I mean it is actually entirely fully possible to just stop addiction shit after repeated failure and just naturally arrive to the conclusion that its destroying you and your relationships with the people that you love and care about. Some people need the kind of structure/support network that AA and other programs provide and other people just outgrow it very suddenly one day.
Absolutely. It's one of the things that they tell you. They aren't actively recruiting. If you can make stop without their help, go ahead and do it. If you can reduce your consumption and control your use, go ahead and do it. Theirs is a programme specifically aimed at people who can't manage that shit.
I don't really like AA programs because they come across as a sort of cult due to the religious shit and not only that literally the first step of AA is this (this is quoted directly from their website):
Completely agree with everything you say here. I don't like the programme for all the reasons you list and a dozen more. It works for the people it works for. I'm pretty damn sure that it wouldn't work for me.
In spite of all that, if I had a friend or family member in Nick's position, I'd still tell them to get their arse to a meeting. Primarily because it's about committing yourself to a programme of abstinence-based recovery. I acknowledge that it's not the only method, or even the best method. But for Nick's specific set of issues -- polydrug use in the absence of physical dependence -- I don't know anything else that works as well, particularly when you've been through a treatment programme and it hasn't managed to shift your thinking at all.
Of course, nothing will change how you think about these issues unless you acknowledge that it's a problem in the first place. That your life HAS become unmanagable and you need something to restore you to sanity. It's pretty clear than Nick isn't willing to acknowledge any of that. But I think a lot of people feel that way going in, and there's something about the collective nature of the fellowship that changes their mind and shows them that they can live a different life -- one that can remove the terrible stain of shame from the way they currently live.
And presumably, he'd have no problem with all the God stuff. That was always my own biggest objection to it, but Nick claims to buy all that stuff.
Despite never having been a member myself, I've referred other people there, some of whom credit the programme with having saved their lives. I don't think you have to believe in the magic for it to work. And they have a saying about 'Take what you need', suggesting that if there are parts of the dogma you don't think are helpful, just ignore that stuff and focus on the stuff that you DO find helpful.
But like everything, it's very hit and miss. Some meetings are great. Some are filled with predatory sociopaths and halfwits. Some sponsors are fantastic role models and provide enormous insight and share vast experience. Some are just attempting to bang as many newly recovering hotties as they can get into the pit. It's very much caveat emptor, but that's true of everything when it comes to addiction treatment.
The problem is that Nick is actively making it harder for himself with each passing day by doing petty things. Step 1 would be impossible for him to accept, but could you imagine what Step 9 is going to be for him? The first people he should make amends with are his children.
I think that's why I say he needs it. He needs somebody to sit him down and make him stop doing that shit. I think even the most retarded of sponsors would recognize how much he was hurting himself and his family and urge him to stop doing that shit immediately -- first order of business.