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Rating: 
Summary: There Is An Alternative!
Review: AA and the other 12 Step groups are about brainwashing, plain and simple. With a 5% success rate, they really have nothing to brag about. If you've always had a funny feeling about AA or the 12 Step recovery groups, read this book. Rational Recovery gave me my life back. I thought RR were a bunch of atheists or secular humanists, but I was wrong. RR dovetails with any major world religion. It's about using the gifts God gave you without giving up your free will. This book is a life-changer. Learn some simple principles (the whole plan can be summed up in less than 200 words) and live free!
Rating:
Summary: Finally!
Review: Boy, are you in for a treat! Finally, finally someone has taken the mystery out of addiction and provided a simple, private and insight-based way to recover from any addiction, right now. The methods described in Mr. Trimpey's work vanqish any feelings of being out-of-control instantly. The technique, garnered from self-recovered people who permanently quit their addiction on their own works beautifully. So, stay who you are, be confidently abstinent and get on with life using the simple tools of "Addictive Voice Recognition Technique." Instead of going to meetings that bore you, rotating back to rehabs and expecting relapse you can quickly learn to "recognize" your addictive voice and separate the mindset of addiction from abstinence. "Rational Recovery" is easy to understand. Thanks to Mr. Trimpey, the game is quickly over and life returns to normal. Mr. Trimpey has done all a great service. You can't miss with this book. Excellent!!! Thank goodness there is an alternative for those of us who are not helped by 12-step programs.
Rating: 
Summary: Just Say No?
Review: I found this book after abusing alcohol for many years, I've been in and out of treatment centers with little success, after reading this book and following the well laid out plan, I stayed sober for 2 days, did it again and lasted 1 day, since then I have gone to AA and now have been sober for almost a year,
it may work for some, but it didn't work for me, also if you want any follow up care or feedback from other, you need to go to the authors website, and pay $29.00 a month.looks to me like the author of this book is totally in it for the money.
Rating:
Summary: Finally an Alternative to AA That Makes Sense and Works!!
Review: I had better say up front: the following is not an "AA bashing". If you believe in AA; then more power to you. Just make sure you've check out alternatives and made the right choice of therapy. .This book came to my attention when I needed it the most. I was committed to sobriety and had made the decision that no matter how bad my life may become; drinking would only make it worse!. With almost a year of sobriety, I was getting little from the AA's meeting format and rhetoric. I found myself wanting to tell some of the whiners to "grow up!" and stop blaming your inability to stop drinking because they weren't "working a good program", and needing to work one step or another. It dawned on me that the 12 steps as process for gaining sobriety was as efficient as Freudian analyses and as clear as some of Confucius's sayings. People spoke in slogans (turn it over"; "easy does it") and my personal favorite :"don't you take my inventory!". Ask an AA person what exactly do they mean and more of the same flies back at you: "go back a step"( yada yada yada.). The last straw was when my sponsor (M) "slipped" (more like an "out-of control" bobsled run!). M had an argument with her spouse (T). M stormed out of the apartment to the local 7-11 where she purchased a can 0.5% Shandy . She took it back home and drank it right in front of T. T, of course moved out. M then proceeded to the local Chinese Deli where she drank two bottles of wine and somehow ended up passed on her old sponsor's doorstep. She confessed to me about this. I was not disgusted over M's drinking; and drinking the initial Shandy was simply childish behavior. The kicker was M's reasoning that just that small bit of alcohol in the 0.5% Shandy; set off her complete bender because she has the "alcoholic disease"! Nope..No Way! As far as I was concerned, she knew exactly what she was doing when she bought and drank the Shandy. The fight with the spouse was an excuse, a supposed "trigger", which then allowed her to get totally "faced". AA doctrine then provided her with an excuse and a rationalization for her transgression. At that moment I realized that most of the people I've met at AA, have slipped many repeatedly, or were coming to AA upon direction from the courts. AA provided most of them with ready made excuses to keep drinking while providing understanding support and absolving them of any responsibility for their actions!! These people have NOT committed to stop drinking. They've only expressed a desire to quit! Going to AA meetings allows them to keep drinking while giving the appearance of "trying" to stop. AA ,I now believe is more a religious movement bordering on cult status. The cult idea is supported by the threats of insanity or death if you do not "Keep Coming Back!". The scary thing about this is that until Rational Recovery, AA was the only salvation for the drunkard; sanctioned by the courts and the medical establishment. Image if a judge sentenced someone to weekly mass; or a doctor prescribed "Take Two Novenas and call me in the morning!" I'm a practicing Roman Catholic: religion I've got plenty, and that never stopped me from drinking! I stopped attending meetings against everyone's advice. I knew I did not want to continue with these meetings for the rest of my life. I could not see a future where my entire life centres around going to meetings and keeping my sobriety. I've got plenty of other things to do. I just didn't want to drink anymore!! Ironically; likely due to a learning disability, I misunderstood one of AA platitudes : "One day at a time". I took it to mean "I can't control the past, nor the future, but I control the 'Now'. As long as it is "Now", I won't drink." It might seem a silly statement at first glance, but it makes sense to me: I control the "Now" and when the future becomes the "Now"; I will still be in control. I decided to drink. I go out to get the booze. I open the bottle ...etc. So as long as I'm in the "Now" (where else could I be?"; I won't drink. This misunderstanding allowed me to recognize the existence of my "beast", the hedonistic, pleasure seeking portion part of me. I realized the beast doesn't care at all about me, it just wants pleasure at all cost. The beast is a spoiled brat, with no money, car keys and opposable thumb which are requisite for acquiring booze and drinking it. I was providing these services to my beast; and it's now been cut off.. period. The beast has no concept of time, and knows it's at my mercy. Every now and then, the beast tries a pot-shot at my resolve (Hey..have just one beer, we deserve it). AA would call this a warning sign to falling of the wagon. I now know that this is simple beast activity, and through "Addictive Voice Recognition Technique"; I let me beast know who's in charge and laugh as it slinks back into it's animal brain lair. Rational Recovery confirms and supports what I had determined concerning AA; and helped refine my AVRT. I'm going to "try" AVRT in order to stop smoking. Notice I said "try"..beast activity is still strong in that area; but I'm working on it ! ps:: I believe I'm 5 years sober now. I don't think about the length of my sobriety. Because of AVRT and RR, time marking my sobriety is akin to me tracking how long I've gone without being hit by a car! (believe it or not I've been hit 4 times!) but I don't dwell on it. (By the way I'm more likely to be hit by a car while being struck by lightning, the I would be to drink. Finally: this technique works!! get it and get on with your life! You've probably drank enough for 2 lifetimes. You drink because you like to drink. Take charge and stop being a pig!
Rating:
Summary: This book is rational and smart
Review: I'm very glad to see that there are other people out in the world whohave made the rational decision to stop drinking. The disease modelsupported and disseminated by AA is dangerous--it attaches a"loser" label onto people who are at their most vulnerable. The fact that they will carry this label around with them for the rest of their lives is diabolically harmful. As a teacher, I know that attaching labels onto vulnerable people does real damage. Look into any classroom that has the stigma of being considered remedial, and you'll see what I mean. Kids in those classes don't perform well because they lack the self-esteem to do so. Jack Trimpey is right on the money when he says that the AA model perpetuates low self-esteem and white-knuckle sobriety. The changes, according to Trimpey, have to come from within. The problem is that that is hard work--something the "keep coming back" policy of AA discourages.... As some of the stories recounted in Trimpey's book tell us, AA members willingly....abdicate their responsibility.... I agree with Trimpey's ideas about positive reinforcement. I know most students I teach do better when I give them positive models to follow, when I set goals for them that challenge them and make them feel like they are the masters of their own destiny. Instead of negative reinforcement found in AA, why not choose the alternative of the positive kind of reinforcement outlined in this book? The kind of changes Trimpey talks about are more difficult, but ultimately more rewarding. Like many problem drinkers, I tried AA. I too found it hostile to my very real desire to stop drinking. I felt suffocated in meetings and although I only attended a few, I have my share of AA horror stories. I admire what Trimpey is attempting to do--he's taking on the whole 12-step industry. It's about time someone did.
Rating: 
Summary: Whether it's the Big Book or RR, be a critical reader
Review: I've been active off and on in AA for 13 years. I picked up RR at a point in my sobriety when AA's message had seemed to wear thin. Trimpey ideas are based in part on the work done by Albert Ellis who is much more interesting and better reserched than Trimpey. What drew me to the title of Trimpey's book was the emphasis on rationality and the possible freedom from endless meetings and AA dogma. But as I read the book I realized that I had tried what Trimpey suggested when I was drinking and it simply did't work then as a means for escaping the drinking cycle. As you can see from many of the people who sing Trimpey's praises in these reviews, alot of them already had time sober when they picked up his book. So why does it work for them? Because many of his suggestions (and those of Albert Ellis in Rational Emotive Therapy) are in fact very helpful for day to day problems of living that alcoholics (and lots of non alcoholics on the planet) perpetuate because they lack basic living skills and are at the mercy of irrational thought patterns. AA is an easy target for Trimpey because AA does not have a group opinion on outside issues and will (as a group) never fire back at him. He could have made his points without the attack and like Peele he bases his attack on a straw man version of AA anyway. Most of the things he says AA propogates don't represent what the Big Books says about recovering from alcohol. He is basing his opinion on what former and current members of AA say AA says. Unfortunately most people in AA never really read the Big Book either, they just go to meetings and think that is what recovery is all about and then claim to have had the AA experience and hated it. I would be willing to bet that the people who love Trimpey's book and read it thoroughly didn't even read the Big Book. If they did they would realized that what gets said in AA meetings is often BS and has nothing to do with how to get sober forever. Yes it actually says that we can recover 'for good and all' in the Big Book. My suggetion, read both the Big Book and RR if you want to (along with other books on alcoholism), but read critically. Don't be afraid to be informed. People in AA are petrified about reading anything that might contrdict AA's message. If you do the work as it is laid out in the BB there is nothing to fear. Stay informed. If you do stay informed you will not find a better organization than AA if you read the Big Book and do the work according to the book. Just don't mistake personalities of AA for the principles of AA. Trimpey will teach you some behavioral modification techniques that maybe useful in someways, but if you're like me I didn't know what AA had to offer until I actually read the Big Book and did what it said, not what people in AA said it said or what Trimpey says it say. Now grab your BB, get to a meeting, and save your a**. PS. Trimpey doesn't recognize the effectiveness of AA but our judicial system does and so does the American Medical Association and the APA. I think I'll stick with the experts, thank you.
Rating:
Summary: " The New Cure ?"
Review: The brain is organized into distinct parts. (Perhaps you have heard the left and right brain differences, for example.) We drink for pleasure, and the primitive mid-brain is the pleasure center, which seeks to engage the higher, thinking brain to satisfy this desire for pleasure. The rational brain (YOU) vows to never drink again, and takes control over the primitive pleasure center. You'll do this easily without any higher power or religion crap.
Rating:
Summary: Very Misleading
Review: This book is about as retarded as the AA Big Book. Just keep drinking. Don't worry about it. You'll be dead soon.
Rating:
Summary: There is an alternative
Review: This is by far the most meaningfull recovery book I have ever read. I related to it in ways that I did'nt even know existed.
If you are fed up with the same old treatment program, 12 step, admitting defeat, go to more meetings, AA crap, this is the book for you. It certainly was for me.
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