Addiction in Society

You are partially correct; AA as it exists in most areas does not work. The message of alcoholics anonymous has been diluted beyond recognition. By treatment professionals and wanna be alcoholics who sit in meetings for ego boost.

I am a real alcoholic. I went from running a new york state prison to living in prison, twice. A good friend had been attending the same meetings, he couldn’t stop either, he committed suicide. I had a strong desire to stop and had an intimate knowledge of both the problem and the solution as presented by rehabs and treatment professionals. I was unable to stop drinking. For 10 years, I attended A.A. meetings. At times, during those 10 years, my children, my father, my wife and my brothers stopped talking to me. I started spending time in outpatient and in patient treatment facilities, jails, suicide prevention wards and eventually prisons.

Yet when I met a recovered alcoholic, who showed me the simplicity and the clear cut directions this program offers (and I followed them) I stopped drinking and lost my desire to drink. Leave recovery to those of us with a real answer and proven results. The program of alcoholics anonymous works. I am living proof. Today I am sober, happy and free. I am not alone, I work with men off the street and in shelters, those that others thought hopeless, we recover and we never need drink again because of the program of alcoholics anonymous. I am not a religious zealot but I have been changed thanks to this simple, effective program, and I have witnessed others recover.

I suppose there are those that just need to be taught coping or emotional management skills. God bless them for getting into a program that can help them. But if you run into a few that just cant stop, no matter what faces them, don’t give up on them and please don’t think that they are just lazy or don’t want to stop bad enough, they are dealing with an obsession that is beyond their ability to control, please send them my way.

Mike Dean

Though I can't say I have anything except admiration and respect for the work done with the Life Process Program and I do understand the limitations that AA meetings present, I do not think AA meetings are as unhelpful as you make them seem to be.
Mainly, I just want to point out the purpose of AA: for men and women to come together to share their experience, strength, and hope with one another so that they MAY solve their common problem. Though AA has its limitations, it has never claimed to be a program through which coping and management skills can be learned. AA was founded on the idea of making amends for past behavior and again, it has never claimed to be a place to learn skills, divulge in therapy, or learn to resist specific urges. It is simply a self-supporting membership for people to go to surround themselves with other people in similar circumstances because after all, what recovering addict wants to be alone?
I just do not believe it is fair to criticize AA on their inability to offer psychological help. In addition, many people go to AA because it is free and usually close by. Though all the things you offer in residential treatment seem to offer nothing but betterment of the clients, sometimes people simply do not have the opportunity or chance to attend residential treatment or go to individual counseling or skills training. Because of this unfairness, I think, overall, AA should be looked at as something that can benefit those who really have no where else to go for help.

I have only attened one AA class or meeting what have you call it. I agree with the issues that you present about AA and how it is there to boost the ego's of the members and alcoholics that attend.AA is a great group for people that feel this way and need to meet to deal with past behaviors or issues in there life that caused them to turn to alcohol in the first place. This is one of the reasons why I feel it could be a helpful tool for some people, but I do not agree with some of the aspects of AA. I also beleive it is also for people devouted to religion and their obligation to stay clean is to go to these meetings because religion is based into AA. Overall I feel that AA can be helpful to some people and it boosts their ego, but i tend to find it ineffective for others so it all depends on the person attending the meeting and what they draw from it.

I agree with a lot of what the other people have stated in their comments. I am a substance abuse counselor and have seen the miracle of recovery in many people, usually with AA/NA being apart of their recovery process. Meeting work, I have seen it too many times to dispute them. I believe treatment along with some kind of recovery support meetings is the best course of action for alcoholics/addicts. AA is a spritual program, and shouldnt' be confused with religion. Sometimes AA group members can get carried away with sprituality and every meeting isnt' for every one. I encourage my clients to go to many different meetings (and there are recovery meetings every day and at many different times) to find a meeting that will work for them. If a person only tries one meeting and makes a decision based on that one experience they are doing themselves a diservice and may want to look into their motivation for recovery. I have heard many times that meetings doint help, the people that typically said that really didn't want to get clean and sober. The best way to get clean and sober is to engage in treatment and find a recovery support system that works for you.

I have no wish to be critical of AA or other 12 step or abstinence based programs for those people for whom they are effective. More power to anyone who is pursuing something which is helpful to them.

The simple fact is that there are a large number of people who are either unwilling or unable to become abstinent from alcohol or drugs.

Thankfully there are interventions like needle exchange which offer a harm reduction approach which keeps IV drug users alive. And thankfully a free-of-charge, peer-led support group, The HAMS Harm Reduction Network, has come into existence to offer support to anyone who wishes to make any improvement in their alcohol or drug use, no matter how small.

Surely we should support any efforts in the direction of safer or reduced use of alcohol or drugs.

I speak from personal experience since harm reduction saved my life when other approaches failed me.

I would like to see data to support your premise. Did I miss it in your article? I can only speak for myself and share that the 12 steps saved my life when nothing else worked. Much more than that, the 12 steps gave me a life when I really didn't even have one.

Is it the only path? No. Is it 100% effective? No way. But we have decades of experience to tell us that it works if you work it. If you have evidence and data to support the contrary I'd love to see it.

I think it's worth noting that AA is free of charge, claims no ownership of the 12-steps, and offers its principles as suggestions. They don't want your full name, phone number, or your money. They don't advertise. The same can't be said for the Life Process Program which costs money, is exclusively offered at one facility, and is proprietary. Not only that, Dr. Peele owes AA a great debt in that many of the practical principles of his program are similar to the AA/disease model treatment culture which he denigrates. These are principles which were not commonly understood or advocated before AA developed in 1935. If the Life Process Program is the superior, more enlightened approach to this devastating public health and social ill, then why doesn't Dr. Peele release his proprietary claims?

The best way to get clean and sober is to engage in treatment and find a recovery support system that works for you.That is true..

Interesting article and comments on this page, i must say. The drug and alcohol abuse has affected our society so much that drug and alcohol rehab centers and others similar to this makes sense in this present scenario.

We need options. 12 step is useful to some; not useful to others.
As a result, we need options. This option seems to have the potential to be useful.
I appreciate your efforts.

The best way to stay sober is DON'T DRINK. You will even hear this at 12 step meetings, many here do not know what they are talking about when they discuss 12 steps, especially that so called counselor, who of course makes his / her living off of the government's recovery program.

YOU are the only person that can keep YOU sober. How you do that is up to you. AA would be great, for the social contact, if not for many members insistence ' GOD, MAY YOU FIND HIM NOW' If you stay sober AA will take the credit, if you drink it is because YOU failed the program in some way. AA does not boost ego, it tears it down! Quote, to be put back differently. unquote. People need to wake up and ask questions, to take 12 step programs on faith is insane. Many people who stay sober and go to AA give AA credit because they are parroting the dogma spewed at meetings, the only advice you will ever hear at a meeting that really works to help you stay sober is, DON'T DRINK, the 12 steps themselves, are nonsense.