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Welcome to Blame Denial. Feel free to look around and read whatever you like, when you like and take it how you like! The primary purpose of this site is to express my experience and views of Alcoholics Anonymous and the effect it has on its members both past and present.
Letters:
Page 1 : Page 2 : Page 3 : Page 4 : Page 5 : Page 6 : Page 7 : Page 8 : Page 9 : Page 10 : Page 11 : Page 12
The latest letters are posted on: Page 13 Updated 04/01/08
Use the links above to navigate yourself around the site.
N E W S:
17/07/08 I have added some of my more interesting forum posts and letters to my Random page.
11/07/08 So you're questioning AA? (With comments from Ken Ragge and Agent Orange.)
07/07/08 Debate with a Youtube user here.
07/07/08 My Thoughts on the Chapter How Far Carried in The Real AA by Ken Ragge
U P D A T E D 27/05/08 Introducing Blamedenial's latest contributor: Rachelle
19/06/08 - The first part of my response to Agent Green
12/06/08 - Possible case against treatment centres in contract law
04/06/08 - Statement regarding my position with Blamedenial
I have been really impressed with some of the posts at Xsteppers lately - If you have not already joined, I'd highly recommend it.
New essay on the topic of US drug legislation now available here.
An interesting document exposing how one member on the board of AA's trustees was paid $218,814 (see pg. 7) - I thought AA was not for profit and was a charity?
I have made a new Intro for the site although I am unlikely to make proper use of it - here.
Blamedenial is looking for guest writers – if you are interested please contact jamesg .
For a list of topics I am researching click here.
Confession Session; the videos page is open again - updated 18/03/08.
Featured Video: From Akron with Love
People keep asking me why I don't just leave AA and let it help people: here are my reasons:
One of the most enthusiastic boosters of Alcoholics Anonymous, Professor George Vaillant of Harvard University, who is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. (AAWS), showed by his own 8 years of testing of A.A. that A.A. was worse than useless -- that it didn't help the alcoholics any more than no treatment at all, and it had the highest death rate of any treatment program tested -- a death rate that Professor Vaillant himself described as "appalling". While trying to prove that A.A. treatment works, Professor Vaillant actually proved that A.A. kills. (Nevertheless, Vaillant is still a Trustee of AAWS, and he still wants to send all alcoholics to A.A. anyway, to "get an attitude change by confessing their sins to a high-status healer." That is cult religion, not the treatment of alcoholism.) (Retrieved here.)
WELCOME
You may have ended up here for any number of reasons, but the chances are you fall into one of two camps. Either you believe AA is a good organisation which does our society a service, or you don’t. It will not take you long to realise that my views on AA are mixed, and as such fall into the latter bracket. The initial reaction from the majority of people I speak to is that I serve no purpose by challenging and questioning something that is perceived as helping millions of people recover from alcoholism. I have to disagree. Even if I am wrong, which I am quite happy to accept I might be, I still have these concerns, along with many others, about AA. When I first contemplated making my concerns public, I spent quite some time considering the consequences of expressing these views. Resistance to them was inevitable, but that did not worry me. What made me really think, was the belief that has been instilled in me by membership to AA, that questioning this program openly may contribute to another person’s relapse, and thus death. That would make any compassionate human being think, and think I did. I reached the conclusion that it was more dangerous for a society to silence people who want to question the status quo, than it was for me to actually question it. There appears to be a deep rooted fear amongst both members and non-members of AA to challenge the program. What is so awful about asking a few questions, expressing a point of view and challenging anything which is trusted with the lives of so many people? The mere fact that what I am doing causes such a reaction concerns me more than anything else. The attempts to silence me with so-called ‘facts’ are astounding. If I was to set up a website that challenged the effectiveness of any other health provider, I am sure the reaction would not be so extreme.
When in dialogue with people who have been in AA or are still in AA, the conversations are usually more rational than those that have never been, for the simple reason they have some experience to base their conclusions on. Those who have never been to an AA meeting are more likely to assume that AA is good and thus regard what I am saying and doing as destructive. When I have suggested there may be flaws within AA, the knee-jerk reaction is that it helps people. I find this intriguing and I would love to hear from anyone who has arrived at this site who has never been a member of AA. Why do so many people see what I am saying as such a threat? After all, challenging something can also have the effect of reinforcing its usefulness. I have my opinions, but none of them are fixed. I believe in being open-minded; I believe in being challenged; I believe in scrutiny; I believe in those methods of reaching the truth – I don’t believe in using them as modes to prove anything, but rather as a method of discovery. If by the end of all this I have proved that AA is good for us as a society, then I will be just as happy as I would be to prove the opposite. Some might argue that my views are clear on AA, and they are, but they are open. I am taking the risk of making them available for the precise reason I invite challenge. I do not want to suffer from contempt, nor admiration, prior to investigation. I am not frightened of people telling me I might be wrong; to the contrary I encourage it. I want to be put the kind of questions that will either prove or disprove what I am saying. All I ask is that these questions do not contain assumptions. Let’s use this site to go back to the drawing board, to have a proper look at AA and its program and reach a healthy conclusion backed up by a thorough investigation. The results may help or hinder AA, but ultimately they can only serve the alcoholic (or addict) - the very people AA tells us it strives to help.
If you are a member of AA this is a place where you can express your concerns. I know how hard this is to do in the rooms, or with friends in AA. If I had been able to do this without being made to feel uncomfortable then I would have challenged AA from within.
One member sent me an email recently asking me to come back to AA for AA’s sake and not my own. Whilst I was touched by his request, I explained that at the moment the evidence would suggest that the practices within AA mean that it will never change, regardless of what I can prove or not. This might be our chance to do just that, but only if we sincerely practice honesty, open-mindedness and willingness. Before we challenge anything, we have to challenge ourselves, our assumptions and our beliefs.
J a m e s G
J a m e s G can be contacted at jamesg@blamedenial.co.uk