12 steps work great for a lot of people, but we need to be careful not to push the narrative that it's a cure-all for addiction. 12 steppers often act like it i

12 steps work great for a lot of people, but we need to be careful not to push the narrative that it's a cure-all for addiction. 12 steppers often act like it is and blame the addict for not trying hard enough if the 12 steps don't work for them. The latest research shows that at best it works for 1/3 of addicts/alcoholics. This makes sense since mental illness is complicated and we wouldn't expect a single treatment to work for everybody. What we really need is better research to develop treatment methods that don't require people to essentially join a new religion and devote 5-10 hours of volunteer participation for the rest of their lives (I think it's understandable that not everyone wants to adopt this lifestyle). I fear that the "12 steps for everybody" model of addiction treatment gets in the way of that.