The term “lifestyle change” has been abused and overused, but what you’ve described is a true perfect example of the difference between something like a diet, and true lifestyle change. An alcoholic who sits in his old local drinking soda water and counting the days he’s been clean hasn’t changed the factors that led him to drink, his habits, and everything other than just not drinking. Your friend decided, not just that he should stop drinking, but that he wants to, and wants to change his life accordingly.
The problem with addition is that there’s often an “upper level” cognitive process that wants to stop, doesn’t enjoy the fallout of addition, but that exists with the “lower level” processes of enjoying the drugs and disliking withdrawal, boredom, finding new friends and ways of living. You can only really change and stay changed when you unite both of those urges and work hard to change beyond just quitting x. AA does that in a way that seems to work for some, as religion has always been capable of restricting people’s lives. Of course people who don’t believe in that framework don’t actually need it, but they do need something comprehensively geared to changing their overall lifestyle.
I think the idea of a group setting for support is smart, the idea that the group has to be fanatically religion is not.
The problem with addition is that there’s often an “upper level” cognitive process that wants to stop, doesn’t enjoy the fallout of addition, but that exists with the “lower level” processes of enjoying the drugs and disliking withdrawal, boredom, finding new friends and ways of living. You can only really change and stay changed when you unite both of those urges and work hard to change beyond just quitting x. AA does that in a way that seems to work for some, as religion has always been capable of restricting people’s lives. Of course people who don’t believe in that framework don’t actually need it, but they do need something comprehensively geared to changing their overall lifestyle.
I think the idea of a group setting for support is smart, the idea that the group has to be fanatically religion is not.