Reply #12: Ask George Bush about getting "sober" without doing the legwork

[dpbrown]

People can choose all, some, or none of recovery.

People can choose a piecemeal approach to recovery, picking and choosing from what's worked for millions in countries and cultures all over the world. For some, doing "half" will be enough to get them through this 24 hours. Maybe they were high-bottom drunks who can still afford to carry their black-and-white thinking, suspicion, and dismissal of what works around with them and still function. Or, like George Bush, maybe they've got an incredibly complex system of enablers surrounding them.

The 12-step programs themselves are just manifestations of an underlying set of guidelines that could be summarized as: 1) Let go of the thinking and ego that keeps you trapped, 2) Get help, 3) Look inside to figure out what crap you're carrying around, 4) Unload the crap, 5) Get straight with the people you burned, 6) Help others, 7) Rinse and repeat as necessary.

Since all 12-step programs are susceptible of that level of summation, getting "hung up" on the individual means by which people or groups practice recovery just bogs people down and confuses and drives away newcomers.

For people committed to being accountable for their actions and able to accept their powerlessness over their addiction and the ego-centrism at its core, the recovery rate for 12-step groups is 100%. Groups are not cults, though individuals obviously can only give away what they've already got. If they learned half-measures from their sponsor, then they'll transmit half-measures to the newcomer.

"Logic" is just another power greater than oneself.