sunshinemiss
Posts: 17673
Joined: 11/26/2007 Status: offline
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Hib, Nothing but love, but a crutch? Having people to support you through a difficult time, realizing and taking personal responsibility, learning to forgive, looking for the greater good, working hard one day at a time to be as good and decent as possible when the cards are stacked against you... that's a crutch? If that's a crutch, I'll happiliy stay lame all my life. A 12 step program saved me. I go to a meeting once in a blue moon now, but when I didn't know how to arrange my life without craziness, a 12 step program gave me some very necessary guidelines - very common guidelines that many people learn when they are children. Some of us were not that lucky. What I had learned didn't work for me. You are right, though. It can also backfire terribly. Perhaps that is why "take what you need and leave the rest" is such an important tenet of the 12 step ideology. It's actually one of the things I love about it. I don't have to get into an argument about religion, I don't have to give up my own beliefs, I don't have to embrace someone else's framework. It honors each person - their heritage, their culture, and yes, their religion. How many international programs can say that? Like all groups, 12 step programs have crazy people in them and generally healthy people. Most are somewhere in between. The philosophy though works in spite of the people. That's a whole lot of good right there. best, sunshine
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Yes, I am a wonton hussy... and still sweet as 3.14
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