err:

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Of course you and others want AA to be included at cult sites. And authors like Peele and Bufe support that view.

Understood.

Not understood.

[b:fe81bd4028]Misinterpeted.[/b:fe81bd4028]

Presumptive.

But then again, that would be in keeping with the preceding thread, and the other 3 or 4 devoted to the subject.

barabara:

When people disagree with you it doesn't mean you misunderstood or misinterpetated.

It simply means you people disagree with your opinion.

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barabara:

When people disagree with you it doesn't mean they don't understand you

That may be true, but when people say I want something that I never anywhere said I wanted, they have put words in my mouth, and that is [b:544d300444]misrepresentation[/b:544d300444].

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Of course you and others want AA to be included at cult sites. And authors like Peele and Bufe support that view.

[b:544d300444]I never stated, here, or anywhere else, that I wanted AA to be included at cult sites.[/b:544d300444]

The AA topic was on the forum long before I got here. I just responded to a subject others were already discussing.

I did mention that Peele wrote one of the 2 textbooks chosen for a course in addiction at at least one major university, however.

I was cut off from my son just last week by a 12-step group. My son called me on Father's Day from a 12-step program in Winchester, Virginia, and we planned to be together today after years of not seeing each other since he has been with his mother in California.

A lady called me from the program later last week, however, and indicated I had to join their "family group" before I could visit him. I told her my wife and I did not agree with their religion and that we shouldn't have to join their group just to see my son.

The program has since blocked my son and I from communicating with each other, even after he signed a request for us to visit him in Winchester over 75 miles away from our home. I have since reported this program to the Winchester sheriff and prosecutor for holding my son hostage.

I've seen other cults at work, and this 12-step program is no different. They do not only want to control and regulate my adult son's entire life, they are blocking his father from any involvement with him altogether.

How would you like one of your children to be torn away from you like this? Do you think this 12-step program is acting in my son's best interests or in its own best interests by forcing my new wife and I to join their group before I can even see him?

They even expect parents to drive hundreds of miles per week, at our own expense for the "privilege" of seeing our own children; wow, are these people know how to bring families and our children to our knees or what? Forget your own religious beliefs when dealing with 12-step; it's their way or the highway, a one-way street to damnation. ruben

Blaze, there are 12-step programs out there which are completely secular in nature. I also understand that they have a slightly higher success rate than 12-steps in which you must surrender to a "higher power". A simple search on line for "12-step programs non-religious" will reveal a slew of sites.

I am sorry your family is being torn apart by this. This sounds like AA/NA on steroids. Being that you are new here, you may find it helpful to click on the "Getting Help" tag at the top of the page. Good luck.

Blaze - I was also in a group that professed the 12 steps and used the 12 steps but were a therapy community/cult. They overtook an AA meeting in town and so if any of their people sponsored your son, I could see the same thing happening. I don't know the circumstances which are not really important but THAT IS NOT AA. Are you sure it's not a therapy group or a treatment facility? Treatment places do use the 12 steps and abuse them too. They told me to break all contact with my family. Not only that but I had to call them and tell them I was breaking contact, "detaching."

Just so you know, the Big Book of AA does not say you have to get a sponsor even though many AAs depend on sponsors or will tell you you must get a sponsor. You do not have to believe in God. There are many Atheist and Agnostic AA meetings. You don't even have to say you are an alcoholic. The ONLY requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking.

That makes me so mad. AA members and groups can make all sorts of pronouncements but that doesn't mean they speak for the organization. Just because a good number of priests abused the Catholic Church, I still claim to be a member and I don't think they represent Catholicism (and I'm a seriously lukewarm Catholic myself).