failure in 12 steps
the main reason people fail at such 12 step programs is by not sticking to the 12 steps. it might be hard, and many people do relapse, but it is one of the most effective ways to go sober. ive seen anywhere from 75 to 93% of people becoming sober. if they stay in the program and follow the big book, chances are they will stay sober.
this looks to me like structured enviroments work. despite your own personal experiance, there is a reason why people flock to them, and a reason why many churches sponsor them.
now, is the church similar to these in its structure?
step 1. Admit you have a problem,
step 2. belive in a "power greater than ourselves"
step 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as I understood him.
step 4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves
step 5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and another human being the exact nature of wrongs.
step 6. We’re entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character!
step 7. Humbly asked him to remove our shortcomings.
step 8. Made a list of persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
step 9. Made direct amends to such people except when to do so would injure others.
step 10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
step 11. Sort through, pray and mediation, to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understand him, praying only for knowledge of his will for use and the power to carry that out.
step 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of this step. We tried to carry this message to those that still suffer And to practice these principles in all our affairs.
they sound pretty close, dont they?
and im sorry to hear about your father