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Challenging Alcoholic's Anonymous As The Leading Form Of Addiction Treatment
Opposing Views ^ | 02/13/2014 | By Will Hagle

Posted on 02/13/2014 10:34:24 AM PST by Responsibility2nd

Alcoholics Anonymous and its related groups for other substances are undeniably the de facto standard for addiction treatment. The AA meeting is so prevalent throughout society that it has become a cliché in cinema and television. To many, it seems like the only solution. 

Pacific Standard recently ran a piece with the headline “After 75 Years of Alcoholics Anonymous, It’s Time to Admit We Have a Problem.” According to the article, “90 percent of American addiction treatment programs employed the 12-step approach” by the year 2000." The article argues that although it is the dominant form of addiction treatment, Alcoholic’s Anonymous’ religious-based, 12-step approach might not be the best option.

In his new anti-AA book Clean: Overcoming Addiction and Ending America's Greatest Tragedy, former director of Harvard's substance abuse treatment unit Dr. Lance Dodes writes the following: “Alcoholic’s Anonymous was proclaimed the correct treatment for alcoholism over seventy-five years ago despite the absence of any scientific evidence of the approach’s efficacy. And we have been on the wrong path ever since.”

In fact, several alternatives to AA do exist. HAMS, for instance, is a harm reduction program that encourages addicts to complete small, realistic goals such as slowly reducing alcohol or drug use. There is also the Secular Organizations for Sobriety, a method that emphasizes participants need not submit to a higher power as AA requires them to do. There are many other addiction recovery options.  

None of these options, however, have taken over AA’s spot as the most prominent pathway to ending addiction. The difficulty in establishing an effective treatment program is that many of the programs require mental and behavioral therapy rather than medical treatment. SMART Recovery, the first result returned on Google after a search for “alternatives to Alcoholic’s Anonymous,” refers to addiction as a “bad habit” rather than a disease, emphasizing the “motivation” to quit. 

The ways in which American society treats nicotine addiction has always differed from the ways in which it treats alcohol and other drugs. There are nicotine patches, gum, and now electronic cigarettes that purport to lead to smoking cessation.  Medication in the form of a pill even exists. Varenicline, most commonly known as the brand Chantix, reduces an individual’s urge to smoke and even causes cigarettes to taste worse.  

There are also pharmaceutical drugs on the market that help reduce the urge to drink alcohol or other drugs (methadone being a common example for use in drug detoxification). But, of course, using medication to curb the problem is simply introducing a to which an addict’s body and mind becomes accustomed. 

As Pacific Standard notes, addiction is a multifactorial disease about which we still know extremely little. Treatment programs such as AA might be beneficial to a certain degree, but it’s time to increase the collective effort to discover better treatment options. 

Get More: addiction | Alcohol and Drugs | alcoholics anonymous |


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: aa; alcoholicsanonymous
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To: Rebelbase
Those guys have a hunger for God that is intense.

My faith is uplifted by their testimony. And in their recovery and testimony, I see the hand of God.

121 posted on 02/13/2014 8:05:39 PM PST by Drango (A liberal's compassion is limited only by the size of someone else's wallet.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Sheeesh...... a hit piece on Alcoholics Annonymous-never thought I’d see that.


122 posted on 02/13/2014 8:17:20 PM PST by Pajamajan (Pray for our nation. Thank the Lord for everything you have. Don't wait. Do it today.)
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To: cornfedcowboy

Understood, but it is a barrier to drinking. The author makes it seem that nothing like that exists.


123 posted on 02/14/2014 4:32:29 AM PST by Hardastarboard (The question of our age is whether a majority of Americans can and will vote us all into slavery.)
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To: Kevmo; MD Expat in PA
Well, my first response to such a Wall-Of-Text response is to suggest that this issue should have its own thread.

Some of us have not bought into the 114 character limit (or whatever the Tweeters do) and appreciate a post that is quite relevant to the thread.

124 posted on 02/14/2014 7:47:04 AM PST by don-o (He will not share His glory and He will NOT be mocked! Blessed be the name of the Lord forever!)
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To: Kevmo

Italians are our friends.


125 posted on 02/14/2014 7:49:53 AM PST by don-o (He will not share His glory and He will NOT be mocked! Blessed be the name of the Lord forever!)
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To: Pajamajan
Sheeesh...... a hit piece on Alcoholics Annonymous-never thought I’d see that.

Really! About as surprising as know-it-alls mounting their soap boxes to sort everyone else out. I happen to like recovery threads, even when they degenerate to a poo flinging fracas. There is value in seeing mania on display. It makes me check out myself, I hope.

I figure there are hurting folks reading out there. My advice is to give AA at least a hearing - in person.

My first meeting was 18 years ago. I left thinking it was nice and all that for that bunch of pitiful specimens, but not needed for me. My second meeting, ten years later...well, things had changed.

126 posted on 02/14/2014 8:00:46 AM PST by don-o (He will not share His glory and He will NOT be mocked! Blessed be the name of the Lord forever!)
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To: MD Expat in PA

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing that.


127 posted on 02/14/2014 12:52:08 PM PST by socal_parrot (I hate to say I told you so, but...)
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To: don-o

As soon as I see italians and html code on my keyboard, I’ll use them. Or even if I can just copy & paste back & forth from MSWord.


128 posted on 02/14/2014 2:36:31 PM PST by Kevmo ("A person's a person, no matter how small" ~Horton Hears a Who)
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To: circlecity

It’s not about the program itself, it is about the individuals willingness to work the program.

Addictions are very hard to overcome because the substances people embibe actually alter the brain’s physiology. This is why the call to use personal willpower is so misplaced. This also accounts for the rate of relapse. But if a person can actually submit themselves to their recovery and work on it each and everyday, there is hope.


129 posted on 02/14/2014 2:42:53 PM PST by CityCenter (Resist Obamacare!)
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To: Responsibility2nd
It is ironic that this would be posted on the day which marks my thirtieth year of sobriety. And I have but one program to thank for it - the one that revealed God to me.

The striking contrast in this story is that Lance Dodes wrote a book exhorting his theories about conquering alcoholism while the Big Book of AA was written by the first 100 alcoholics who had actually recovered from alcoholism. Key word - RECOVERED. When I see a book written by 100 people who give their testimony of how they recovered from a spiritual malady (which Dodes does not even acknowledge), then and only then will I consider its validity. But until that happens, I can only laugh anyone who realistically believes in encouraging "addicts to complete small, realistic goals such as slowly reducing alcohol or drug use." Anyone proposing this simply does not understand my nature.

130 posted on 02/15/2014 8:49:21 AM PST by Hoodat (Democrats - Opposing Equal Protection since 1828)
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