Rational Recovery

[Pharaoh]

is a website that I am looking at right now,and I bought the book and was going to give it a try. www.rational.org

I live way out in the country and going to meetings isn't practical and I have other misgivings about AA. Just popped in here to see if anyone is familiar with it?

[NMDemDist2]

1. i have heard of it

and whatever works for you is good.

good luck! :hi:

[Why Syzygy]

2. I attended some RR meetings

in Nevada in the 90s. It is a congitive approach. Some of us don't like referring to a part of ourselves as a monster (the animal brain). It did help me understand a bit more about the mehcanism, which is not generally taught in mainstream recovery models.

It would be great to get your ideas about it.

[Why Syzygy]

3. The thing that bothered me about RR, eventually

Was Jack is big on, we don't need fellowship.
And yet, he hosts fellowhips in his own home. So he gets to have them.
We, unless invited, do not. Anything square there?

Personally, I have a huge problem with groups that over identify with alcoholism.
It works for many. The Meeting.

But other than that, I don't know where you find a group of people who say 'no' to alcohol.
I have met them in random places over and over. We are out there.

I didn't want to say this, but we need others like ourselves. I loathe that it is in 'rooms', etc.
But that's where you find us.

[Pharaoh]

4. I guess what I might be looking for

and I have cut down and not quit drinking yet, is an kind of online meeting. Being out in the boonies I don't really want to drive 50 miles round trip for a meeting.

It certainly is'nt the same as being "with" other people, but if there was such a place online which one could go 24/7 I think it would be very helpful.

[Why Syzygy]

5. When I got sober in 2000

for four years. I do the short stretches I guess, which keep me alive.
I found WFS (Women for Sobriety) online. They gave me hope again.
I had been in AA for decades off an on and found no such hope. It all seems like giving up and losing. Not saying that is fair because many do find what they need there.

I need HOPE. One more reason to try.
I didn't suggest that to you earlier becuase you are not a woman.

Don't give up. Whatever you need is.

I hate to see a one size fits all in recovery. We are more than that.
If there is a HP that can carry us over, he/she/it Knows. We need individual attention and then a hook up with others exactly EXACTLy like us. That is spooky how that happens. I don't know how we can be so much the same.

[Pharaoh]

7. The thing about the AA approach

which did not sit with me, and it wasn't AA that turned me off so much but the 30 day halfway house that pushed AA as my only recourse was this. We had group there where we were told to speak from the heart, bare our souls yada yada yada, and my deeply felt rant went something like(short version) I don't think I am sick, I don't think "I" have a disease, .............I think we live in a sick society, that we people who are addicted to drugs,alcohol,food,sex,shopping, ....whatever,the list is endless are trying to escape the meaningless sick society that we are born into and forced to accept. Something like that anyway, so, I can't believe this group is for women only,seems kinda odd, I tend to relate better with women ;o)

as they are more apt to speak from their feelings........

[Why Syzygy]

8. If we could take you, we would.

I needed a women's only place. Just sayin . it gave me hope.
I'm sure that is out there for you too. You are so welcome to join recovery.

[Pharaoh]

9. That's OK

Just looking around , thanks for the info, I don't know if I'll ever join the totally sober world, but Ive cut way back which is good, for now.
Peace

[Why Syzygy]

6. You can find it.

www. you can get there. Others here who adhere more to f2f can advise you.
I had nothing but online to get me straight those years ago.
Needs change.

All I know is there is no excuse to not be with ones who heal.

[SPKrazy]

10. I'll Give You This...

I'm never against anything that helps...

with that caviat in mind, I've worked in the alcohol and drug treatment industry in the past and will tell you that the problem I have with RR is that it isn't necessarily an abstinence program which flies in the face of the dis-ease model of addiction (the biochemical/genetic/psychological/emotional/social/cultural/spiritual dysfunction model) that says one is too many and a 1000 is not enough.

However, that doesn't mean it can't or won't work. It is just not something I would ever recommend to anyone.

I also don't know it all. As a professional who worked with alcoholics and drug addicts I would have felt I was committing malpractice to have recommended it. I'm sure I couldn't have been sued for that as even 12 step programs have low success rates and it would be hard to argue that there was truly a terrible risk by not recommending a 12 step program.

I sobered up in AA, and have found recovery there. I'm biased, and I know it!

If RR works for you d00d, then I say more power to ya!

:hi:

[Why Syzygy]

11. That is some misinformation

about RR. It is abstinence based. 100% forever abstinence. Not just "one-day-at-a-time".
Lots of people who quit drinking do so with a life long committment.