[Niglodonicus]

What it does offer is a social support group for people who choose to be sober, and it does serve that role, and for that I can't fault it, and the core members are more fortunate, as you say, and use it as such. In particular this is effective because alcoholics/junkies tend to have a terrible friend group (all other substance abusers), and this gets better influences in their life.

But there is a huge rotating pool of mostly young people that are obliged to go, do not stay long, and often go back to their old ways. Overall, the program efficacy is in the single digits. I was such a person that went through multiple rehab cycles and periods of going to meetings, but ultimately I stayed sober of my own accord for quite some time, and these days I imbibe an occasional casual beer or toke, with no habit to speak of, but back in the day I used more than just about anyone I knew, to extremely unpleasant consequences.

Just goes to show their core tenet of 'once an alkie, always an alkie' isn't exactly true, and this is corroborated by a lot of other people. Furthermore, the 'once you've had one beer you can't stop' mantra is particularly damaging because some people entering the program internalize this belief, which then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy anytime they relapse in the future.

[jfengel]

Forcing somebody to AA is the worst way. You go to AA when you're desperate enough to do crap like "surrendering to a higher power". The thought is incredibly repugnant to me, and it's no wonder they don't stay. If they're not desperate enough to volunteer, the program isn't aimed at them.

It's so much better to find the motivation to quit on your own. And congratulations. The people who do that often find that they can partake casually. AA people often know that they could, if they chose to, but they make a point of not choosing it.

If nothing else, they've gamified it with the chips, and we all know how motivating that can be. And as with the gamification, it has downsides.

Anyway... congrats again.