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There are so many issues with this article, I am not quite sure where to start. I guess at the beginning. The article starts with a title that is leading to sa
by zafka 9y ago
There are so many issues with this article, I am not quite sure where to start.
I guess at the beginning. The article starts with a title that is leading to say the least. Another thing this author does throughout the article is to insinuate that Alcoholics Anonymous it to blame for the sorry state of how our health care system (U.S) pays for addiction treatment.
After stating how hard it is too verify statistics for positive results,the author damns the guess made 50 years ago when Bill Wilson first wrote the book, and most likely had a far better conversion record as they were then dealing with highly motivated quitters.
It is almost humorous that this author is complaining about the success rate of this method, when a large number of the pool of candidates are forced into treatment by either the law or parental coercion.
Now I would like to say mid- rant that I am biased. I stopped drinking 33 years ago, and while I would not admit to membership in this group in a public forum, I would suggest people who WANT to quit, to give it a try.
I would be one of the first to say that there are a lot of hokey parts to the traditions they follow, and I do not agree with a lot of the premises of the literature----
But that being said........It works!
One interesting opinion about AA comes from Charlie Munger, Warren Buffets business partner. Charlie writes quite a bit about the psychology of business, and he gives his fairly well thought out opinion of why AA works so well.
I wonder whether the AA bashing is just for controversy
to better sell the article, or if perhaps the author is helping to market the new version of naltrexone the is being quite heavily promoted to judges recently.
- dunmalg 9y ago>* I do not agree with a lot of the premises of the literature---- But that being said........It works! * From the article: "Lance Dodes, a retired psychiatry professor from Harvard Medical School, looked at Alcoholics Anonymous’s retention rates along with studies on sobriety and rates of active involvement (attending meetings regularly and working the program) among AA members. Based on these data, he put AA’s actual success rate somewhere between 5 and 8 percent." According to that, about the best you can say is that "it works when it works", which isn't saying much. I'm glad it worked for you, but the fact that for evey one of you there are 10 who go back to drinking doesn't do much to recommend the program as the legally mandated cure-all it currently is.
- zafka 9y agoA quick search on Lance Dodes, shows he has an axe to grind and some books to sell. Also, remember AA is suggested for people who want to quit. IF you take 100 kids who got caught smoking pot in high school, force them to go to AA meetings, there is a good chance they will not stop drinking. Don't attack the method because people misuse it. I really think there are a lot of other things that do work, and I think the drug naltrexone can be very useful in helping people quit from what I have read. What pisses me off is when shills who really don't know what they are doing push a gimmick for profit. One of the things that is giving AA a bad name are all the fly by night treatment centers who say they are using 12 step methods, but actually all they are really doing in collecting insurance and warehousing people for 28 days.