I’m fully aware of Sister Ignatia’s involvement. but thanks for the link. AA does not teach people how to stop drinking. It’s a program that teaches a certain type of “spirituality”, and tells people that if they confess their sins to other members, pray to the god of their choice, etc they will stop drinking as a result. This has absolutely no basis in medical fact or evidence-based treatment. Although God may of course heal whom He chooses and I don’t deny that–it happens all the time–He does not require that they be in AA for Him to do so. We don’t tell people with other disorders, be they physical or mental, to go to such meetings, and follow such steps in order to be cured. They may choose to pray to God for healing and if they do so good for them, but we still provide them with evidence based treatment, medication if called for, therapy, etc. We don’t just tell people “go to these meetings and do the steps and you will be healed” and then, if they are NOT healed as a result, tell them"well, you must be ‘one of those unfortunates’ mentioned in the Big Book who cannot be honest, or you didn’t do one of the steps correctly, or something–but keep coming back and keep trying over and over and over". No, we offer them medical treatment for their medical disorder.
AA was put together in the 1930’s by a stockbroker and a proctologist based on the methods of the Oxford Group, as I mentioned. AT that time there was very little in the way of successful medical treatment for alcoholics or addicts. That is no longer true–yet AA has steadfastly refused to incorporate new scientific facts and findings into the program, nor have they updated the Big Book to be better understood by a new generation–it is filled with dated terminology and references to people and events in the distant past that almost no one today would recognize, as well as extremely sexist sections (the chapter “To The Wives”, ostensibly written by Bill’s wife, was actually written by Bill himself, and assumes that all alcoholics are men, and that their wives are “nags and wet blankets” that drive hubby to drink or to cavort with other women. etc).
AA presents itself as a highly successful program, however, AA’s very own triennial survey of membership, it was reported that only 5% of incoming members are still there, sober, one year later. After this became public, they ceased asking that question in the surveys.
Support groups are fine as far as that goes, but they are not cures. God can most certainly heal someone of ANY disease of course, but He does not need AA to do so.
All that being said, if people are comfortable in AA and feel it is helping them, more power to them. Fr. Serpa here has in past linked to a Catholic 12 step page that may be helpful to some, here:
12-step-review.org/
and here is a link to some other support groups:
orange-papers.org/orange-alt_list.html
