Progress, not perfection

"5 percent of the population suffers from an addiction to alcohol."

And now there might be a pill to solve all your problems. They found something that was already on the market that might just work. But would you take it? I suppose if you're desperate, there's a pill for everything. But for a lot of people, just the 12 steps really work. Or maybe not:

"A significant number of people who try these programs do not find them helpful or suffer relapses." Or so says the same article. And another piece says "The Harvard Medical School reported that in the long run, the rate of spontaneous remission in alcoholics is slightly over 50 percent. That means that the annual rate of spontaneous remission is around 5 percent." And they claim AA has only a 5% success rate, which means AA doesn't really work, since 5% of the people relapse.

But is success based on whether people stop drinking forever, or keep trying? I mean, doesn't success mean walking the line? Progress, not perfection?

But I get why people don't like AA. Sometimes it really does seem cult-like. People who hang out there seem to ostracize folks who don't hang out as much - or at least these kids do. I've found some great meetings where people just talk to you when you're there, call every now and again when you're not, and don't try to shove it down your throat.

And people are God obsessed. But not really. It's not about God, it's about realizing you're not the most important person on earth.

So really, there are tons of things wrong with AA, but right when you look closer. But I get why people don't like it. It's a lot of work - it's a commitment. It's the same commitment it would take to keep drinking; the same amount of time can be spent doing one thing or the other. But I get why people don't like it.