More AA stuff.

[masque12]

Here is the original AA 12 steps. Below is my redaction of them, from a Left Hand Path perspective. Take them as you will.

1. Admit you have a problem, but realize that you have the power to overcome it.

2. Know that you have to do the work yourself, no force outside yourself can do it for you.

3. Make a decision to take control of your life, become the master of your own destiny.

4. Make an accurate assessment of yourself, recognizing your weaknesses AND strengths, and decide what you want to change about yourself.

5. Acknowledge what mistakes you have made in the past, and move past them, realize that dwelling on the past won't get you anywhere.

6. Ready yourself to change your life for the better, to repair whatever defects of character you think you have.

7. Work towards correcting your shortcomings, have the confidence to know you can change yourself if you desire.

8. Take responsibility for your actions, and make amends for those in the past where necessary.

9. Make direct amends to people you have wronged, and hold those responsible who have wronged you.

10. Maintain an accurate assessment of your progress. When you make mistakes, make amends, and when you do something right, reward yourself.

11. Seek through meditation and reflection to gain an understanding of your will, and to KNOW that your life is under your control. You have the power to change yourself, and no one and nothing can take that away from you.

12. Decide for yourself if you want to help other people to learn how to regain control of their lives as you have.

Comments

[masque12.livejournal.com]

I should mention that, as you stated, merely taking that first step of admitting one's (seeming, or history of acting out one's)PowerLessNess is, in itself, a very emPowering Act. And as you and I know quite well, merely drastically changing one's orientation/perspective/relationship with something can make all the difference in the world. Not to say that kicking Addiction is ever easy, but it's certainly DoAble by a resourceful, dedicated, and Willing individual.

That's pretty much the root of my whole argument.

(SNIP)
AA as a "devotional" path is rather kinder than I would describe it, but it is not entirely inaccurate.

IIRC, marik has talked about AA at length, as I believe he was in The Program(TM) for a time. He has some interesting insights on this, if you can contact him.

He was indeed, and I first heard about that AADeprogramming.com site in a thread on the Z(Cluster), he may have even been the one to provide the link. Keeping in mind that this thread was a while ago, I seem to recall that he eventually left the program for many of the reasons that I am criticizing it, and that now he's at the point where he can have an occasional drink without a full relapse, which to me is an indicator that his addiction, at least, is fully cured.
He sparked my interest in the subject in a vague way at the time of that thread, my more recent concern with it has to do with some of my friends being in the program right now, and the fact that the show, Penn & Teller: BULLSHIT just did an episode on the topic. If you're not familiar with the show, I highly recommend it, it's basically a debunking show, they've done episodes on PETA, Creationism, Profanity, weight loss programs, all kinds of stuff. Somewhat biased, as all things are, but entertaining and full of good info.