Some people do SMART. it comes from Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy. It teaches that changing the way you think about drinking can cause a behavioral change. It has an effectiveness rate of 30%-50%. I do not know about A.A. because it is anonymous and hard for researchers to collect data.Most therapies are AA based that come from treatment centers. While I am not spiritual, some people see to benefit therapeutically from a belief in a higher power.

My brother tried all of those religious based programs. None of them worked. He finally just went cold turkey, and has been clean for about 20 years. Having a kid was his motivation for getting off of drugs.

My partner before I met him went to AA and he can leave the higher power stuff out of his consciousness- I went a different route before I met him and just went to my doctor and told him "I think I am an alcoholic" he asked soem questions then said yes I think you are too take these tablets and don't drink wholst youre on them or you'll die. After the first tablet I went to the pub with my friends and drank dark lemonade that looked like lager. Nobody noticed any difference in me and I was surprised to find that my bubbliness was mine and not die to the drink.
I havent wanted of felt a need for a drink since. so about 40 years sober without AA.

When I was going to Alanon, I told them I was an atheist and had a problem with that "higher power" thing. They told me that my higher power could be the group if I so liked. However, they always closed with the Lords Prayer. So it is just bullshit by another name. Note that I have never been an alcoholic...my ex-wife was.

It's not as hard as I thought for a non-believer to fit into a 12-step program. Wasted years... Please check out my posts and comments on this. @AMGT has participated in the SMART program and she has been very helpful to me. I understand what you're talking about with submissive and praying/pleading language. I look at it as surrendering to reality. I, alone, am not that important but recognizing all the different groups I am a part of is when I truly have power and meaning. That is my higher power and my humility at the same time. I don't ask for my higher power to take away my defects. I try to surrender my self-centeredness to my higher power. What finally got me into 12-step was realising that I, as an atheist, was auditioning for the part of god. My arrogance was appalling. Message me if you want. Good luck and peace.

I used the 12 steps. It has been working for a while. If I make it to may, will be 29 yrs.

I stopped smokiong with hypnotharapy.

I have a family member who had been agnostic. She started AA, and the program has helped her stay sober. Unfortunately, she's not agnostic anymore. We don't discuss our
beliefs, or lack thereof. It bugs me that programs like AA and others use the god-crutch. To me, calling it a "higher power" is really no different. It's just trading one delusion (being able to 'handle' their addiction) for another (god). However, if it keeps her sober, I'm not going to say anything. It would serve no useful purpose.

To me, there is NO QUESTION AA is a Christian cult. It is absolutely infused and soaking, marinating in Christian beliefs, tells people they have character flaws that lead them to drink, are told to do a "moral inventory" of everything they did wrong and everyone they hurt drinking and make amends to them, etc. It is the same guilt trip religion ITSELF puts on people.
The fact is, alcoholism has NOTHING to do with morality or whether you're a good person, or not. People do strange, self-destructive things when they drink.Duh.You can be an atheist or a born-again Muslim, and the effect is the same. Praying about it does ZERO good. AA itself is no more effective than cold turkey. It is not scientific. The one constant which determines whether one quits or not is "ROCK BOTTOM." No one quits who has not experienced it in one form or another, has an epiphany, and simply decides he ot she cannot allow alcohol ruin their lives any more. Like AA says, it's baffling, cunning, and powerful, and so one day a person wakes up and the scales fall from his eyes, and at the crossroads makes a conscious decision and says, 'No more, ' and means it, and the addiction lifts. AA has nothing to do with it in the vast preponderance of the cases. A person either quits, or dies. End of story.

I have some experience with 12 step programs and fully believe they nothing more than a religious cult. There are some more progressive schools of thought on addiction out there. Unfortunately most are private and expensive. You don't need a higher power to overcome addiction, you need to be empowered!

I've been 100% sober for over 35 years. AA really helped set me on my path to sobriety and relative happiness and has probably saved well over a million peoples lives. Not to mention stopped the suffering of so many family members of alcoholics. All of AAs teaching are only suggestions. If your alcoholic and you choose not to attend AA meetings and learn any of the other teachings that are not religious and enjoy the fellowship there..well...that's a personal choice. I went for 3 years hit and miss and then only went back during the next 20 to pick up a chip every five because I had so much going on in my life. Work, relationships....After I retired in 06 I started going back again on occasion. I go to get out of the house and maybe, just maybe something I say to a new member may help save their life. I rarely ever mention I'm an atheist and it's NOT like going to a religious meeting most of the time. A speaker may mention their faith but I'm a big live and let live type of person. According to the CDC their are 80,000 alcohol related deaths in this country every year.

No you do not. Get help from a therapist. Emotional pain is what drives addiction, find the source and meet it head on. That NA/AA crap is just that, bullshit. Listening to self agrandizing stories presented in 'meetings' is just plain silly. I admit that there are some that swear by AA, but I have found these people to be the MOST deluded individuals, and nearly all go back to old habits. I know this from experience.

I have been an atheist ever since I can remember. I have never believed in a God or any of the conceptions of God that have been presented to me-from Allah to Zeus-all of them are fiction. I might be missing crucial genetic material. I have never even waffled.

For me, there is more than enough secularity in Alcoholics Anonymous to get a foothold. The book states that we do not need to consider another’s conception of God. And that includes the conception described in the big book. I feel that considering another's conception of God should be done for entertainment purposes only.

AA also directs me to honestly ask myself what all these spiritual expressions mean to me. Step 11 declares that we are to pray only for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry that out. “Pray” and Knowledge of God’s will for me” are spiritual expressions and I am to decide what they mean.

Appendix II in the back of the book titled “spiritual experience” states that no one need have difficulty with the spirituality of the program. Having difficulty is completely optional. I think that arguing about the existence of God in AA is an outside issue. But it’s hard because I enjoy it so much.

Recovery begins when one alcoholic/addict shares his experience, strength, and hope with another alcoholic/addict. It doesn’t begin when I find God. So I stopped worrying about it.

There is really no way around it, the higher power of AA is the Christian God whether you call it that or not. They will never admit this, but it is so obvious if you read their material, follow their 12 steps and attend AA meetings long enough.

AA or DRA never worked for me, after I was treated for depression and talking with a therapist I no longer have a desire to drink excessively. I don't even drink alcohol at all now. I used a number of ways to do this, moved to the south to eliminate winter depression, started hanging around people with positive attitudes, lowered my expectations of what life owed to me. That was my way and it worked for me.

12-step programs originated during prohibition. They have been a part of alcohol and drug treatment ever since. Unfortunately, the research shows they are not effective. These programs are based on abstinence and white knuckling it. Nothing makes something more enticing than a substance being forbidden.

Aa had its genesis in christianity, and members are reluctant to make any changes to the 12 step program because 1. it works and 2. it (aa) would cease to exist. having been a member for almost 36 years I can attest to this. as for your question of what you need to remain sober, I can tell you what I did. first I decided that the model was successful, and if I wanted to be successful I should follow it. there is room for personalization and this was the saving grace for me. for example using your home group as a power greater than just yourself. this is important particularly when you are new so that you feel you can lean on someone/something when needed. it's imperative that you seek similarities with these folks, and turn away from looking at the differences. your life is on the line.

I knew an alcoholic who said he prayed to god to help him quit drinking. During one of his praying sessions he opened his eyes and the first thing he saw lying on the ground was an AA information handout. This is his proof that God is real. It was a year and 6 months before he thanked his sister for giving it to him. All the personal work that recovering alcoholics do to remain sober is the work of God himself According to AA.i can't imagine how this can help anyone.

My own opinion here, but I think any of the X Anonymous programs are a load of crap. They don't teach you anything about how to live without addiction. They simply want to replace the addiction you have with the one that they sell.

We recently did a podcast with a former member of AA who claims it's a cult.

Explaining the "higher power" in the 12-steps for atheists in recovery from addictions.

OK. I am an atheist, and never have never been addicted, but I did get an AA in Addiction Studies, and we covered the "higher power" delima in the 12-steps for those who did nto believe in god or the supernatural.

One of my instructors gave the three examples of "alternate" higher powers. In once case the higher power was a daughter, in another it was a kitten, and in a third it was a motorcycle. Now, at first glance this may all seem weird and crazy. Most people can understand a person using their daughter, and with a bit of a stretch, they can understand the kitten, but the motorcycle really throws people.

That is until you realize that all three have one thing in common.
Each on evokes feelings of love and caring in the individual, and in each case that love and caring they feel was strong enough for them to stop drinking or using.

For believers, a belief in god can provide tht feeling of living and caring with varyign results.

However, I think that to find something or someone you care about that evokes feelings of lovign and caring that are strogn enough to help you stop works better than just a general belief in god. The rick is to find somethign in your life that you care about that avokes those strong enough feelings.

For some people it is just a simple desire to be a better person tomorrow than they re today. Tht desire comes mos toften when a person has "hit bottom" and simply can't stand for their life to get any worse.

Your higher power is just finding somethig that evokes emotions or a desire to change that is stronger than your desire to drink or use

This may seem very simple if you never had an addiction. I am assured by those who do have an addiction that it is very complicated, especially when a prson encounters "triggers" which make them desire to drin or use.

Anyway, that is the bsics of how you find a "higher power" for recovery when you are atheist.

I'll be postign the above in the general discussion section too. I hope it might help someone.

Have a family member who tried AA and disliked it for similar reasons. Smart Recovery's nearest support group was 2 hours away, so that was no help. Sounds good in concept though.

I think what some people think is a higher power is their subconscious / unconscious, which you can talk to in the manner you suggest, and is highly amenable to suggestion. I use that technique all the time in another context. (1) I love to eat and (2) hate to excersize but (3) have diabetes and am getting old so (4) I need to not give up my last reliable source of instant gratification and (5) do something I hate. I have a 10,000 step per day goal and one of the ways I fake myself into it is I promise "myself" (my unconscious) that as a reward for following the full course of my standard daily walk I will stop for coffee and a free donut at DD. When I get there I tell "myself" I don't really want it and I'll just continue on home. "Myself" never seems to catch on to my insincere promises, it just obediently motivates me every time I lie to it and meekly assents to whatever I command it.

This may well not work for everyone but I'm astounded at how well it works for me. I got the idea from reading that the subconscious is very undiscerning in this regard, and can be ordered around in all sorts of ways. Way more goes on below the conscious level than we generally suspect, much less realize. As a result our conscious self is far less in the "driver's seat" than it could be.

I gave up my addictions by substituting those addictions. I quit smoking cigarettes by smoking something else more often until I no longer wanted cigarettes and I gave up caffeine by eating apples instead. Maybe these are some of the easier addictions to give up, but I failed several times before my substitutions.

I am sober since 4/2/88. AA is god Jose who want it. It is not a religious program or society. We Agnostics is a chapter in the BIg Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

Aggie Buddh,

I tried SAA, which is modeled on AA.
Some of it made sense. I had made sex my higher power, the be all, the end all, my place to hide.

But, I couldn't hide with god and I never developed a good alternative. Plus, I am unwilling/unable to deal with the root causes of the stress. And I missed my addiction SO DAMN MUCH.

So, doing better, in terms of pure statistics, but mentally, really fucked up.