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Horsea T.'s avatar

Good reading here! Now, about Alcoholics Anonymous. If you will go to:

doctoryourself.com and type "Alcoholics Anonymous" in the search space, you will find more info than you ever thought possible - which does not advise you to throw yourself on the mercy of some kind of higher power or God. However, Dr. Hoffer and others do talk about a multi pronged approach, including spiritual, mental and medical. I'll cut it short here: Bill, cofounder of AA, found that dosing oneself with niacin or niacinamide worked rather well! But read for yourself. Also, you can go here directly instead:

http://www.doctoryourself.com/Hoffer2009int.pdf

Thanks kindly for your wisdom.

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The Living Fossils's avatar

Hi, thank you for reading and commenting. As for the higher power, I took that concept directly from AA's main website - https://www.aa.org/the-twelve-steps. Steps 2 and 3 are listed as: 2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

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Horsea T.'s avatar

So, are you going to read that info regarding Bill W. & niacin?

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The Living Fossils's avatar

I did read it, and a few other articles about the benefits of niacin or niacinamide for alcoholism or schizophrenia. It sounds like an intriguing idea, but is not supported by the evidence.

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Lucy's avatar

Ok..now i need to know the foot issue!

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The Living Fossils's avatar

Haha - I would have included it if it weren't too boring. And I still don't have an answer anyway :( But it has gotten a little better, so thank you for asking

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Gnoment's avatar

Another ideal purported by therapy that I've been thinking about a lot lately, is the (usually) unstated assumption that healthy love and connection is the most effective incentive in people's lives, and people only turn away from love and connection when they have a history of trauma (or whatever). Solving the reason people turned away from connection, will change that trajectory, and make them better people.

Is that actually true? Aren't we often surrounded by many different societal incentives?

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The Living Fossils's avatar

Yes I think there are two potential mistakes there. One is, as you mention, that love and connection are the ultimate goal of life. The second is that figuring out the reason for something always leads to the fix. Often, people will have incredible insights in therapy -- e.g., figure out why they have a hard time with love and connection -- and this insight won't make any difference whatsoever in their ability to go out and get it (assuming they want to).

Thanks for reading and commenting.

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Gnoment's avatar

Sometimes I wonder how influenced therapy is by unexamined Christian or religious roots, with vague ideals like "good and light conquers all" or something.

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The Living Fossils's avatar

Yeah, could be, although it wouldn't just be therapy!

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Horsea T.'s avatar

Very good.

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