Posted on 03/17/2015 9:25:29 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
[SNIP]
The 12 steps are so deeply ingrained in the United States that many people, including doctors and therapists, believe attending meetings, earning one’s sobriety chips, and never taking another sip of alcohol is the only way to get better. Hospitals, outpatient clinics, and rehab centers use the 12 steps as the basis for treatment. But although few people seem to realize it, there are alternatives, including prescription drugs and therapies that aim to help patients learn to drink in moderation. Unlike Alcoholics Anonymous, these methods are based on modern science and have been proved, in randomized, controlled studies, to work.
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The debate over the efficacy of 12-step programs has been quietly bubbling for decades among addiction specialists. But it has taken on new urgency with the passage of the Affordable Care Act, which requires all insurers and state Medicaid programs to pay for alcohol- and substance-abuse treatment, extending coverage to 32 million Americans who did not previously have it and providing a higher level of coverage for an additional 30 million.
Nowhere in the field of medicine is treatment less grounded in modern science. A 2012 report by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University compared the current state of addiction medicine to general medicine in the early 1900s, when quacks worked alongside graduates of leading medical schools. The American Medical Association estimates that out of nearly 1 million doctors in the United States, only 582 identify themselves as addiction specialists. (The Columbia report notes that there may be additional doctors who have a subspecialty in addiction.) Most treatment providers carry the credential of addiction counselor or substance-abuse counselor, for which many states require little more than a high-school diploma or a GED. Many counselors are in recovery themselves.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
The point of AA is “You” seeking an alternative life...oh, and it’s free...
unless you discount the very real pain of introspect and striving toward some sort of redeemed life...
This should be an interresting thread.
That’s what I thought...that AA was to treat the reasonings behind the Drinking, not, the Drinking.
Glad I was on the right path.
The irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymous??? What the heck??
I thought AA had achieved a great deal of success.
While I understand that not everybody is helped by AA, isn’t it a stretch to say its an irrational program?
So just because this article cites some other methods which help addicts, how does it follow that AA is not a good treatment method???
I say whatever works is good.
I quit drinking on my own because I made the decision to quit and struggled through.
AA simply shares experience, strength and hope of those who have benefited. The Big Book states that “some day” science and medicine may find a way to make problem drinkers change to normal drinkers.
Speaking from experience, it is a pretty good way to get better.
It’s a matter of learning skills to call on in the future and not a guarantee of absolute success. I spent 8 years in Al-Anon (for friends and family of alcoholics). That program suggests that you keep on coming back even when/if your alcoholic had quit drinking. 8 years was enough and the meeting I considered my home meeting started becoming unhealthy. They do that sometimes although 8 years was a good run and I’m grateful for the time I spent there. I continue to use the lessons I learned there.
Hmm...so now self-proclaimed "experts" are claiming social control based on the collectivization of medicine. Whoever could have seen this coming?
The article lists what should be non-controversial facts. That AA isn’t for everyone. That other methods may work for some people. And that some people don’t like certain aspects of AA. That’s all true.
The problem with the article is that it starts with the flawed premise that people in AA claim that other methods don’t work, or that everyone who has a problem with alcohol has to follow AA and completely abstain. That then sets up the criticisms of AA in the article, as if AA is somehow preventing problem drinkers from getting help. That line of criticism completely misses the point.
AA is one way for people to stop drinking that, based on experience, has helped millions of people. The other treatments mentioned in the article may or may not work. They certainly don’t have the long history of proof that AA has. And the idea of suggesting to alcoholics that they can go back to controlled drinking rather than abstaining is dangerous.
It could be that someone is losing on out cash, but also that someone is losing out on RECORDS, so they know who has been or is being treated for alcohol abuse, all the details, etc. How can some huge government-funded program work, if people seek treatment/recovery outside of the boundaries of the government controls?
the third, fifth, and sixth steps in any 12 step program all appeal to God. that’s their problem, right there.
From Wikipedia's entry on AA:
As summarized by the American Psychological Association, the initial 12 steps involved the following:If you like your Higher Power, you can keep your Higher Power.
- admitting that one cannot control one's alcoholism, addiction or compulsion;
- recognizing a higher power that can restore sanity;
Alcoholics Anonymous is not the only path to sobriety.
If a problem drinker wants to try something other than the tried and true AA route, please go ahead and do so. We in AA still will be here doing what we do . . . staying sober. If someone wants to join us, please do. We have plenty of chairs available.
DOS: July 26, 2003
Efficacious is not the same as rational.
It's great training if you aspire to join a cult.
Bingo - 23 years ago I went from a bar-brawling, car-wrecking, relationship-trashing loser to a sober, caring, rational person - for only a buck a day.
(Rarely make "meetings" much anymore, mostly heavily involved in church ministries, but never want to forget where i came from....)
“And the idea of suggesting to alcoholics that they can go back to controlled drinking rather than abstaining is dangerous.”
How true.
It’s the first drink that gets you drunk...
It’s been a while, but wasn’t that “a higher power”. Still the fact that for most that higher power is God, you make a very good point.
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