re: I have a drinking problem. Help. ***Update Page 4***

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In 15 years of attending AA, giving recovery talks all over the Southern United States, and attending thousands of meetings spanning several countries, I have never once heard this phrase. Perhaps you have been misinformed. I do understand what you are trying to say with this, but it's a rather obtuse and short sighted take. While one drink may necessitate the resetting of a sobriety date, it absolutely does not mean, that you are back to square one and all is lost. Many Many Many people, in fact probably most folks in sobriety have had "slips", including myself, picked up right where we left off in the program, and went on to long term sobriety and quality recovery. The phrase which you provided, is far from accurate in terms of how the program of recovery works.

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We're talking semantics here. In this very thread- multiple times - posters have repeated some version of the mantra I'm referring to.

Case in point:

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Time doesn’t matter. We’re both one drink away from it being just like it was.

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The poster that said that does not know the poster he was saying it to from Adam. And yet it's put forth as just casual, received orthodoxy.

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Which is why you can be sober for 20 years, have one drink and wind up naked in Mexico.

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Again, the absurd pop cliche of "one drink, and it's back to square one!!!"

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Once an alcoholic, always one

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A variation on essentially the same theme.

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So... while the program of AA agrees with this, the Disease Theory of Alcoholism is not an AA thing. The Theory AND it's Genetic component is accepted by every major medical association in the world, including the largest association of physicians, the American Medical Association. I have been and will continue to defer to them on the issue. Perhaps they know a bit more than the both of us.

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There was a time when I would have just agreed with you on this. But I don't see how you can make such an appeal to authority when the authorities have been shown to be so thoroughly corrupt. The AMA is one of the poster children for this. I'd also add: ADA, AHA, CDC, etc.

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However, I'm not here and it's not my intention to convince YOU of anything. Rather, I just want folks to know that if they are struggling with alcoholism, that there is something out there that just might be for them. It was for me and millions of others, and it saved our lives. It is absolutely a viable solution.

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Ditto. I don't need to convince YOU of anything. And speaking of solutions, it's why I offered up the alternative path of deep trauma mining - to attack root causes and not just symptoms (which is what alcohol abuse is - a symptom).

I think AA can work for some people - but I don't like seeing the casual cliches thrown around here, as I think it sets people up for failure.