My Veteran's Administration psychologist is really pushing this thing in our group sessions. I urged her to read the Big Book and she gave me a blank stare. Kind of unusual for a PHd who's advanced in years...
My experience with people who have advanced degrees is they don't take kind of folks making suggestions to them regarding their profession or field of study.
AA works for me and many others. I'm sure there may some elements of Smart that could be helpful, there is cognative therapy we get from the AA rooms, we just don't call it that.
Funny, 26 years ago, after talking to my "Shrink" a few minutes he gave me the number to AA and said that will be $50.00.
Best advise I ever got.
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Rob
"There ain't no Coupe DeVille hiding in the bottom of a Cracker Jack Box."
Glenns, I am glad you posted this, showing how your PhD counselor does not even know about the Big Book. (That is, what I believe your point was). It is amazing, but you never know where she may have gotten her own data from. But I can see how you would be amazed that you got a blank stare from someone who specializes in addiction recovery, who does not act like she KNOWS or is interested in her patients exploring recovery through AA. Sheesh. I hope you can get to meetings and do what you feel is right for you, hoping that it is AA. There are lots of other resources out there for counseling, if you need them.
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~Your Higher Power has not given you a longing to do that which you have no ability to do.
Oh yeah- I've been there. I'm only just a babe in the woods in this program & I have already been through the "this is a cult" and "I have a better way" thing. Know what happened? I relapsed immediately.
Good luck with the smart recovery. I'm sure people recover in different ways but in an AA forum, could we stick to the subject at hand??
Dean, I think he was talking more about his counselor's reaction, than wanting to discuss the other method.... just my take on it
There is, of course, the financial incentive for the psychologist to promote Smart Recovery ("if the guy always relapses, he'll come back to my office--cash in hand--to continue to find the solution to his drinking problem"). What's so sad is that for us, it's life-or-death. And this PHd not only gave me a blank stare, but also rapidly changed the subject. I suspected that this is because AA is a spiritual program, and spirituality stirs a certain antipathy in some people. This proves that even seasoned pro's in the field are unable to divorce their personal biases from their professional work!
That is an excellent point, and on topic, and the point I believe you were getting at from the start. I don't know about a money-driven thing w/counselors, especially ones employed by U.S. gubmunt, but I do know there are counselors who are alcoholic/addict themselves, and perhaps are afraid of the spirituality part, or feel there is some stigma to being a counselor and a drunk.
I don't know where this woman is coming from though, and wrong for me to speculate. But I do konw that the blank stare was quite peculiar, as everyone on the planet in that field knows about AA, and of course being a biased AA member, I feel that not mentioning it as an option for recovery is ridiculous! Especially an alcoholism counselor!
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~Your Higher Power has not given you a longing to do that which you have no ability to do.
It used to be that psychologists and counselors could not bill insurance for services to addicts and therefore they would turn away alcoholics and addicts and tell them to go get sober before getting treatment because the theory was you couldn't treat underlying mental issues until addiction was dealt with. All of the sudden, guess what happened? Psychologists and counselors did start getting reimbursed for treating addicts and alcoholics and suddenly they stopped saying "Go to AA" and now they think they have a solution better than the one that has always been there. Yeah...I have years of training in cognitive behavioral therapy. I am a cognitive behavioral therapist. In any case, I am a crappy therapist to myself and I need AA to learn to live, to gain strength and hope, and then I can be a better therapist to others using my knowledge. Many things have changed in me. I am glad I was not too "intellectual" and bullheaded to go to AA.
Mark
Oh...I had to edit...Just my opinion...A therapist that knows how to work WITH a person in AA and a psychiatrist that does as well works for me. I wouldn't belittle my own profession in it's entirety, nor services that I actually need and make use of. It is finding the right combination of AA and the right kind of outside help (if you need it).
-- Edited by pinkchip on Saturday 12th of December 2009 08:39:41 AM
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Keep coming back. It works if you work it. So work it. You're worth it!
"... spirituality stirs a certain antipathy in some people."
Yep. That included me when I first came in these rooms. The chapter We Agnostics was written for folks like me. At first my HP was a Group Of Drunks. My spirituality has grown since then, but it still includes the G.O.D. in whatever AA room I'm in.
As far as Smart Recovery...if it works for some people, more power to 'em. I needed the spritual program of AA.
