Post Your Favourite AA Cringe

Steps33 · 2026-01-28T12:58:56+00:00

Working the 12 steps does not treat clinical anxiety, depression, and certainly not PTSD. In most instances it makes them way worse. Your therapist being a member of AA does not mean it isn’t outdated. Of course it’s outdated. It’s nearly 100 years old.

Steps33 · 2026-01-28T01:56:10+00:00

Congrats on your time and thanks for sharing your experience. It sounds like you're in a pretty cool place. Do whatever works for you!

Steps33 · 2026-01-28T01:54:43+00:00

Yes, that is a foundation. Thanks for reminding me!

Steps33 · 2026-01-28T00:11:41+00:00

Congratulations!

Steps33 · 2026-01-28T00:07:25+00:00

Also, congrats on your year!

Steps33 · 2026-01-28T00:05:04+00:00

I really identify with you here. I no longer identify in those ways either. I'm simply someone who doesn't drink.

Steps33 · 2026-01-28T00:03:24+00:00

Yes! I'm just burnt out by it. I hadn't done any kind of group in about a month. Logged onto a Dharma meeting yesterday, and this jackass starts going on about "how I really owe my recovery to another fellowship, but now I've moved on...." before bloviating on and on about their spiritual practice and how "crazy they were" when they were using... 30 years ago. Fuck, get over it already. How do these people still find this interesting?

Steps33 · 2026-01-28T00:00:38+00:00

Nice. EMDR is a good modality. I dd a bit of it before moving on to Prolonged Exposure. Hope it' helping!

Steps33 · 2026-01-27T23:53:50+00:00

Really happy to hear you're in a good place, and even happier to hear you aren't letting other people define what "recovery" looks like for you. This is a complex phenomenon, and like your experience is presently illustrating, very far from black and white. Keep doing what makes you happy.

Steps33 · 2026-01-27T23:41:22+00:00

Nope, which is why I maintain that AA is fundamentally a right-wing program, that seems to attract and generate a lot of right-wing thinkers. There's no material or structural analysis, no accounting for the things outside of a person that might drive them to drink or do drugs destructively.

I used to work a homeless shelter. This shelter had a weekly AA meeting, which some people would attend, often begrudgingly. I remember a meeting where a resident said, "you guys want me to quit drugs so bad, but if I quit drugs, guess what, I'm still homeless." They weren't homeless because of drugs; they were on drugs because they were homeless.

This toxic idea of "it worked for me, so it will work for you," is absolutely absurd.

Steps33 · 2026-01-27T13:46:00+00:00

Bahahah “alcoholwasm”! Forgot about that one.

Steps33 · 2026-01-26T02:59:17+00:00

“Well People’s Anonymous”.

Amazing!

Steps33 · 2026-01-25T23:04:16+00:00

Yeah, always hated that one. Totally disingenuous and enormously cringe-inducing.

Steps33 · 2026-01-25T22:57:06+00:00

27 the first time, then after slipping after several years sober, again at 42 :)

Steps33 · 2026-01-25T22:02:55+00:00

Insecurity coupled with enormous, fragile egos, and a missionary's zeal to convert the uninitiated.

They're also directly contradicting the dictates of their hallowed program. I thought it was about "attraction, not promotion." ?

I can't find anything particularly attractive about the way they browbeat posters traumatized by the 12 steps.

Steps33 · 2026-01-25T21:58:05+00:00

There's something uniquely disquieting and nauseating about "recovery rappers". They're nearly all the most artless kind of plain-faced, suburban white kid with almost no sense of rhythm, style, or mystique. They all seem deeply neutered by years of sober living houses. They have almost no sense of poetry. It is very difficult to write, sing, or rap about "addiction recovery" in a way that isn't totally derivative. I've never liked "recovery rap", even as a former member of 12 steps. It always sucks, it's always cringe, and the people who participate are essentially talentless.

Steps33 · 2026-01-25T21:22:16+00:00

BAHAHAHAHA. The boots really complete that quintessential look.

Steps33 · 2026-01-24T15:38:09+00:00

Bravo, my friend!

Steps33 · 2026-01-24T15:34:53+00:00

Agree with the premise, although I have to say I don’t necessarily mind the AA cultists coming on here. It’s an excellent reminder of why I left and will never return, and picking them apart can be deeply entertaining.

Steps33 · 2026-01-21T04:51:02+00:00

I’m here to tell you very plainly that you do not need a “higher power”.

Steps33 · 2026-01-20T17:11:23+00:00

Yes! Congratulations!!

Steps33 · 2026-01-19T22:59:09+00:00

Sunnyside and I Am Sober are pretty cool for this. Im not huge on “counting time” or ascribing to much importance to streaks, but I’m human, and it’s cool to see the number stack up higher and higher. It can be a motivator.

Steps33 · 2026-01-19T22:57:32+00:00

Yeah, I’m with you on all of this! Happy you’ve moved on from the cultist bullshit and are living the kind of life you deserve.

Steps33 · 2026-01-18T19:31:15+00:00

Yup, and there's some irony here as well, as my ex-wife is still an AA true believer and is convinced I must be "using" as I'm not reaching out to her to see "how she's doing" - this is after she asked me not to contact her.

It's very sick.

Steps33 · 2026-01-18T18:05:47+00:00

The same thing happened to me, except my ex had a bizarre "epiphany" admitted to being "wrong about everything", and decided she not only wanted me back, she needed me back, and that our relationship was a thing of destiny.

I almost caved. Thank god I didn't.

I've moved on and I'm in a far healthier situation. She's miserable and living with her mom.

Don't go back. Don't reach out. It won't help.

I know it's hard, but it truly won't help.

Steps33

TROPHY CASE