Happy New Year!! Woot woot 2026.

Today we're exploring "New Freedom and New Happiness" from the AA promises and what that looks like in deprogramming.

I'll share my version of "The Promises" for leaving AA. Then we'll crowd source other people's thoughts and ideas about The Promises when they were in AA and what their creating now that they've left.

Resources for deconstructing AA:

👉 Deprogram Lounge (community, Zooms, book club, Escape Kit + more)

📚 Deprogram Book List (my fave deprogram, cult recovery and critical thinking books)

Let’s get f*cking free

Rene joins us today to share about how AA became a self prophecy leading him to be in and out of the rooms for twenty years.

Rene's IG

Rene's TikTok

Timestamps:

00:00 In + Out of AA For 20 Years

05:50 Going to AA Knowing It's A Cult

17:25 Leaving AA Cult Within A Cult

20:48 South Florida Pill Mills

23:18 AA Ideology Created A Negative Cycle

32:08 AA is a Self Fulfilling Prophecy

36:50 Changing the Recovery Narrative

44:39 The Big Book Mythology

49:11 How He Actually Got Better

Resources for deconstructing AA:

👉 Deprogram Lounge (community, Zooms, book club, Escape Kit + more)

📚 Deprogram Book List (my fave deprogram, cult recovery and critical thinking books)

🌀 Deprogram AA Course (free your mind at your own pace)

Let’s get f*cking free

Today we are exploring AA's powerless idea and pickle mythology.

You know how in AA they say "once a cucumber becomes a pickle, there's no going back." Meaning once you "cross a line" with drinking and become an "alcoholic" there is no becoming a normal drinker again. But modern science debunks this.

We'll bring in thoughts and research from experts (you know I like to read a little from deprogramming books on these pods!), Burnie aka Tara Grace from Burn The Stigma will share her perspective, I'll share mine (it's me, Kirsten, Sobriety Bestie). Then we crowd source for comments to see what everyone else thinks.

Resources for deconstructing AA:

👉 Deprogram Lounge (community, Zooms, book club, Escape Kit + more)

🧰 Escape Kit (resources to Deprogram AA)

📚 Deprogram Book List (my fave deprogram, cult recovery and critical thinking books)

Let’s get f*cking free

Join us for a fun Holiday episode as Carrie (Carrie's Substack) and I sing about the 12 days of leaving Alcoholics Anonymous.

👉 Deprogram Lounge (community, Zooms, Book Club, Escape Kit + more)

📚 Deprogram Book List (my fave deprogram, cult recovery and critical thinking books)

Let’s get f*cking free.

Join us for a fun Holiday inspired episode as Carrie (Carrie's Substack) and I share the gifts of leaving AA from our perspective.

Timestamps:

00:00 Gifts of Leaving AA Intro

01:13 The Gifts When Starting AA or Love Bombing?

01:55 Gift Newcomer Conversation

06:50 Growing Up in AA Cult + Leaving

11:40 Deprogramming AA is The Gift That Keeps Giving

16:27 Gift When First Leaving AA

19:30 Gift Months After Leaving AA

23:16 GIft One Year After Leaving AA

25:40 Gifts of Current Deprogramming Journey

👉 Deprogram Lounge (community, Zooms, Book Club, Escape Kit + more)

📚 Deprogram Book List (my fave deprogram, cult recovery and critical thinking books)

Let’s get f*cking free.

Today we are exploring the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of 12 step rehab treatment centers.

Resources for deconstructing AA:

👉 Deprogram Lounge (community, Zooms, book club, Escape Kit + more)

🧰 Escape Kit (resources to Deprogram AA)

📚 Deprogram Book List (my fave deprogram, cult recovery and critical thinking books)

Let’s get f*cking free

Today we're unpacking spiritual bypassing, the use of spirituality or spiritual practices to override our feelings. We'll cover what spiritual bypassing can look like inside 12 step, how our brains are often trained to spiritual bypass via our sponsors, the meetings and the literature and what spiritual bypassing can be like on our deprogramming AA journey.

This audio is from today's livestream on Sobriety Bestie YouTube from our weekly show "Tea With Bestie." Feel free to join us live on Thursdays at 9am Pacific / 5 pm UK.

Resources for deconstructing AA:

👉 Deprogram Lounge (community, Zooms, book club, Escape Kit + more)

📚 Deprogram Book List (my fave deprogram, cult recovery and critical thinking books)

🌀 Deprogram AA Course (free your mind at your own pace)

Let’s get f*cking free

I've received a lot of DM's after yesterday's episode on Rob Reiner and Nick Reiner so am coming back today to answer the top questions. You wanted to know is Nick Reiner mentally ill and was he sober at the time of the murders. So we'll dive into that in today's episode.

Also I have a clip with Rob Reiner and Nick Reiner's thoughts on Alcoholics Anonymous (thanks to the person who DM'd it to me!) so we'll roll that clip as well.

Timestamps

00:00 Nick Reiner charged with murder

01:34 Was Nick Reiner Under The Influence?

01:47 Is Nick Reiner Mentally Ill?

02:41 Does Rehab Work?

03:56 Rob Reiner + Nick Reiner on "Does AA work?"

06:14 Nick + Rob Reiner addiction message

06:44 Nick Reiner's Thoughts on 12 Step Not Working

Resources for deconstructing AA:

👉 Deprogram Lounge (community, Zooms, book club, Escape Kit + more)

📚 Deprogram Book List (my fave deprogram, cult recovery and critical thinking books)

🌀 Deprogram AA Course (free your mind at your own pace)

Let’s get f*cking free

Today's episode is a bit heavy, heartbreaking and also a deep dive into the addiction movie the now late iconic director Rob Reiner made in 2015 with his son Nick Reiner called "Being Charlie."

We'll look at the addiction recovery movie through a deconstruction lens, examine the 12 step loaded language, and follow Charlie through his addiction recovery journey - a character based upon Nick Reiner.

In real life, Nick Reiner went to 17+ rehabs in 7 years before being inspired to create this movie with his father. This is an invitation to think about why non effective "treatment" is continually pushed and pursued via medical professionals, treatment centers and 12 step meetings.

Timestamps:

00:00 Rob Reiner, Nick Reiner + Addiction Recovery Intro

02:32 Nick Reiner 17+ Rehabs

03:46 Deconstructing Being Charlie Movie

04:17 12 Step Loaded Language

07:58 How Nick Reiner Got Sober

08:58 12 Step Treatment is Ineffective

10:47 RIP Rob + Michele Reiner

11:48 Rob Reiner + Nick Reiner Interview

Resources for deconstructing AA:

👉 Deprogram Lounge (community, Zooms, book club, Escape Kit + more)

📚 Deprogram Book List (my fave deprogram, cult recovery and critical thinking books)

🌀 Deprogram AA Course (free your mind at your own pace)

Let’s get f*cking free

It's the 91 year anniversary of BIll W.'s "White Light Spiritual Experience" so we're going to unpack it all in this episode. We'll cover what drugs Bill was on, some of Towns history (the founder of the rehab Bill was in), Carl Jung's work on the numinous or spiritual / religious experiences and we'll hear from the livestream audience about their thoughts on spiritual experience.

I timestamped it below in case you want to skip around.

Timestamps:

00:00 91 Years Later: Deconstructing Bill Wilson’s White Light Experience

02:32 Bill Made His Experience Institutional "Proof"

05:14 The Spiritual Experience Requirement

11:05 The Drugs Bill Was On

25:08 The Jung Letter and Chain-Style Transmission

29:22 Personal Psychedelic Experiences vs Universal Prescription

49:23 Leaving AA and the Psychological Devastation

51:57 Deconstructing ‘AA Worked For Me’ or 'Didn't Work'

55:32 Bill's Hallucination Still Shapes Recovery Today

1:03:44 The Cognitive Dissonance Around Bill’s LSD Use

1:09:18 AA as Mythology, Not Medicine

01:14:42 Carl Jung vs. Bill Wilson

01:25:08 Towns Hospital

1:33:42 Healing Trauma + Exit Costs

1:41:03 Jung Was Opposite of Bill in Thinking

Resources for deconstructing AA:

👉 Deprogram Lounge (community, Zooms, book club, Escape Kit + more)

🧰 Escape Kit (resources to Deprogram AA)

📚 Deprogram Book List (my fave deprogram, cult recovery and critical thinking books)

🌀 Deprogram AA Course (free your mind at your own pace)

Let’s get f*cking free