Alcoholism: Drug Abuse Facts

Question: How can a person beat alcoholism if he's an atheist?

(Posted by: Mc Boogie on 2009-01-25 15:16:27)

AA is structured on Christian beliefs and uses faith in God to help alcoholics overcome their addiction. What if an alcoholic is an Atheist? How can he learn to deal with his addiction if he has no faith in a God?

Posted by: Melorious on 2009-01-25, 17:42:14

I never understand why the faithful seem to have such a struggle getting their heads around the faithless when it comes to personal strength and morality. just because he is an atheist doesn't mean that he doesn't want to improve on himself and make himself better for his friends family or just for his own respect. a person can only be helped if they want to be helped, if they don't then no belief in god will help, if they do then help from god would be irrelevant.

Posted by: Mary, the local athei minion on 2009-01-25, 15:20:18

There's more than one way to recover from alcoholism...

Posted by: Tori on 2009-01-25, 15:20:29

Oh please, they might as well be saying Harry potter helped overcome there addiction. you can overcome anything without god. believe me

Posted by: Spazzy- McGee on 2009-01-25, 15:20:34

1) Don't capitalize atheist. It isn't a proper noun. 2) One just needs to stop drinking. The main source of power for people trying to break an addiction is family and friends, not old books.

Posted by: SheWhoWatches on 2009-01-25, 15:20:46

Gee, I don't know. How do they get through life? Most of them seem to do quite well. And they have just as many problems as anyone else. The only difference is they rely on their own resources and not sky daddy to hold their hand when they go to the bathroom.

Posted by: Cassie T on 2009-01-25, 15:21:04

Not every alcoholic quits with AA. Whether or not you're religious doesn't matter. It's whether or not you really want to quit.

Posted by: Wry on 2009-01-25, 15:21:31

Give me a freakin break -- Christ almighty, some of the questions on here... .

Posted by: Sakura Chan on 2009-01-25, 15:21:51

There are other support groups for alcoholism, AA is only the best known one,not the only one. Plus you can go to therapy for it.

Posted by: randompanther repeated meme on 2009-01-25, 15:22:56

Find a better class of support group.

Posted by: luckey4u236 on 2009-01-25, 15:24:03

Well, first the atheist has an addiction of non belief, lets try to cure this first, the alcoholism is very simple to beat ,stop drinking.

Posted by: The Devil's Reject on 2009-01-25, 15:25:26

First there are more programs out there than just AA so what makes you think that you need faith in a deity to overcome addiction? All AA does is trade one addiction for another.. it makes them become overly dependent on faith rather than actually treating the addiction itself.

Posted by: www.nwhorsecountry.com on 2009-01-25, 15:30:43

He will just have to believe in himself, i guess, and face the facts- alcoholics aren't hurting just themselves but their friends, family, and everyone else that comes into contact with them. they are destroying their life as well as others. it's not a healthy habit that needs to stop.

Posted by: alice on 2009-01-25, 15:34:21

How do muslims, jews, hindus and buddhists beat alcoholism?

Posted by: MeJane aka EL on 2009-01-25, 15:43:36

Well obviously an atheist alcoholic realizes that he is not powerless and can actually change his life on his own. As opposed to those in AA in which one must accept the 'fact' that you are powerless and cannot change with out outside help. The effectiveness of 12 Step Program: orange-papers.org/ orange-effectiveness.html addictioninfo.org/ articles/ 1587/ 1/ Estimates-of-AAs-Effectiveness/ Page1.html Alternatives to 12 Step: aanottheonlyway.com/ Basically, telling addicts that they are powerless and can't change is unreliable at best and unsuccessful at the worst. Having faith in your own ability to change, knowing that you have the power allows addicts to take charge and accept responsibility for their actions. Which in turn leads to more success in kicking the habit.

Posted by: mrtwondo on 2009-01-25, 16:03:59

There are many secular groups devoted to helping people recover from addiction (especially alcohol). AA is not the only game in town.

Posted by: green_meklar on 2009-01-25, 16:27:20

Sheer force of will. Christians don't really have any more will power than atheists, all they have is a way of symbolizing it to make it feel easier to them.