The Power Of Belief

My first realisation that Alcoholics Anonymous was harmful came about through meditation However it was quite a while before I left the cult. There were many realisations to came.
I was thinking about belief, and the power it has over our behaviour. Now I believe that many fears, indeed for me, most fears are irrational.
In AA there is an almost universal belief that cutting back on meetings will lead to a relapse or death. Now it seems for those who have this belief it comes true. It is not uncommon to hear, "I haven't had a meeting in a week, and feel aweful" I'm not getting enough meetings" We all have problems; we all suffer. But in AA they often believe this suffering comes about by not getting enough meetings. They may suffer because they believe this or, equally as bad, they may ignore real problems in life and suppress these problems in the false belief that the cause of the problem is a lack of meetings. Thus more meetings, more of life's ordinary problems suppressed, more fear of missing meetings, more anxiety brought about by suppression, and of course more anger. And then more meetings in the belief that meetings reduce suffering!!
Of course there are members, plenty, with no such belief, but as always it is the more vulnerable and desperate who relaps and die BECAUSE OF AA. It is no wonder a group of psychologist found a high rate of mental illness among members!