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Comment by paulwithap | Hacker News Reader

The entire point of AA is not to focus on the singular behavior of problem drinking, but instead to produce a complete psychic change. The central theme of the "Big Book" is that simply removing the alcohol from an alcoholic is not enough. The alcoholic must instead completely change their way of living and interacting with others. The program is designed to address the root cause of many specific issues the founders saw to be common among alcoholics.

Furthermore, it is highly encouraged to seek outside help (psychiatrists, therapists, etc.) if needed.

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I've had this discussion before and it usually boils down to someone having a non-traditional view of the 12 steps. I read them at face value: Admitting one has no control over an addiction and relying on a higher power to address it is incompatible with my view of finding the underlying cause.

Whether what you say is official canon or not doesn't seem to matter to the reality of how it's managed at the group level. There seems to be for example a very wide variation in how people interpret the "12 steps," particularly amongst atheists or agnostics.

I am glad that medical assistance is encouraged at the very least.

The idea of a higher power is simply faith that life is good. many addicts have an auto response to everything in life as being shit, and this warps perception. Most non faith based people actually are quite faith based in that they believe things will work out well when they put their energy into it. That is faith. Many addicts do not have that innate understanding. The 12 steps is just a set of skills to obtain that world view.

The idea of a higher power is a deity and nothing else. AA spells this out further with 6 more steps that specifically refer to said deity. They encourage a group confessional and penance to be absolved of your behaviour or crimes while wasted. Abstinence is the only solution because religions do not tolerate anything else. For some people belief in superstition will help them get off the booze/drugs for others it won't work. Detox supervised by medical staff and a regular visit to a shrink to help you with impulse control is all that is needed. Unfortunately this costs money which many addicts don't have so they are stuck with AA who are unable to assess their program failure rate because it would be admitting that God has failed.

Sorry what? Have you read the 12 steps? The explictly refer to "God" and explain "his" role in "remove[ing] all these defects of character." How is that at all ambiguous?

The higher power may be explicitly christian many times, but the way it integrates with AA means you really only need faith that you don't need the substance and that you can live a good life without it. Many people find this idea easier to grasp in a spiritual context where they it's much easier to hold faith in spite of what their brain tells them.

What's your understanding of the inventory process? To me it's all about finding the underlying causes, and the behavioral and mental habits that underlie the addiction, and working on correcting them.

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