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The steps are good advice and can be helpful for some people. That does not mean people who fail (80+% from the data I saw) are doing them wrong. Why is it so

• labrador 4y ago
  My steps aren't even Alcoholics Anonymous or about alcohol, although derived from what Bill W wrote. In my case, my personal step 7 to change was Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Dialectic Behavioral Therapy, Cognitive Processing Therapy and Jungian Therapy plus Psychiatric diagnosis and medication. Nothing about this negates the 12 steps I have outlined. Alcoholics Anonymous as it exists today is not what it used to be. It started out with people who had lost everything or were about to, people that society had given up on, "low bottom" drunks and the like, people who were desperate to stay alive like Bill himself. Today's AA I'm afraid after all the court ordered people and all the people who use it as a social club because their doctor told them that 4 glasses of wine a day was too much so they should stop. Well, it's too watered down for me and I don't go. I'm not surprised people think it doesn't work. If you want to test this, to a meeting and try to get people to try to talk about how the steps work in their lives and how they recovered and stop using their time as a gripe session and try to find sponsors who will stick to just taking you through the steps and not try to be your therapist. I've seen enough, but ymmv