Addiction in America

[Ponine]

I know that I am coming into the party very late, but since I dont post on the weekends, I felt like I ditched the thread.

I have to say that I know a great many people feel they owe their lives or their sanity to AA.
Good for you, I am glad it worked for you.
If you started going to church after your recovery, again, I am pleased.

I however, have to admit that I'm with Alex. To me, its bs. I attended AA meetings with a friend, and attended NAnon, and S-anon meetings after that.

Now, WHY... on earth did I want to sit on the s-anon meetings aas long as I did? I was told that becuase of another family members addiction that I needed them.
For two years I sat there and listened to how I would always be screwed up, and never have a normal relationship because of my relationship to an addict.
This is what it had done to the rest of my life.
Never mind that I hadnt shared a home with that addict for over ten years.
But I had the markers.
I was co-dependant, I was this, I was that.
And they wanted me to follow thier steps to get out of a situation that they felt I had, and no one had bothered to ask me about?

There are a great many addictions, I'm aware of that. And the type or even the level of addiction changes everything from one person to another.

I am not surprised by the stats in the OP. I am saddened by them.
But I cannot tell any one how to recover from their adiction, nor can I ask or prod anyone to.
How am I to know they wont think exactly what I did? That I am the one saying they are ill, or an addict, when they dont think they are.

My two cents.