Addiction Recovery is taking the unconditional pledge of abstinence
This 1890 game signifies a social decay that started 200 years ago in America. The game of "treating" drunkenness.
Believing Excuses for Drunkenness Causes Social Decay
True recovery from addiction first broke into the U. S. public scene in the year 1841.
That year the positive common sense pledge of the Washington Total Abstinence Movement completely redefined the 25 year old Temperance Movement. But it was immediately opposed by established Religious, Political, Legal, and Medical professionals, as well as the Intoxicating Beverage Industry. Within one year the Washingtonians had been infiltrated by these special interests and its effective message burdened with crippling baggage.
Anything named Washingtonian after 1842 was not really Washington Total Abstinence. "Washingtonianism" became just another of the many 'Temperance Games' that have popped up and run their courses in the 177 years since. Other early examples are the Independent Order of Rechabites and the Sons of Temperance. Recent examples are Synanon and the old AA, Alcoholics Anonymous.
Abstainers Alliance is the new AA, and it is not a "Temperance Game". All the "Temperance Game" playing organizations offer "treatment" for drunkards' excuses as if they were ligitimate excuses. The new AA sees all excuses as red herrings leading away from the singular fact that people getting habitually drunk are self administering an assault of deep pleasure, and many of them refuse to consider truly quitting forever.
Abstainers Alliance collects information from throughout history about people taking the pledge of abstinence from alcohol/drugs. Once people take the pledge, the reasoning no longer exists to attend recovery groups in order to keep alcohol or drugs from entering their blood stream. A pledge taker is healthy, willful, and predatory against any further action towards drinking again.
Pledge deniers claim disease, helplessness, and victimhood just to leave the door open to get high at some time of their choosing down the road especially when not following all the rules of their favorite "Temperance Game" organization. While habitual drunkards/druggies are "relapsing" tens of thousands of times each day across the country, some of them are finally taking the bull by the horns and taking the pledge. Even though a person can take the pledge to never drink/drug again only once in their lifetime, it happens thousands of times each day in the United States. Not only are these pledge takers ending their addiction once and for all, they are also ending their recoveries once and for all. So, it is impossible to participate in the new AA and the old AA at the same time. And, once in the new AA, it's impossible to fall back into the old AA. The pledge, by definition, is unretractable.
Believing that a pledge taker still needs outside help to not drink is the same as believing they lied to themselves when they took the pledge. A person cannot lie to themselves about taking the pledge. Addicts lie to others, and that happens a lot when they pretend to take the pledge to get authorities off their backs. But they cannot lie to themselves about something as "in my face obvious" as "putting alcohol/drugs into my bloodstream".
Washingtonianism was important in this history because it was the only Temperance Organization that did not start out as a "game". It had been started as the real thing, the way to truly recover from addiction, taking the pledge of abstinence and getting on with a life as any abstainer would who had never been a drunkard. After 1841, even though the good news was being silenced, the intoxicated cat was out of the alcohol soaked bag, and many drunkards continued to recognize how to quit for good by themselves within a social sphere of their own making.
Interestingly, there is an existing organization that started out as just another Temperance game, but then, 23 years ago, made an abrupt right turn upon rediscovering how addicted people truly recover and get on with life. That organization is Rational Recovery. RR explains the importance of the pledge and streamlines it's immediate effectiveness with a trademarked Technique called Addictive Voice Recognition. AVRT is not necessary for succeeding with the pledge, but it helps a recovered addict slice through the morass of bogus information and forces out there in addiction recovery today. For a quarter of a century RR has avoided the sad fate of the Washingtonians and remains as true as ever to the unconditional pledge. Abstainers Alliance has no relationship or affiliation to Rational Recovery.
The Washingtonian Total Abstinence Movement Defined Recovery as the Simple Event of Taking the Unconditional Pledge Of Permanent Abstinence
Washingtonianism's going viral in 1841 proved to everyone that any drunkard could immediately decide to take the pledge and succeed at becoming permanently abstinent, a common teetotaler. But once everyone knew any drunkard could quit for good, those drunkards choosing to continue drinking and not take the pledge, or fake taking the pledge by quitting for a while, were forced to start inventing excuses for continuing their horrendous self-indulgence.
The unrepentent drunkard and drug abuser's goal is to have these excuses acceptable to the important people in their lives. They want pity and compassion instead of revulsion and disgust. "I'm not bad, I'm sick!" they hope all will believe. Many did and many still do. Inventing and getting people to believe excuses for getting drunk or high again and again is the only way to deny the simple fact that they are perfectly competent to successfully pledge "I Will Never Drink/Drug Again".
What historians describe as "The discovery of Addiction" in America 200 years ago can be also clearly understood as "The Discovery of Excuses". What part of the very complex physical effort to get a foreign chemical into your bloodstream can happen without deliberation and time for the posturing of your own conscience ? No part.
For 175 years we have been bombarded with the Con Artistry of Drunkards Giving Excuses for Not Immediately Quitting for Good
Two forces feed off each other causing a long tolerated social decay. One is the drunkards and druggies inventing excuses for not immediately pledging total abstinence. Two is the special interest groups seizing the opportunity to make money or religious converts by offering services to help them cope with their excuses. The decay is the destruction of stable family life created by the mandate of never-ending recovery and the suppression and distortion of the pledge of abstinence.
The existence of Abstainers Alliance calls into question the whole game of “treating” the excuses for alcohol and drug abuse. We expose what seems to be a paradox but is actually a serious trap millions of people have been lured into. Some people would rather believe their addicted loved one is sick instead of a con artist; and there is a huge industry supporting that myth segregating addicts out for ongoing services the rest of their lives. It is all at best unnecessary.
Abstainers’ Alliance (AA) is not a novel invention. The new AA is actually a represention of one out of three adults in the U.S. (see data here). It's hard to imagine all 70 million of them participating here, but Abstainers Alliance now exists.
If you choose, those of you who are now lifetime abstainers may email Abstainers’ Alliance a photo image of some writing or object that clearly represents your having taken the pledge to sendpledge@abstainersalliance.org . Please expect that the photo will be published here in the future. It should not reveal your identity because, while you cannot lie to yourself that you pledged, you also cannot prove absolutely to others that you pledged. The goal is to get the millions that don't drink or drug at all, and are NOT in a recovery group or getting addiction treatment, to be more publicly visible; those that used to be addicted, and those never addicted.