While completing my MSW I discovered a powerful insight regarding licensure. The ah-ha happened during a LicSW dog-and-pony show (guest lecturer) about two weeks before graduation.

I still remember the stunned looks I received when I asked the revered presenter (Co-Chair of the state licensure Board) this question?

"Why would I pay to become part of an entity whose sole purpose is to further punish me on the occasion I break any number of laws already on the books?"

Keep in mind I was a known rabble-rouser at that point. In prior classes I continued to challenge any model that enables any level of parasitic results. For example, a medical model that's apt to keep you ill so that you'll need services - ad nauseam.

Not surprisingly I struggle with programs that state you'll always be "sick." While there's truth that an addict is, and always will be an addict such that an addiction is part of one's past. It's also true past life-lessons - if we're wise enough to embrace the lesson outcome(s) - helps us retire our unhealthy ways.

Once - as a soul's sponsor in AA (of which I was a non AA member) I challenged my friend to ponder this question. "Why would you want to be a lifetime member of an organization that affirms / enables the notion that you may never surpass - that which you're trying to surpass."

AA serves a purpose. The lifeline AA tosses out saves lives. At what point does a lifeline bind and drown you to repeat the need for another lifeline.