I am a currently non drinking alcoholic who attended AA meetings on and off
for about 20 yrs.
I honestly never did find them that helpful, but for the last five or so
years I attended,I noticed a trend of sorts, id est the treatment industry has,
to too large a degree, started taking over AA.
The "Fellowship" of AA is supposedly a voluntary and anonymous group. At
some meetings I began seeing about half the attendees come around only because
the were court ordered, and had to have "verification"slips signed. This is
"voluntary?" In some cases these people were also court ordered to get signed
letters from other members to "vouch" for them. What is anonymous about this???
Another thing I began to notice was that a lot of people at AA meetings
weren't alcoholics at all. They were drug addicts who were sent there by some
"counselor." and/or treatment program. This is immediately apparent when you
hear "I am a chemically dependent person" instead of alcoholic by way of
introduction. I have nothing whatever against drug addicts, but godammit they
belong in NA not AA!!
The last and final straw for me was too many of the open speaker meetings
have been aped by the treatment industry. The most glaring example of this was
my last meeting. It was a very large (About 150 people) open meeting and the
speaker, (chemically dependent person) was a total non drinker, she was a rock
cocaine addict. She took less than 10 mins. to tell about all the problems she
had with drugs, and for about the next hour she did nothing but sing the praises
about the wonderful treatment program she had just been through. I have seen
this sorry stunt before, but this was about the most brazen example. Some of
these "speakers" have got to be PR plants doing commercial endorsements for
these treatment centers.
I dropped out of AA about a year ago, and I haven't had a drink since. Many
here in this group may disagree, but I once had a wise old uncle who always said
that "opinions are just like ass holes -- everybody's got one."
Say I'm full of shit if you must, but I am now coming up on a year of
sobriety without verification slips, "chemically dependent persons," or sitting
through commercials for treatment facilities, and I like it that way.

Bryce L. Martin