For the most part, I don’t involve myself in these peeing contests, but because I like this site, and I think a lot of people who never post stop by here looking for something, anything that will help, I will attempt to oil the waters a bit.

Kudzu is fine with me, Camperal and naltroxin (sp?) are OK in my book too. I am a big fan of the 12 steps, have been ever sense I stumbled into my first meeting in the fall of 1998. I haven’t had a drink in over 7 years and I thank AA. I chair meetings, take meetings into detox and sponsor guys. I stay involved in the solution.

But I have no objection to the search for solutions to this damnably tough problem outside of what worked for me. Our founder Bill Wilson never stopped looking outside the box. He was always willing to try anything that held an offer of hope to suffering alcoholics.

And he understood that people get sober in many different fashions. He said as much in the Big Book. We sometimes forget that. In our zeal to be helpful we come off as a little strident in our support for a spiritual solution. We know the odds. And they aren’t good. My friend Dro and I both feel that a hopeless alcoholic’s best hope in a spiritual one. But it’s not the only one.

To the ones who deride Alcoholics Anonymous, take a moment to read the header, this is an AA support forum. The people who so kindly offered us this forum also offer us another, for views that differ from ours.

To those who have found a solution in Kudzu or any other regiment, good and good. As with AA or any other solution, the proof is in the pudding. 10 weeks without a drink is something I could never do. Congratulations. Let us have this conversation in a year from now. Maybe in two or three years from now. I always prefer to see a good story as apposed to hearing one.

Your friend
Richard