Personally, in some ways I find the program rather heinous.
1) It takes people at the worst points in their life, when they are at their most vulnerable and tells them that everything will be all right if they believe in their imaginary friend.
2) The people then are told to surrender and dedicate their entire lives over to the will of this imaginary friend.
3) It tells people that in order to recover they MUST find other vulnerable people and tell them about this imaginary friend.
I think the program, created in the 1930s, was DESIGNED to manipulate the vulnerable. I find the same disgusting behaviour in some Christian aide groups in Africa which spend half their time on food/shelter and the other half converting the people. People living on the brink are looking for something, ANYTHING, that will help them live. And they will sacrifice anything for it, including their beliefs and free will.
What bothers me most is that there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of choices out there. Most courts, particularly in the US, MANDATE that people with addiction problems attend a 12 step program because most cities don't have any other type of community-based addiction treating support groups. So people often face the choice of having their lives owned by their addiction or having their lives owned by God.
There is, of course, addictions counselling, but that is disgustingly expensive and generally out of reach for those that need it the most.
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