“But the ex-problem drinker who has found this solution, who is properly armed with facts about himself, can generally win the entire confidence of another alcoholic in a few hours. Until such an understanding is reached, little or nothing can be accomplished.” – Alcoholics Anonymous, p.18
If you haven’t used and felt the way I have, I won’t be listening to you, let alone taking your advice. If you haven’t lived what I’ve lived, how could you possibly know how to help me?
This is yet another truth that Establishment puppets just don’t get. Since you cannot prove that another alcoholic can have more of an effect on an alcoholic than a non-alcoholic can, then it can’t possibly be true, right? This is the sort of obtuse thinking that pervades the Western medical community. To suggest that because methadone, suboxone and naltrexone can be tested, they are then better methods of treatment than applying the Twelve Steps rigorously, you have to be somewhat touched. Even better is how changing one’s character is just a side-thing, you know, take it or leave it. Right, addiction has nothing to do with character… and I have a bridge I’d like to sell you in California.
I know many recovered alcoholics and addicts who tried these ‘scientifically proven’ treatment methods only to wind up overdosed on the floor on the verge of death. The very same junkies then met another addict who was recovered and in that very moment a seed that science cannot plant was planted. Through spiritual action, that seed grew and grew until they had fundamentally changed their brains and their entire attitude towards life.
Pills and therapy cannot control or reduce cravings. Pills and therapy cannot make an insane person sane. Neither can meetings and sponsors who call you up when you’re teetering on the edge. Science projects can’t change you into a better person. Neither can relapse prevention models, non-spiritual treatment centers, or any other public institution, such as recovery schools, that simply cave to the status quo and spit out the same old dumbed-down education, courtesy of the already well-sheered public trough.
A few weeks ago, I deleted a post entitled, Pushback, which is something I’ve never done before. I didn’t want this blog and the written work I’ve done in an effort to educate people to devolve into negativity and argument. But before I finish this little community project, I feel that truth is far more important than disappointing a few people. Plus, as a friend of my wife recently said, “If you’re not disappointing someone, then you’re not living your truth.” So allow me to point out the potentially fatal flaws in the very foolish thinking of the EPs that felt it appropriate to argue with a message that is based on the truth of reason, logic and experiential evidence.
One of the factually incorrect assertions from the Globe article is that the Twelve Steps don’t involve “having a sponsor”, “joining together”, or “service”. Wow, scary to think that research groups like this are influencing or even writing public policy. 1) To “apply” the Twelve Steps you most certainly need a sponsor who has done so himself and works closely with you to guide you through the process. 2) The Steps promote, advocate and celebrate joining together with others who’ve found this solution in order to bring this message to others. 3) Rigorous application of the Twelve Steps involve a lifetime of service. So in a nutshell, sponsorship, a social network and service are all synonymous with “rigorous” Twelve Step “application”.
To note, here is the 12th Step, because clearly it hasn’t been fully understood, or perhaps even read. “Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.” – Alcoholics Anonymous, p.60. Um, so the entire point of the Twelve Steps is to get to the 12th Step and serve in every facet of our lives.
Another very dangerous assertion is that drugs such as Naltrexone and Methadone “help many people”, as they have shown effectiveness in clinical studies. This one deserves no rebuttal but for the sake of the greater good, let’s do it. First, of course addicts will report the effectiveness of drugs like Methadone and Subuxone because they are still jammed out of their fucking minds. These pills are nothing more than synthetic forms of heroin. They are all morphine-based opiates. Second, an addict taking Naltrexone (an opioid receptor antagonist) is still completely insane and subject to relapse at any moment, as they are simply biding time, standing on the edge of a cliff. Taking a pill that makes you sick when you drink is just about as contrary to a real solution as you can get. Also, takers of Naltrexone are, of course, untreated alcoholics or addicts, so, um, once they go crazy enough from the restlessness, irritability and depression, they’re just going to stop taking it and go get plastered.
Here is yet another quote that should scare all of you addicts and parents out there.
“We haven’t got strong evidence [to show] that actually working through the 12 steps [is] a determinant of future recovery.”
So what you’re saying is that because you have some clinical evidence on some of the garbage that exists out there, you should be telling addicts to engage in this nonsense as opposed to taking Steps? Let’s take Methadone for example. What is your clinical evidence? That a bunch of deadbeats took it and stayed off of the real thing for a few years? How about their quality of life or moral character? So it’s now okay to measure success even though your subject is a complete zombie who doesn’t contribute anything, doesn’t help anybody, doesn’t give back to their families, and who is still a reeking cesspool of lies, selfishness, blame, fear, self-pity and cowardice? Could someone kindly explain to me what the point of suggesting such a remedy is, simply because we have some reports that it kept a pile of dirty addicts off the streets for a few months?
Finally, if you have no clinical evidence to show that taking Steps is a ‘determinant of future recovery’, then maybe you should go get some. Go track the recovered souls who took Steps along side me to see what their lives look like 1, 5, 10 years later? You will see that not only are they sober, they live lives that are mind-bogglingly productive. They serve their communities and many like others. They exemplify superior moral character when it comes to their families, work and other relationships. They are not merely physically clean, but are cleaned out within. No longer are they rotting away from the poisons of resentment, depression, judgement, projection, and many others that continue to destroy the millions of ‘sober’ addicts out there who aren’t really changing at all.
So personal failure has nothing to do with the Twelve Steps. The Steps aren’t why we fail, WE are why we fail. And, ah, there’s no clinical evidence because the power of the Twelve Steps lies outside the scope of our cynical and idiotic thinking. It is a very mystical process that harnesses Power far outside the bounds of man-made laws and theories. We think we know everything, don’t we? We think we are just so amazing and brilliant that we’ll tell you how it is. Let the intellectual authorities handle this one! The truth is that we can only help others when we aren’t trying to. We can only help others when nobody’s looking. Having a spotlight and a pedestal and trying to effect policy with a lack of true knowledge and understanding of addiction is doing a tremendous disservice to the millions of addicts and families who suffer out there.
“Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path.” – Alcoholics Anonymous, p.58
P.S. As far as replacement drugs and the endless psychotropics go, don’t you think everybody has already been medicated enough just from their respective addictions? And do we really want our children to become a bunch of lobotomized, catatonic zombies? Let’s leave the kids out of it, what do you say? They’re already going to be jobless and impoverished by parabolic national debt and the lunatics and thieves at the federal reserve.