Just say No to the 12 Step Cult Religions

I am convinced that deeper research will reveal that people drink to relive the trauma in order to understand the trauma.  Drinking actually blocks out the noise ie everything but the trauma. The noise needs to be blocked out so the trauma can be reenacted that is relived heard, felt, re-experienced.  When abuse occurs at the pre-verbal phase of childhood the reenactment is nonverbal and without cognition as with those who were raped before they had verbal ability and the ability to form cognitions of the abuse experiences.

The use of substances to drown the din of background noise – repression – is not limited to pre-verbal abuse survivors, but is also the reason post verbal survivors use drugs and alcohol. Even post verbal childhood rape victims will use repression techniques such as dissociation to relieve the cognitive dissonance the defines much of the abuse experience. War and hostage survivors may also use drugs and alcohol not to alleviate the pain of the trauma, but again to reduce the din of repression so that the pain can be felt can be remembered. Remember occurs trauma is when individuals experience emotions in a degree and intensity that is of the scale off the chart in terms of experiencing and processing in real time and even in terms of processing without the use of specific trauma technics such as EMDR or somatic healing etc.  One of the ways trauma survivors try to heal themselves is through the use of drugs and alcohol in a non-therapeutic environment. However far from easing the pain this allows the pain to be felt and re-experienced and to be processed It is a form of therapy and could be a reason why many simply grow out of this phase of their lives.

Substance use should not be construed here to mean problematic use nor excessive use or use of excessive amounts, to dull the din that clouds the ability of the mind to focus on the abusive/traumatic experience while relieving the repression mechanisms requires only a moderate use of substances.  Often times this moderate use produces reactions that appear to mimic what the ill-informed have come to associate with heavy or problematic use  in a no, which causes the survivors to be labeled with pejorative terms having social stigmas such as alcoholics or addicts. Nothing could be further from the truth nor more harmful to the healing of trauma survivors. The use of these terms produces shame which the survivor already carries heavy reservoir. Additionally, this causes the survivor to once again negate their own experience and be tracked and treated like alcoholics or addict’s in modern society.

After exhibiting such reliving of the abuse experience many survivors are labeled as alcoholics or addicts but are threatened or coerced into going into treatment or rehab that they have not requested against their denial. These rehabs tend to be based on the 12 step religious cult model predominately as over 90% of rehabs use this inappropriate model. While the ineffectiveness of the 12 step cult religions to deal with substances issues has been well documented in the scientific community in recent years, abuse/trauma survivors are particularly susceptible to the cult value of conformity, surrender of will and objectification through sponsorship and the false social hierarchy that develops in these cults based on clean or sober time. Remember for abuse/trauma survivors drinking and using is therapeutic allowing traumatic emotions to be processed. Because of this complete absence prompted by the 12 step religious cults is impossible and not therapeutic.  This holds true in particular for the pre-verbal trauma survivor who in addition to have built-up heavy fortresses of repression based completely on emotionally scaffolding available at the ages when the abuse occurred. They do not have the coexistence of cognitive abilities to help break through the repression understand the abuse and describe it. Cognition is not available to them for reliving and thus explain verbally and thoughtfully their experiences.  

Additionally, trauma survivors tend to be extremely vulnerable and sensitive and thus easy prey for cults of all kinds. The indoctrination technique practiced by the 12 step cult religions of approaching a survivor at their most vulnerable period and threaten them with death on the one hand if they don’t comply and join the cult, while promising love, care and attention on the other if they do comply and join the cult is merely the next stage in re-enactment or reliving the abuse experience for trauma survivors, that is, it offers the an opportunity to have their needs met if only the comply with the cult indoctrination formula. Even the most resilient of survivors will give in during these vulnerable times with very little persuasive and promotion from the cult indoctrinators.  Survivors at this low poin will do or say or comply with most anything in return for a little companionship and the promise of life long “acceptance.” Once having succumbed to the promotional pressure of the cult whether it be one on one two on one or particularly in a rehab situation where a survivor has already traded their freedom to have their needs met, survivors will jump in wholeheartedly. Some will actually trade freedom and healing for the cult religion particularly if they are part of the 4 – 5% who quit drinking and/or using. Many will not get clean and sober right away and will endure years, decades of emotional, verbal and sexual abuse to finally make it in the cult, being all the more committed to cult concepts and ashamed of themselves because it took them so long not so much to recover but to fit in and thus get IT.

Of course the absence of drinking and using without doing the painful work of remembering and absorbing the abuse will not heal the survivor will leave them minions, children of the cult believing that since their needs are met by the cult that they will survive, and mere survival is enough for a trauma victim.

I hope this short paper will illustrate the insidiousness of the 12 step cult religions that pose as drug and alcohol treatment in the Unties States, as well as reveal the sociability and suffering of some of the most innocent causalities of the war on drugs.  

Copyright Fred Celio 2016


Read More
Raped by My Parents
Systemic Abuse of Alcoholics Anonymous and Other 12 Step Cults
Stanford and Nero-biology
Pete Walker Phil Carnes and The Industry of Survivor Exploitation
The Garage Next Door