Say 5% of alcoholics went cold turkey, successfully, in the last twelve months, and 5% of alcoholics were successful in AA in the last twelve months. AA has doubled the number of recovering alcoholics in the last twelve months.
The 5% comparison would be more informative with some context. Is the cold turkey 5% based on total number of alcoholics, total number of alcoholics who attempt cold turkey, or total number of former AA participants who attempt cold turkey? Is the AA 5% based on total number of alcoholics, total number of alcoholics who attend one AA meeting, or total number of alcoholics who attend meetings daily for a year, working the steps with a sponsor? A more apt comparison would be AA's success rate compared to other programs for alcoholics per, say, 1,000,000 alcoholics who participate fully in the programs, daily for one year. A more accurate comparison would be the success rate, per 1,000,000 alcoholics per year, of programs that cost the government, private industry, and the participants nothing. There are published scientific studies, including genetic studies, that support the proposition that alcoholism is a disease or the manifestation of a disease, e.g. depression or bipolar disease. Treatment of a disease costs money that was not available during the Depression, and often not available to alcoholics, then and now, who are too impaired to hold a job (much less budget for the cost of treatment), andare uninsured or under-insured. AA’s Higher Power, from a different perspective, is not the god of Abraham, but rather the power of the AA community. Attending some meetings of AA or ALANON provides at least anecdotal evidence that no preaching of religion occurs, nor any organized discussion of any particular religion. Organized religion does not invade the meetings, and religion is not a topic -- beyond the reference to a Higher Power that each participant is called upon to identify for themselves -- unless a participant choses to describe their experience with organized religion, which seems to be as often bad as good. A cult is comprised of followers of an unorthodox, extremist religion who live outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader to serve the purposes, including self-aggrandizement, of the leader. Respectfully, AA doesn't fit the definition, in my opinion.
A more apt comparison would be AA's success rate compared to other programs for alcoholics per, say, 1,000,000 alcoholics who participate fully in the programs, daily for one year. A more accurate comparison would be the success rate, per 1,000,000 alcoholics per year, of programs that cost the government, private industry, and the participants nothing.
There are published scientific studies, including genetic studies, that support the proposition that alcoholism is a disease or the manifestation of a disease, e.g. depression or bipolar disease. Treatment of a disease costs money that was not available during the Depression, and often not available to alcoholics, then and now, who are too impaired to hold a job (much less budget for the cost of treatment), andare uninsured or under-insured. AA’s Higher Power, from a different perspective, is not the god of Abraham, but rather the power of the AA community. Attending some meetings of AA or ALANON provides at least anecdotal evidence that no preaching of religion occurs, nor any organized discussion of any particular religion. Organized religion does not invade the meetings, and religion is not a topic -- beyond the reference to a Higher Power that each participant is called upon to identify for themselves -- unless a participant choses to describe their experience with organized religion, which seems to be as often bad as good. A cult is comprised of followers of an unorthodox, extremist religion who live outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader to serve the purposes, including self-aggrandizement, of the leader. Respectfully, AA doesn't fit the definition, in my opinion.