wrong thread :confused:

I guess you could make the arguement that a topic about AA belongs in the religion section, since AA is a cult.

So then, Havok please explain the AA cult and its current belief structure/

Sorry to hear dude,

I see what you mean though

A friend of mine once made a statement that sums up what people in AA are all about. He said something like: "Those AA people will go a mile out of their way to help a total stranger, but turn their back on their own family in their time of need." I've seen it first hand, and IMO it's true.Wow. I hadn't thought of that before, or heard that strong an indictment.
In defense of AA, let me run this by you as another angle on it...

A lot of times when someone has an addiction, the addiction is actually only the most visible part of their issues. There can be deeper issues mixed in, like tendency toward violence, neglect of family (as you mention), or even racism.
One goal of social work is to recognize all of the problems involved while nonetheless acknowledging that they may have to be worked on separately. AA may be for the alcoholism, but some other form of counseling might be indicated for the deeper issues.
I'm not an expert by any means, but the example I'm drawing from is my wife's work in a DV shelter. The goals include counseling the women against victimhood, as well as the men if possible against escalating to violence and even a hatred of women. Frequently there may be alcoholism, where drinking binges can precipitate a symptomatic event. He beats her. But the alcoholism is separate, where it can be all too easily blamed as the sole problem, and people involved can imagine that once the alcoholism is solved, everything will be hunky-dorey.
Well, what am I getting around to? I think that maybe your mother, having suffered under a neglectful and alcoholic woman, is now fixing the wrong problems for the right reasons. She's going to AA to futilely fix her mother's alcoholism, meanwhile avoiding her own inheritted issues with abandoning family. In any healing journey, there are unfun parts that the injured person wishes subconciously to avoid. So your mother is avoiding.

*BTW, sorry to be so forward in my acts of y'know, talking about your mother. I don't mean anything untoward, just offering a blunt assessment based solely on your sharing your above post.
Also, feel free to talk about my mother. She deserves a blunt critique as well.*

Now, does this make AA a cult? I don't think it fits the definition. Mainly, cults take a fairly active role in recruitment. I think AA for the most part is just a collection of people drawn to each other because of some common threads. Now, if some of the there-drawn people are weak in their resolve, wrong in their self-diagnosis, or weak in their character, it makes the situation less than a healthy ideal, but it can't make AA a cult by default. But maybe some chapters end up cultlike.

I was going to go once, but they didn't have any beer so what was the sense. :D Sure would suck to sit in a room with a bunch of people and talk about drinking without a cold brew :D

Originally posted by mad dog I was going to go once, but they didn't have any beer so what was the sense. :D Sure would suck to sit in a room with a bunch of people and talk about drinking without a cold brew :D LOL.
I suppose they could change that by instituting "reminder sessions" or something of the like. Everyone could come to a once-a-month meeting expecting to drink, with the purpose of deliberately being reminded of how bad it is. Lest we should lose our vigilance.