4 ms·

In practice, given a person who wants to get clean, what works better than a 12-step program? I was under the impression that those were effective. Is the "high

In practice, given a person who wants to get clean, what works better than a 12-step program? I was under the impression that those were effective. Is the "higher power" thing what you are thinking of when you say "nonsense?" In many programs that is not specifically religious as much as it is admitting that your problem is bigger than yourself. And I think having a sponsor to help you through is a huge part of why these programs work. I have never been through a 12-step process but I know a few people who have done it for alcohol and it works for them (I know, survivorship bias etc.)

vkou 8y ago
> In practice, given a person who wants to get clean, what works better than a 12-step program? For some people, it's fixing whatever drove them to a situation where shooting heroin into their arm is a better decision then not shooting heroin their your arm. For other people, it's switching a dependency on a street drug to a dependency on a prescription drug. Telling people that they have zero agency in their lives, and that only Jesus can magically cure them - definitely works for some people, but not for everyone. AA has a success rate of, depending on which study you cite, between 5% and 25%, over doing nothing.
DanBC 8y ago
We know that people with an opioid addiction need a medically assisted treatment programme for any real chance of sucess. The evidence base for 12 step programmes isn't great. Unfortunately the US has a load of wilderness-retreat style camps using some half-assed version of a 12 step program. They're very good at getting people's money and attention, but pretty poor at sucessful treatment. Beth Macey has a good book about the Opioid Crisis and some of it is alarming. https://www.amazon.com/Dopesick-Dealers-Doctors-Company-Addicted/dp/0316551244/ https://www.amazon.com/Dopesick-Dealers-Doctors-Company-Addi...

vkou 8y ago

> In practice, given a person who wants to get clean, what works better than a 12-step program? For some people, it's fixing whatever drove them to a situation where shooting heroin into their arm is a better decision then not shooting heroin their your arm. For other people, it's switching a dependency on a street drug to a dependency on a prescription drug. Telling people that they have zero agency in their lives, and that only Jesus can magically cure them - definitely works for some people, but not for everyone. AA has a success rate of, depending on which study you cite, between 5% and 25%, over doing nothing.

DanBC 8y ago

We know that people with an opioid addiction need a medically assisted treatment programme for any real chance of sucess. The evidence base for 12 step programmes isn't great. Unfortunately the US has a load of wilderness-retreat style camps using some half-assed version of a 12 step program. They're very good at getting people's money and attention, but pretty poor at sucessful treatment. Beth Macey has a good book about the Opioid Crisis and some of it is alarming. https://www.amazon.com/Dopesick-Dealers-Doctors-Company-Addicted/dp/0316551244/ https://www.amazon.com/Dopesick-Dealers-Doctors-Company-Addi...