Yes it is ....it's a gateway drug . Gets you beliving in higher powers then that leads to christianity

No it is not it is religious based support group. Cults take your stuff AA does not.

Not supposed to be any religion but almost always closed with "The Lords prayer." It says you can believe in any "higher power" but is definitely christian orientated.

I think I remember an episode of Penn and Teller's Bullshit where they dove into AA's relevance. What they came up with was you have the exact same probability of quitting if you are in aa or not, the point was it's up to you, and if you want to quit.

You should hear the illogical thing's that are said!
"Reliance upon myself, was the problem"
"Ask god to remove your character defects"
(That's an actual step)= no step...

Smart Recovery is a secular substance abuse recovery system.

I know nothing about AA but a primary aspect of a cult is having a charismatic leader and disassociating oneself from everyone except members of the cult. I do not think AA would come under those conditions.

[secularaa.org] this one is for atheists and the like.

I've been to a few meetings with an ex roommate. You have to be a believer in God . A higher power can technically be anyting ,but you have to believe in a living God to give you strength. All of the people I have ever met that have been successful with AA are deeply religious.

Alas, unfortunately

My ex (an adult child of an alcoholic) did Al-Anon, which is the AA affiliated support group for people affected by someone else's alcoholism. It does the whole 12 steps and 'higher power' thing too. I went with her to the first session. I think all of the God and higher power stuff was why I didn't go back.

I think it serves a purpose for people who desperately need to be in control. I bought a book entitled "How to live with a control freak" and it had two pages devoted to adult children of alcoholics. Apparently they often grow up trying (and failing) to moderate their parents' drinking, and mature into adults who can't feel secure unless they're in full control of their domestic situation, including having complete, smothering control over their partner and children.

Key to the whole 12 steps thing is the Serenity Prayer. All that stuff about having the courage to change what you can change, live with what you can't, and having the sense to spot the difference. And I think this ties in nicely with the idea that there is some sort of higher power trying to make the world a fair one. An idea which I (and I suspect, most here) find ridiculous, but which I think provides a lot of comfort to the sort of person who finds themselves in need of a 12 step programme.

Yes

Some people make it one. There are secular alternatives.

The twelve steps that are a strong part of AA is religious-christian based. I wouldn't call it a cult...but it's a cult-ish approach based on "trusting the savior"...

I heard, or read, that there's a growing group of un-religious AA groups....

I don't think it's a cult. It does have religion in most of the its groups here in the US, but not all. It does serve a good purpose in providing people with a ready-made support network while they work on their problems. It also helps them get past their own ego and pride to start seeing how they affect others and also provides opportunities within the program to help others. All these things are part of a process for people to grow emotionally and spiritually as they stop drinking and heal. The ideal of the program is to eventually have little need for the meetings, but continue to grow and stay accountable by giving to others in the program by helping. A man I know who seems to have gotten the healthiest of anyone from the program eventually quit going to meetings and continued to get his spirituality from his church.

Kinda

It's for the birds...they insist on doing the same exact boring ritual--sort of like mass--every single time, and it's VERY god-centered. It ALL bothers me to no end, but particularly repugnant is the "moral inventory'" where you do a lengthy autobiographical history of your drinking career, especially all the people you hurt in some way when drunk (never mind the fact you were by definition in an altered state and "not yourself." ). Then you're supposed to go to all these people and "make amends;" in other words say you're sorry and make it up to them in whatever way comes to mind, I guess. i never did it. It goes back to the idea drunks are moral basket cases, when the truth is it has nothing to do with "right" and "wrong." That last part is slightly debatable, I guess, but it's stll of highly questionable utility, and very intrusive.
I hated it. It does no good unless YOU have had enough. At that point you quit for good.
It's a cult, but not a successful one. They tell you to "keep coming back," that it "works if you work it " but people predictably backslide and fall off the wagon, sober up and straighten back out, constantly. Just as they would without AA. The god stuff is totally irrelevant.

It is like anonymous God tends to non existence also proves that they have no faith on God only pretend for faith in God.

Well it does have some cult like properties

I'll drink to that!

No it’s not a cult. If it helps people get off an alcohol dependency then it has to be a good thing. It only works if you believe in god in the first place...it’s not there to convert people, although that may happen in the process, but I view it as the lesser of two evils. Better to be converted to believing in god than dying a miserable death due to alcoholism. Cults are a whole different topic entirely. and are usually built around the personal ego of some pseudo religious guru....nothing at all like AA.