Re: AA/NA Smoke and mirrors! My humble experience....

I think a key piece of verbage that was overlooked is "thoroughly followed our path". In my interpretation, I took that to mean: follow these simple rules but..... do whatever the hell it takes to not take another drink/drug. That simple formula has worked for me for 10+ years. I will agree with the other posts in that I did change many things about myself:

1. diet (eat 80% vegetables, 20% protein, no processed foods period, lots of water)
2. excercised daily (weights and jogging whether I felt like it or not)
3. education (went back to school and got a PhD)
4. spiritual (recognized my higher power, jesus christ)
5. helped others (both in and outside of AA/NA rooms).

All these things helped to change my self image. In retrospect, the key was for me to find other reasons to live other than chemicals. I came from a being a full-blown addicted meth-head (used daily for 3 straight years) to a contributing member of society and NA/AA was a integral part of my success. I agree that it isn't the end-all/be-all but what really is? IMHO, we all have to take ownership of our lives (and our health). It's up to us to by the General Manager of our own lives where the Dr's and therapists, etc. all report to us. We make the final decision based on data they provide. NA/AA is just another source of data/support(and a very good one I may add).

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