 1 week !

Good for you...If it's a problem then I'm glad you stopped...some have problems with Twinkies, or gambling...

Way to go!

If you need help AA is a good place to go...what ever it takes. From one drunk to another, it is so good to be sober.

That is a good thing! Congrats.

I learned some good things from the 12 step fellowships, the most important ? That I am responsible for myself, if I choose. Congrats on your progress.

Good for you OP

I was going to give it up too - but I'm no quitter!

Alcohol disrupts sleep patterns. Thats one of the biggest reasons to stop drinking.

So you've had 6 years of good sleep. That's definitely a plus.

I could never get the higher power thing, it avoids personal responsibility and blames it on an imaginary thing.

+1

AA is a cult, it's no wonder they have a 10% success rate. Doctors in the 1950's had much better success getting alcoholics to stop drinking by giving them LSD. Also, anyone who claims addiction is a "disease" is a quack.

and "it's not my fought the sun decided to come up before I stopped drinking"

Nice one OP, keep strong!

Thanks all, and I try to keep some humor about it, it's all good!

Is that true?

I agree op, the problem with AA is that they give you a pat on the shoulder when you relapse and just tell you to come back next week.

You'll find there are much more esoteric views held by some longtime members. Going to an AA meeting is a bit like looking for diamonds in the dust. They're there if you look.

I've been through several rehabs and did AA for several years with no good results. Phsyc counseling in general is a scam. When i was ready i quit. And it involved getting saved in Christ.

Sure, and NA meetings are a great place to buy drugs.

anyone who claims addiction is a "disease" is a quack.

it is a diseade of the mind, or something....in an alcholic the response to drinking is different from that of normal people, we are special....

And it involved getting saved in Christ.
Thats great. But really, now that you mention crist this thread will get overwhelmed with the keyboard prechers.
When I die I will see Odin and sit at his Table.

That means absolutely nothing in modern medical terminology. Drug and alcohol councelors tell people they have a disease, even though they're not doctors and have no legal right to diagnose or prognose a patient. They only get away with it because the word "disease" isn't used in modern medicine to refer to a specific medical condition. "Disease of the mind" is 19th century quack speak. Addiction is really a syndrome, a collection of symptoms, but if someone with a two year degree in counceling told you you have a syndrom, you can sue them for practicing medicine without a licence.

I attended AA for a year, going to meetings 2-3 times per week. I loved meeting other people and doing different things SOBER, enjoying myself and others. However...

I came to realize that I was in a rut while remaining in AA. I was depressed, always had my mind on alcohol and the past. What I came to realize is that the people within the groups I attended were stuck too, always living in the past, not moving into the future. At the last meeting I went to, I stood up and thanked them all for the time and fellowship we had together, but that I was moving on.

I wanted to LIVE, in the now and the future, not in the past. I didn't want to keep pouring over and through my past, rehashing things better buried after I had "dealt" with them. Holding vigal after vigal, day after day, week after week to my history was driving me mad...I wanted something more, I wanted to move past my past and into my future and I couldn't do that with AA and how the past is the primary reflection of their lives. Instead of people crying in their beer, they were crying in their coffee, and staying in that rut that drives them back to active addiction.

It's been 11 years of no regrets, and I had worked as a bartender 4 of those years; people asked me if it was hard working in a bar and staying sober...no, it was actually very easy, as I would watch people go from sober and functioning to drunk and making asses out of themselves. It also reminded me that no matter the problems I faced, alcohol would only make them worse, and I'd also have to deal with my own failure with an added touch of hangover.

All too often, those who attend AA religiously end up off the wagon because the program itself keeps people stuck in a rut, and they look to the program as being infallible. When stuck in the past, it's all too easy to go back, due to a variety of reasons, but guilt and the resulting depression are prime suspects. There is no direction to look to the future and start making plans when all one keeps doing is looking to the past; you can't see where you are going when you keep looking behind you. Remembering the past is a good thing, and very beneficial, but to keep looking back to it blinds one to what is in front of them. That's why when I talk to someone about my alcoholic past, it's a fleeting mention...the focus I use is on the time since and present and what is for the future.

AA helps some, but sadly, all too often, it hinders their progress in moving into the future.

Find what you look for , then.

^^^THIS^^^ as well

Thanks for sharing 0_o

+1000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Indeed, "disease" is so misleading, and it takes personal responsibility and chucks it out the window. Alcoholism is primarily an insufficiency in coping mechanisms; yes, the body reacts physiologically to the alcohol itself, but the beginning of alcohol abuse is generally used as a coping mechanism of some or other sort.

My grandfather became an alcoholic as he went through various economic recessions, when he would travel the many miles to town each morning to try to find work, standing in the rain, cold and snow awaiting a job, hitting up the railroad, steel yards, iron mines, farms, etc and by noon, if he didn't find work, would hit the local watering hole, and get drunk. He was depressed, felt less than worthy of being a husband and father, and coped with it by getting drunk. It was the coping skill he used to deal with the depressing state of his life. When things turned around, he was addicted, and it was a big part in his life until he died. He was a proud man and would refuse to take charity; he hunted, farmed what little land they rented, and worked very hard and dirty jobs. He died of cancer because of asbestos and other toxins he encountered in his job professions. He learned his coping skills through relatives that would go with him to work and sit in the bar after an unsuccessful day of trying to find work.

My mother also abused and became addicted to alcohol as a coping mechanism she learned from her father. When a child isn't taught proper coping skills, they inherit the learned skill from those around them. I learned it from my mother and grandfather; when I got sober, I learned new coping skills and have tried to instill them in my children. Lacking coping skills leaves a great void in people, and all too often, drugs and alcohol, or sex or other destructive behaviors fill that void...and in order for society to feel better about it and themselves, to hide the insufficiency, they designate it as a "disease", to relieve themselves of the responsibility to really reflect on the problem.

Congrats!

thanks for sharing

BAH! So you're addicted to a fictitious god now?