Alcoholics Anonymous has a terrible success rate, addiction expert finds

[hollysmom]

139. I read the articles and here is why they are wrong

There is no real trace on AA because - get this - It is anonymous!!! They aren't going to talk to you. Of they are going by court ordered people, guess what!!!! they are not going of their free will.

I have been involved in that organization, I have seen people slip and recover - being an alcoholic is a life long thing, and a slip does not mean it is a failure. I have seen it work with an atheist - the god part is not a big deal, it can be defined as being inside you, your strength. Picking on little things is stupid. Now - does every group have the same success rate NO - every group is made up on individual. I have been in one group that did not work and that was pushing religion - here is the short answer - move on and find another group. I was in a group where it was the neighborhood joes and janes and super stars because it was just outside NYC. and everyone was just a people. And the success rate in that group was amazing except for the court ordered people who really did not want to be there and wanted to just gossip about others. Can I swear everyone is still off the sauce x many years later? no because I an divorced from the Alcoholic, so I don't go to AA anymore. I don't go to Al Anon either,I had a bit more trouble with religion in that group and a lot of people who attended there were more like attention whores in that they dissociated with their alcoholics decades before and attended and tride to run the group like their own social group. I don't think that is typical but I lived in a very religious neighborhood, so needed to get out of town. Seems like all the atheists attended AA.

Look the people writing this book have an agenda and a lot of AA and NA is less successful now because a lot of people in there don't want to be in there but the courts that do not support AA and NA send people to them all the time, flooding them with don't wanna bes. I have been to therapy, and found that therapists love what ever they specialized in, they are people too and tend to define your illness in terms they best understand, mine was living with an alcoholic and having every one (family/ friends/strangers/his employers) be mad at me when I tried to put some order in my life, but eliminating him or by limiting his damage. The only people who understood were the Al Anon and AA people, gave me the strength to move on which helped him to have the strength to get sober.


I also resented the part of the book that claimed people Proselytized - no they recommended something that worked for them, I never heard anyone say it was the only way for anyone, but the only way for them. What ever. I found the excerpts fromthe book to be selling their brand of snake oil.

AA is not the only way, but it is the way that worked for my ex, but failed my brother - yet my brother is stuck in his childhood blaming everyone else for his problem, been to rehab, been to a therapist who he said sided with his wife all the time. Had my brother had some support, AA would have been great for him to lean how to accept his own responsibility, no other way has reached him and he is in his 50's disabled with a wasted bitter life. At some time I expect him to move in here with me (really really don't want that - really!!!!) the constant bitterness over things he did to himself will kill me. I can only take it so long before I have to leave him where ever he is and go for a walk to clear my head.

Why can't this book sell it's own snake oil without discounting other people's help? There always needs to be more than on way,