4 ms·

It's noteworthy that all but one of the studies quoted in that meta-review were conducted in the United States. The usual criticism levied against AA is that it

It's noteworthy that all but one of the studies quoted in that meta-review were conducted in the United States. The usual criticism levied against AA is that it takes a religious approach, but that's not even true, it it built on evangelicalism. If you are in the US, you are either evangelical or you at least understand evangelicalism because that's what your friends and colleagues profess. You wonder how AA would fare in other countries, where their approach would meet with bafflement or hostility because the background is not understood.

filoleg 7y ago
Even in the US, it heavily depends on where you live. If you are in one of the big west coast cities, I would imagine you can observe a situation similar to Europe. I felt like that joke from one of the more recent seasons of Silicon Valley, where the episode revolved around one of the characters "being outed" as a christian, was very on point, from what I have personally observed both in SF and Seattle. A bit of background on the episode: one of the CEOs of partnered companies owned a gay dating site. No one had any concerns or issues with that, but as soon as some people found out that the CEO was christian, all hell broke lose and the following quote was dropped "You can put micro doses of LSD in your cereal and people will call you a pioneer. But the one thing you cannot be is a Christian." P.S. The show is obviously pretty tongue-in-cheek, no one seriously claims you cannot be Christian in those areas or that you would face hostility due to it. But people will definitely be questioning it a bit.
runarberg 7y ago
Another noteworthy aspect that is somewhat specific to the US is that AA is often the only available treatment that doesn’t add a significant financial burden on the patient. I can imagine that while one is dealing with substance abuse issues, adding the stress of figuring out how one will finance treatment might prove detrimental to the treatment. Note that I haven’t read this study (can’t access) so it might have to control for the effects of the cost of treatment.
dragonwriter 7y ago
> If you are in the US, you are either evangelical or you at least understand evangelicalism because that's what your friends and colleagues profess. That's very much not true. Evangelicals (even if one also includes Fundamentalists in that category which is wrong) are about half of US Protestants, which are in turn between just over a third and just under half of the population, depending on the specific study.
suifbwish 7y ago
What the hell is evangelicalism? Sounds like some kind of virus for the brain

filoleg 7y ago

Even in the US, it heavily depends on where you live. If you are in one of the big west coast cities, I would imagine you can observe a situation similar to Europe. I felt like that joke from one of the more recent seasons of Silicon Valley, where the episode revolved around one of the characters "being outed" as a christian, was very on point, from what I have personally observed both in SF and Seattle. A bit of background on the episode: one of the CEOs of partnered companies owned a gay dating site. No one had any concerns or issues with that, but as soon as some people found out that the CEO was christian, all hell broke lose and the following quote was dropped "You can put micro doses of LSD in your cereal and people will call you a pioneer. But the one thing you cannot be is a Christian." P.S. The show is obviously pretty tongue-in-cheek, no one seriously claims you cannot be Christian in those areas or that you would face hostility due to it. But people will definitely be questioning it a bit.

runarberg 7y ago

Another noteworthy aspect that is somewhat specific to the US is that AA is often the only available treatment that doesn’t add a significant financial burden on the patient. I can imagine that while one is dealing with substance abuse issues, adding the stress of figuring out how one will finance treatment might prove detrimental to the treatment. Note that I haven’t read this study (can’t access) so it might have to control for the effects of the cost of treatment.

dragonwriter 7y ago

> If you are in the US, you are either evangelical or you at least understand evangelicalism because that's what your friends and colleagues profess. That's very much not true. Evangelicals (even if one also includes Fundamentalists in that category which is wrong) are about half of US Protestants, which are in turn between just over a third and just under half of the population, depending on the specific study.

suifbwish 7y ago

What the hell is evangelicalism? Sounds like some kind of virus for the brain