Quitting AA

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PaladinSword

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Hey fellow Catholics.

I’m twenty-nine and have been roped in AA for the past four years. I’m doing really well now that I’ve returned to the Church and school. I never really was an alcoholic but I’m in an aa program that I’ve been deeply involved in for a while. I have been totally sober for two and a half years. I’m sick of the aa bs and Puritanism that seems to be going nowhere. Anyway I’m on my way home from mass to hang out with my best friend who is on his way to converting to Catholicism. We’re about to crack open some Irish harp and listen to catholic answers.

AA brainwashing is making me a bit guilty and hesitant but I prayed about it. fathers homily seemed to confirm my position that it’s ok to try.

And

Proverbs 31:6
 
PaladinSword said:
Oh yeah so what do you think?
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So are you in Los Angeles? I was a member of the Los Angeles archdiocese when James Francis Cardinal Mcintyre was Archbishop. He was a VERY good and holy man. I have some thoughts about what you wrote but I will hold off commenting and just ask you to tell us how it went after a while.

Annie
 
PaladinSword said:
Oh yeah so what do you think?
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I guess if you start drinking again and can’t control it that you’ll know.

Conversely: if you can drink responsibly without it having any negative effects on your life you will also know.
 
Ha ha, the Catholic Church makes me guilty about not attending.

What BS are you talking about?
 
What do you mean by “I’m sick of the aa bs and Puritanism”?
 
“You never really were an alcoholic but you have been in AA for four years”. Denial is a horrible thing. Only you can help yourself. Only you can stop drinking and congratulations on being sober for 2 1/2 years. Others can only advise you but it’s up to you to continue sobriety. I’m so glad you are returning to the Church. However please continue your AA meetings. I know it’s rough and annoying but it is a great support system. If you start to drink again you could be dead by the time you are 50. You will suffer severe pain from cirrhosis of the liver and will have long hospital stays for treatment with heavy duty antibiotics. It’s an infection that grows and grows in your liver, It spreads to other organs and shuts them down and then you die. Your family will be devastated and heartbroken. Please don’t start drinking again. Release yourself from the chains and temptation of addition with God’s help.

I will be praying for you. 😉
 
PaladinSword said:
Hey fellow Catholics.

I’m twenty-nine and have been roped in AA for the past four years. I’m doing really well now that I’ve returned to the Church and school. I never really was an alcoholic but I’m in an aa program that I’ve been deeply involved in for a while. I have been totally sober for two and a half years. I’m sick of the aa bs and Puritanism that seems to be going nowhere. Anyway I’m on my way home from mass to hang out with my best friend who is on his way to converting to Catholicism. We’re about to crack open some Irish harp and listen to catholic answers.

AA brainwashing is making me a bit guilty and hesitant but I prayed about it. fathers homily seemed to confirm my position that it’s ok to try.

And

Proverbs 31:6
Click to expand...
I am a recovering alcoholic who had his last drink the night Jimmie Carter got elected. I never belonged to AA because any sort of group therapy is contrary to my personality. However, my freedom from alcohol is the result of almost 5 years of intensive psychotherapy with a psychiatrist who specialized in substance abuse, and during which I
had to learn about AA.
One thing I learned was that an alcoholic goes through several phases during treatment…one of which is that they doubt that they ever were alcoholics and that they are cured and do not need treatment any longer. Both conditions are very dangerous in that unless professionally dealt with either or both will lead to a relapse.
The terrible fact about alcoholism is that one is never cured of it. The best one can do is to live each day fighting to stay away from alcohol. Staying away from it is not easy—no matter how dry you may think you are. It is something that will stay with you the rest of your life.
Based on personal experience, I advise you not to leave AA without the guidance of a psychiatrist or a psychiatric social worker who specializes in substance abuse. Believe me when I tell you that 2 1/2 years in therapy is nothing when dealing with alcohol. Remember, sometimes you can be so smart that you outsmart yourself!
 
Is there anything similar that you can join? Maybe some one-on-one guidance? I have a friend who has been going to these meetings for about 10 years now and has not touched a drink since. He also helps others who are starting their journey or are facing a crisis and meets up with them or talks over the phone when they need support. I guess he is some kind of a mentor to these people. Maybe you could find someone like that and so avoid group meetings and avoid the unpleasant things that are putting you off.
 
I guess I’ll add my opinion here. I believe that AA is not an organization for Catholics. They teach you to pray to a higher power as you percieve it. It can be a power that you make up in your head or “the great thumb” whatever floats your boat. Breaking the addiction to alcohal can be done on ones own but I’m thinking that it doesn’t start by announcing that he is going to break out a bottle of hooch and condemn AA.

Annie
 
PaladinSword said:
… We’re about to crack open some Irish harp and listen to catholic answers…
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If, by Irish harp, you mean the musical instrument, I say go for it!

If you mean Harp Lager or some such, that would be unwise.

Catholic Answers, Father’s homily, and scripture quotations like Proverbs 31:6 should not be taken as a justification or an antidote for alcohol intoxication.
 
Annie39 said:
I guess I’ll add my opinion here. I believe that AA is not an organization for Catholics. They teach you to pray to a higher power as you percieve it. It can be a power that you make up in your head or “the great thumb” whatever floats your boat. Breaking the addiction to alcohal can be done on ones own but I’m thinking that it doesn’t start by announcing that he is going to break out a bottle of hooch and condemn AA.

Annie
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i’m with you Annie, I stopped going to AA after nearly 3 years I actually liked the system, but the constant higher power is like freemasonary it also uses the same symbolism. “i use to have a God of fear now i have a God of love in my life” from baptized catholics.
AA people do not like people talking about their faith because it has to be about higher powers. it is a cult, anyone not here is a dry drunk and its satanic.
 
Earp - it’s not anti-Catholic.

(You could just as easily say it’s anti-light-bulb ;))
 
triumphguy said:
Earp - it’s not anti-Catholic.

(You could just as easily say it’s anti-light-bulb )
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Do light bulbs demand adoration to be directed to themselves exclusively like the One True God of the Catholic Church does?
 
Take the 12 Steps, put “sin” in place of “alcohol” or whatever “Enslavement Anonymous” you’re in for, get specific about the truth when it comes to “greater power”, and you have the Catholic faith.

It would go something like this:

We admitted we were powerless over sin—that we cannot defeat the enslavement of sin alone.

Came to believe that Jesus Christ could restore us to wholeness.

Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God.

Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being ordained to hear our confession the exact nature of our wrongs.

Was entirely ready to have God remove the stain of these failures from us.

Humbly asked Him to help us renounce sin and amend our lives.

Willingly faced up to all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. (That is, tried to remedy the temporal results of our sins, as far as we are able.)

Continued to frequent the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Sacrament of the Eucharist, admitting our sins, looking for a better-formed conscience, depending on the grace offered in the sacraments to more clearly become an image of God.

Sought through prayer and meditation to pray for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry that out.

Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to share the Good News with others, which in the economy of grace brings both others and ourselves closer to the divine life we all need and share.
 
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