Most people who realize that they’re drinking too much, quit or learn to moderate on their own, they don’t go to AA or any other group. AA has been spreading the nonsense that people NEED a group to get sober for 70 years.

“One recent study found that 80% of all alcoholics who recover for a year or more do so on their own, some after being unsuccessfully treated. When a group of these self-treated alcoholics was interviewed, 57% said they simply decided that alcohol was bad for them. Twenty-nine percent said health problems, frightening experiences, accidents, or blackouts persuaded them to quit. Others used such phrases as “Things were building up” or “I was sick and tired of it.” Support from a husband or wife was important in sustaining the resolution.”
Treatment of Drug Abuse and Addiction — Part III, The Harvard Mental Health Letter, October 1995.

AA has a 5% success rate, the same as no treatment at all. The difference is: people exposed to AA tend to fare worse, including having a mortality rate 6 times higher than no treatment (much of it from suicides):
1) Dr. Brandsma found that A.A. increased the rate of binge drinking, and
2) Dr. Ditman found that A.A. increased the rate of rearrests for public drunkenness, and
3) Dr. Walsh found that “free A.A.” made later hospitalization more expensive, and
4) Doctors Orford and Edwards found that having a doctor talk to the patient for just one hour was just as effective as a whole year of A.A.-based treatment.
5) Dr. George E. Vaillant, the A.A. Trustee, found that A.A. treatment was completely ineffective, and raised the death rate in alcoholics. No other way of treating alcoholics produced such a high death rate as did Alcoholics Anonymous. 1) http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-effectiveness.html#Brandsma
2) http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-effectiveness.html#Ditman
3) http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-effectiveness.html#Walsh
4) http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-effectiveness.html#Orford
5) http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-effectiveness.html#Vaillant

Penn & Teller take on AA:
12 steps programs 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tPNgHrIkgo&NR=1

12 steps programs 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uwx2P5LJgk

12 steps programs 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PjpOsE3xoY

2. you’ve been to one meeting, don’t judge anything by what goes on in just one meeting, try several differentones to find a “flavor” you like. i mean if you went to a lame bar what would you do? GO To DIFFERENT ONE?!!!

3. you were comparing instead of relating,…try just listening instead of letting your mind babble on & on, find the commonalities instead of the differences!

Rick