Hundreds, if not thousands, of members have killed themselves.
I call it "CultAA" for good reason, too, but that's another story.
When I was immersed in the Cult off and on over the decades I heard tragic tale after tragic tale about another suicide having happened by a member.
We hung our heads and probably did two things: Felt deeply saddened and sorry for the person and their loved ones, and...
Strengthened our resolve to STAY in AA and never drink again so it wouldn't happen to us.
And we were all Terrified of Alcohol. We completely demonized it.
Off the top of my head, what does CultAA do to cause suicides?:
- They tell you you are Powerless
- They teach you that if you can't grasp their simple program there is something wrong with you
- They tell you how to think and what to think, and to not trust yourself
- They pound it into you that you need to be dependent on them for life, or else you're doomed
- They convince you that if you ever drink again you will die or go insane or go to jail
- And this one really rips a person's soul and self-esteem out: Say, as in the case of dear Robin Williams, you have 20 years alcohol-free and then you drink? CultAA makes you START ALL OVER AS A NEWCOMER and you have to start at DAY 1, completely wiping out all that phenomenal sobriety as if it never happened --- And that is true whether you only drank one drink, or you went on a binge
THINK about that. THINK about what that would do to a person's feelings about themself!
Also, personally speaking, because of their brainwashing it made my drinking problem much worse than it ever would have been. I wasn't even an alcoholic, but I deeply believed I was, and a "slip" would always become a "binge" and would always be very self-destructive.
