I always enjoy getting mail from TDA visitors and regulars alike. Some are just simple thanks or words of encouragement, several have been mean-spirited diatribes, and then there are those that I really like with links to relevant content.
So thanks to TDA reader Norman for providing us with the heads up on this blog post by Brian Cuban reviewing the “cult” status that some would like to place on Alcoholics Anonymous. Nothing new here really, this is a common debate but the extensive comment section is entertaining in a sort of disturbing fashion.
It never fails that those attacking AA most vigorously always seem to be the ones that would probably be better off working on their own personal problems than worrying about the semantics concerning a fellowship of alcoholics. This debate is always guaranteed to attract a rational recovery adherent and their canned “I hate AA” speech, this one is no different so look about midway through comments. I think they must pay these guys to go around cracking on twelve step groups.
Click “Read more” to continue…
Screedler came through as usual with a link to this story that is a great example of how even a temporary prohibition can have a dangerous effect on a drinking population. It’s always damned if you do and damned if you don’t when it comes to alcohol.
NEW DELHI — Locally brewed liquor apparently tainted with lethal chemicals continued to kill in southern India, with another 66 people dying and bringing the overall death toll from the past five days to 156, police said Wednesday. Another 135 people were being treated in hospitals in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu states, said Sri Kumar, the Karnataka state police chief. ~ Fox News
And last but certainly not least, my good friend Anna Z sent in this link to a story describing how a local bar is trying to take advantage of the Sex and the City hype with a mammoth 40 oz cocktail “a specialty cocktail for cosmopolitan lovers on a girls’ night out.” I hate to sound crass but it’s true, back in my drinking days we would have called this an equalizer. One of those drinks that takes the upper hand away from the fairer sex in the dating/bar scene and places it back with the predators.
Not a good idea… for either sex.
I am proud to say that I have never made through more than fifteen minutes of a SATC episode but the show does have one redeeming feature, recovering alcoholic Kristin Davis.
“I’m a recovering alcoholic,” Davis tells Health magazine. “I’ve never hid it, but I’ve been sober the whole time I’ve been famous, so it wasn’t like I had to go to rehab publicly. it’s caused a lot of confusion out in the world. I get sent many a Cosmo! I never drink them,” she says, according to excerpts on usmagazine.com. ~ Chicago Tribune
She speaks freely about her disease, is a positive recovery role model, and she has been extremely successful in her recovery navigating the entertainment industry’s very alcoholic-unfriendly waters. So I’ll end this mailbag edition with a TDA salute to a very brave woman who has learned how to swim with the sharks without getting bit.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
That’s cool. I never knew until I saw it in the local paper yesterday. I’m glad she is that comfortable with it. I used to watch her on Melrose Place as Heather Locklear’s evil minion at D&D. She was also the toothbrush girl on Seinfeld (toilet+toothbrush=Jerry’s nightmare). Hope she will tell us more of her story someday.
What is more disturbing to me is the “blind deaf and dumb “three monkeys” approach that AA members take to the extensive commentary. Keeping it simple is not the same as “keeping it stupid”
recovery is much more than just being sober. A decade of sobriety may get you a mighty cool chip, but it doesn’t doesn’t mean you have any more walking around sense than a drunk with good balance.
Brian – I read your blog and agree with it. I think your point about there being no “Grand Poobah” in AA is a very convincing observation on whether they should be described as a cult. I also “drink their kool-aid”, I mean coffee; and feel I have attained the highest status anyone in AA can reach – Sobriety.