FOR ANYBODY CONTEMPLATING AA RECOVERY---SULLIVAN IS FULL OF IT

This observation on the Twelve Steps of AA is for people just starting out or thinking of "quitting".
Andrew Sullivan has posted the stupidest letter on Recovery I've seen yet. Apparently just being "Gay" is all it takes for Sullivan to treat as Gospel any moronic opinion uttered. The latest homosexual insight is a letter by some jerkoff who is "recovering" from meth addiction and has solved things after 60 days.

Here is "recovery" one day at a time for 12 years, without the bullshit. A copy of a letter I sent to Sullivan, who I believe becomes more and more trivial every day. His page has become one long homosexual diatribe and increasingly disconnected from anything remotely connected with the 95% of us who are not gay.

"Been in "recovery" ten plus years. That letter you printed is a total joke. I'm sure other "recovering" people have also written to you. That man (who wrote you) doesn't have a clue. I'd like to know who is sponsoring him. An enabler I'll bet. I "sponsor" about three people. I've seen that guy many times in the past. Forget him. If he's not still using he soon will be. If he spoke like that at a meeting he'd get a huge laugh. From everybody who knows exactly who he really is.

The Twelve steps cannot even be worked in less than 12 months. Recovery takes about five years. The process involves a Fourth step inventory and then making amends. This asshole has done nothing. To get any clarity about the damage caused by our rampages takes many Fourth through Ninth steps. A really painful and arduous process.
A psychiatrist laid it out for us thusly: think of your life as a circle. In the center of the circle is the core of what you have come to be, or believe yourself to be. Always it is fear, hate, rage. We are possessed by it. We fear being "found out" and we have rage directed at anyone who tries to "get to us", to find the dark. The "dark" is the surrounding circle of stealing, lying, cheating, violence, etc. with a little piece of the pie reserved for some really good things about ourselves. The challenge in the Twelve Steps is to shine a light onto the dark areas, that can only exist in the dark (criminality etc.), and allow that tiny portion of "good stuff" to expand and replace the bad stuff. The good stuff thrives in the light, we want people to see that part of us. This process of expanding the light so that we expose most of ourselves to the light takes five years. It is spiritual. God is involved (Higher Power) and it is God that shines the light. Our core of hate, resentment, anger, and fear is gradually replaced, allegedly by love but more likely by a desire to help others, a feeling good about ourselves for helping others, and so on. We no longer fear being seen and so the rage and hate generated by the fear of being found out is replaced.

That letter is too ridiculous for words and is most likely to have addicts think they can "recover" in a month or two. Anybody will tell you, and I hope they have, the truth about recovery. For EVERYBODY. It is serious business."

That is what I wrote. Pass this along to those starting in Program or to those involved in Program. The Twelve Steps work, if you work them.