AA and other twelve-steps programs are not inherently "religious-based". They only ask you to believe in some power higher than yourself that you can tap into as a source of inner sternness and restraint. You can call that a spiritual outlook if you like, but it's a very mild one and quite far from any organized or established religion. And it actually works quite well as far as helping people to stop drinking and stay off alcohol for the long term.

There have been many that linked it to being cultist (e.g. [1]).

> And it actually works quite well as far as helping people to stop drinking and stay off alcohol for the long term.

In any case, that is my biggest issue with AA and a lot of other "abstinence" programs (particularly those mandated by courts): they all but mandate that complete and utter sobriety is the only acceptable way instead of helping people to moderate their consumption or to find out and fix why they are consuming substances. Someone who's in hurt because their partner died or cheated upon them or they lost their job or home (these four causes are behind a lot of addiction careers) doesn't need a sobriety program run by questionably or barely qualified random joes, they need professional counseling.

[1] https://www.skeptic.org.uk/2023/03/from-the-archives-exposin...

I spent decades of my life trying to pursue moderation. It doesn't work (for me). The Sinclair Method worked. I tried AA but the white knuckle approach wasn't right for me. I know people who have absolutely gotten sober using AA, others who use both, and others still who use different medications.

In my experience, moderation was the worst possible solution. It was like perpetually kicking the problem down the road to be dealt with on another day. Relapse was frequent and always right around the corner, and with relapse came shame, guilt, and other feelings of failure.

I just wrote a long reply detailing why moderation isnt an option for people like me, but as usual the best explanation of my relationship with alcohol comes from the Westwing:

> I'm an alcoholic. I don't have one drink. [pauses] I don't understand people who have one drink. I don't understand people who leave half a glass of wine on the table. I don't understand people who say they've had enough. How can you have enough of feeling like this? How can you not want to feel like this longer? [pauses, sighs] My brain works differently.

> sobriety is the only acceptable way instead of helping people to moderate their consumption

That only works for some people and not others (likely due to genetic factors amongst other reasons). Which can be quite hard to grasp for people who are actually able (or believe that they are...) to 'moderate their consumption'.

Have you been to an AA meeting?

I'm a staunch atheist and was also very cynical about this too. That is, until I attended several of these meetings in support of a friend.

The intensity of the religious aspect probably varies depending on where you live but what I observed was pretty minor and wasn't at all offensive.

The two people I know who have been helped by AA are happy and healthy now.