I've always gone back and forth on the whole 12-step-being-a-cult thing.
As far as I'm concerned, whatever works for you to get you off drugs, more power to you. And I personally have known a lot of people who started off by getting sober with 12 step, then wised up and dropped the 12 step thing and stayed sober for the rest of their lives on their own. However, they give credit to 12 step at least getting them started. (But if they stayed there, I'm sure they would have started drinking or using again. Mainly because all you talk about in 12 step is using drugs and drinking and telling war stories!)
See, this is why I'm not sure if 12 step can fall into the category of a cult. Cults are really good at keeping most of their members. And while AA/NA etc. tote the line "keep coming back" their attrition rate (by their own last recorded numbers) is horrid. (It's around 95%. And remember, these are their OWN numbers.) That is a very unsuccessful cult!
What I don't like, however, is the institutionaliziation of the 12 step program. i.e. Go to jail or go to 12 step. And the fact that every single rehab in the country, for the most part, uses some form of 12 step ideology. That is total bullshit. It is extremely dangerous for our judicial and recovery system to believe in one way to solve the problems of alcohol and drug addiction and implement that into our drug rehab centers.
When I had to stop my habits, 12 step didn't work. It was too full of bullshit for me. I went to the meetings, I dealt with all the drama there, and the ridiculous meat market, and came to the conclusion that 12 step was only good for 2 things: getting laid and scoring drugs. I had to go with rational recovery, which thankfully, isn't a group, it's just a book. (A book that is banned by most rehabs, incidentally.) It also, by the way, totally slams 12 step, and does a very good job of doing so, and explaining why it doesn't work.
