Rational Recovery works. Converts to a particular church had to give up pork. Each one who gave up unclean meats knows it does. They did it instantly and permanently without looking back. There was never any Pork Eaters Anonymous support groups within that churches. For the most part, people just learned that they shouldn't eat unclean meat and made a conscious decision that they weren't going to go out and find the stuff to eat ever again. It was like turning a switch in the mind and shellfish desires simply evaporated. They gave it not a second thought. There might have been times when they had to make a conscious effort to either read a label or exercise due caution dining out, but few entertained their inner voice: "I must have oysters! I must have Crab! I must have pickled pigs feet!". Yes, there might have been a dream now and then, but that was as far as it went. They told themselves that they would never eat unclean meats again, listened to their inner voice object, and went on to overcome any inner desires. After awhile, it became a habit and they came to the place where they would never even consider eating it again. No big deal.

If you can do that with unclean meat, you can do that with alcohol. If you say that you can quit alcohol any time you want to, why don't you just prove it to yourself and just decide never to drink it again? Just like tens of thousands of people did with pork?

A minister issued a challenge in 1982, "If you say you can stop drinking any time you want to, then why don't you prove it by giving it up?". I saw the handwriting on the wall, and stopped in 1981 before he issued the official challenge.

So, why don't you just make a choice and stop?

You don't because you don't want to.

It isn't because you are weak. It is because you have made a conscious decision that you aren't going to. Oh, maybe some day. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe next Tuesday. Maybe the first of next month. But there you are, when you get there, you make a new decision and procrastinate. And sometimes people can be really creative and innovative in their procrastination. One cultmeister has made it clear to his people that they must drink red wine and that if they are alcoholics, they must 'control' themselves.

This is a bad plan. It is insidious. Anyone who has read the seminal work, Under the Influence by Dr. James Milam will realize that a person who has inherited their genetics for alcoholism through the mitochondria from their mother cannot process alcohol properly. Alcohol becomes an instant poison with nasty results. Yet, it also can become an instant addiction. Once engaged, the inner voice will cry out to tell an alcoholic that alcohol is something desirable that they need. The beast inside you wants to control you to get what it wants.

For alcoholics, there is a test which can be administered to determine whether or not a person is alcoholic, based on the processing done by the liver to metabolize alcohol. Those interested in taking the test may contact the Lakeside-Milam Recovery Centers through their website. Sometimes if a person has a question of whether or not they have a malady, it is best to go for a checkup and remove all doubt. Additional information about alcoholism and recovery may be found at the Lakeside-Milam Recovery Centers Website. Dr. James Milam has produced another seminal work in the form of a landmark position paper: The Alcoholism Revolution.

And alcohol is not the only addiction. Smokers have it bad too. In fact, as an addiction, tobacco is probably the most difficult because it is at such a low level that it can keep a person in its grip for decades without letting go. These days, tobacco companies add ingredients to cigarettes to make the addiction even stronger. And yet, my dad instantly stopped smoking after twenty years because he saw that it was affecting my health and he never smoked again. It wasn't will power, it was Rational Recovery. Later, when he remarried, he also gave up alcohol once and for all. My wife's father was told that with his exposure to pesticides in his orchard, he would have to give up smoking or he would die. He quit. We helped him and my wonderful mother-in-law celebrate their golden anniversary 30 years later. My brother-in-law started smoking in the Army. Afterwards, he stopped smoking instantly and permanently.

You can end your addiction today, right now by taking the Internet Crash Course On AVRT. Go ahead. Be certain to note the reasonable advice for withdrawal on the page. Afterward, look at The Structural Model of Addiction. Remember that the man who devised this is a trained mental health professional with over three decades of experience. Follow this with Bullets for My Beast.  Bullets for My Beast will give you the functional understanding of just why you have had difficulty overcoming your problems: You have a Beast that doesn't want you to quit right inside you. It is not you, but it disguises itself to make you think that it is you. If you have not done so, follow the sequence for Bullets for My Beast. Afterwards, make a commitment. Hold yourself accountable. End your misery by giving up what makes you miserable. You have intelligence. You can control and dominate your Beast. Don't let it control you.

Now some of you are questioning the premise by telling yourself that Rational Recovery is a product of Satan the Devil and the Fallen Host. Hogwash. Rational Recovery is Scriptural. Didn't Christ tell those he healed, "Go and sin no more". Quit and don't look back. The Apostle Paul covers the ambivalence he sensed in his struggle between himself and his inner Beast in Romans 7 & 8. Romans 7:23:

But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

The Apostle Paul was speaking of the Amygdala, the Beast of lust. It is a tiny portion of the brain with a great big voice. Now look, for the most part, you don't need a Spirit of God to overcome addictions. That's already built in. Men and women have overcome their addictions without having been baptized or even knowing about our particular religious eschatology. Some have even changed their sexual orientation from the gay lifestyle to married life because they saw the rational advantage to do so and did it without any religious group support group.

What then of organizations such as Alcoholics Anonymous with their 12 step programs?

Let's ask ourselves, "What is the problem here? Is it lack of support?".

Assuredly, if our problems are a lack of support, we should expect to find that a support group could help us. If the problem is physiological in nature, then a support group won't help us.

The problem here is that in any event, the 12 step program forces you into the conclusion that you are helpless. You need a higher power. The truth is that you have a Beast. You can control the Beast. You must control the Beast. It is your Beast. It is unique to you. No one else has your Beast. Not only that, but no one else has direct access to your Beast. Only you do. No one can help you except you yourself. Relying on a fickle neighbor as a sponsor is not the answer.

In fact, Alcoholics Anonymous only has a 12% success rate. The reason is that the door is open. You admit up front you can fail. You set yourself up for failure. You submit yourself to other people who have failed to help you succeed.

Furthermore, Alcoholism is a physiological inherited phenomenon. It can be a medical issue, particularly if you need detox. When you get to the third stage of alcoholism, you are suffering from a serious body breakdown, often evidenced by hypoglycemia. At this point, your body needs more than support from your friends and neighbors. You need need professional medical help at this point. Nevertheless, the problem remains: Complete permanent abstinence is the only solution. Only you can provide that. Alcoholics Anonymous can't do that for you. In fact, they will weaken your resolve and subvert you.

The fact is that the only successful people in Alcoholics Anonymous are those who have unknowingly practiced Rational Recovery and have acted to commit to never taking a drink again at some point in their lives. All others fail.

There's also confirmed suspicions that many support groups don't really serve their publicly stated goals. Consider support groups dedicated to transforming homosexuals to heterosexuals. The following are excerpts from Psychology Today from an online article:

... Two of the founders of Exodus International, Michael Bussee and Gary Cooper, left the organization after falling in love, and more than a dozen Christian ministries have closed down after their leaders reverted back to homosexuality....

 

When the dissonance became too great, Rix began attending the California-based ministry Desert Stream where worship and pep talks were allied with "dives into our past," he recalls. "They'd have all this outdated therapy that because of an absent or passive father, I have identified more with my mother and I'm attracted to men." Rix became suspicious of the ministry's techniques. Young men and older male mentors, who were supposed to serve as surrogate fathers, sometimes began living together in relationships that were essentially gay, except that there was no sex....

Many of the homosexual to heterosexual support groups simply make the problem worse because they not only don't address the core source of the problem, they aggravate them.

In the book A New Guide to Rational Living by by Dr. Albert Ellis, Ph.D. and Robert A. Harper, Ph.D. Copyright 1975, 1961 by Institute for Rational Living, Inc. published by Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.  pages 189 to 193, the authors recount a successful transformation and comment:

In many important respects, then, it would appear that action, particularly when it takes the form of creative, intensely absorbing activity, proves one of the mainstays of happy human living. If you (consciously or unconsciously) believe otherwise and live by a philosophy of inertia and inaction, you will sabotage your own potential satisfaction....

 

7. It takes more than self-talk. In the final analysis, you often would better literally force yourself, propel yourself, push yourself, into action. Often, you can make yourself--yes, make yourself--undertake specific acts of courage: beard an employer in his office, ask a very attractive person to dance, take your idea for a book to a publisher. And keep forcing yourself into action long enough and often enough until the action itself proves easier and easier, even enjoyable.

Rational Recovery works when you take the initiative, commit and take action, carefully listening to your inner Beast to assure that you do not sabotage yourself.

[One is reminded of the old joke: How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb? Only one, but it has to want to change.]

Jack Trimpey has pointed out that often using a support group is simply trading one addiction for another.

There are times when support groups are appropriate--when lack of support is the problem. Someone who is bereaved needs comforting and validation. People who have been severely mistreated and abused certainly need support and support groups are welcome and necessary. But if it's something you can do yourself and you need to stand on your own, Rational Recovery works.

Some cultish ministers absolutely hate Rational Recovery because it represents a real and present danger to them. If people didn't need their church to overcome their addictions and 'sins', the ministry would be rendered rather toothless, reduced to being mere helpers of our joy. Guilt would disappear and with it control over the lives of other people. Slavery would be ended, and the cultmeisters just can't have that. They want to seduce you with support groups and social activities. They want to distract you with attractive but meaningless things. They are like giant pretty hot air balloons.

If you are earnest and diligent, you can make a lot of progress in your life, but first you must abandon those things which are holding you back. What is holding you back? All the baggage.  It is the proverbial albatross around your neck. Addictions and the people who push them on you are muddling your thinking. They proclaim to you that you are powerless to help yourself and you need them to rescue you. God isn't going to rescue you when you have it within your power to do it yourself. God only helps those who help themselves.

Over the years, I came to understand who and what narcissists and psychopaths were. I had become a most excellent narcissistic source. It began early in life. I had to arrange everything to please a man in my family. Later, when he was gone, it extended to authority figures of all sorts. It was much like searching for an addiction. After the education and several really bad experiences, I am narcissist and psychopath free and have been for over five years. It takes constant vigilance to not fall prey again. Rational Recovery helped a lot.

If there is something you want to do and you have the resources to do it, you can do it. That's a nobrainer. Make a definite decision in your life and ditch the junk in the dump. You see, Rational Recovery extends beyond just alcohol and smoking addiction. It's quite effective and useful of giving up the addictions to the various aspects of even abusive cults. Walk away from the negativity. Decide once and for all that you will accept nothing less than the facts. Dump cults which may be holding you back. You can even walk away from the people who actually hate you in your particular cult. You can stand up to the cultmeister. He doesn't have a voice in your life any more.

There came a day in my life when I had the collected works from four decades of religious nonsense. My wife and I went through and threw out all the magazines, newspapers, recordings, pamphlets and newsletters. It was the only sensible, rational thing to do. Suddenly, four decades of stuff was just gone. Our minds were freed of forty years of garbage. It was very much like it never existed. We are slowly returning to the standards we once held before they were trashed by the cults. It was a slow process, but the commitment to leave it behind forever was instantaneous and the action of removing the offending pieces make the transition smoother. We have told the Beast 'no'. It must obey.

You can curb the Beast. In doing so, your righteousness will exceed that of the Pharisees of the polluted priesthood. Not that that matters, because you are doing this for yourself to take your life back.

You can call it AVRT, Rational Recovery or just plain Repentance. Rational Recovery works. It has for millennia. Free yourself from slavery. Truth alone is not enough. Use Rational Recovery so your life works.