AA is Ruining the World
I was invited to the UK and Denmark to speak by harm reduction activists who are worried about the impact of AA and the 12 steps in their countries. Both Patrick O’Hare, who founded in Liverpool the organization now called Harm Reduction International, and Nanna Gotfredsen, founder and director of Copenhagen’s Street Lawyers, who run a clean needle program and other services for drug users and addicts, watch with alarm as the gains they have made dealing with addicts over previous decades erode. You see, both the British and the Danish governments are increasingly buying into the AA line that abstinence is the best and most achievable goal, both for individual addicts and for their nations. Daytona NA meetings in Daytona Beach, Port Orange, Holly Hill and Ormond.
Oddly, in Denmark, the newly-elected socialists are most susceptible to AA’s abstinence uber alles message, while in Britain it is David Cameron’s conservatives who seem to be swallowing the AA message hook, line and sinker. Politicians of all stripes tend to like magic bullet solutions, especially ones that hold out the promise that their constituents will stop taking drugs. Drinking is a thornier matter, since politicians and public health servants themselves drink, and the issue there is obviously over-drinking. (Of course, in reality, drugs present the same problem.)
Here are four reasons AA is harmful and will hurt their societies.
AA denies reality. I present data generated by the American government’s own research showing that each age cohort after the 18-25 age group has a substantially lower percentage of problematic drinkers and drug users — including alcoholics and addicts. Yet, the large majority of former abusers do not enter treatment or join AA — they have simply “matured out.” Since the 12-step mantra is that substance use problems only grow worse without their intervention, AA members must deny this reality (“All the youthful drug users have died!”). I then ask how many members of the audience have quit smoking — which they acknowledge to be the hardest drug addiction to quit. Of the large number who raise their hands, I then ask how many did so due to medical treatment (e.g., nicotine gums and patches) or support groups. If 1 in 10 former smoking addicts present raise their hands, it’s a lot. Holly Hill Police complaints and Daytona Beach Police Complaints.
AA overemphasizes its own success. As these sorts of interactions reveal, AA-ers always overestimate their own role in recovery, both its pervasiveness (only their members quit) and their success rates. Although, in the latter case, not really. If you ask what percentage of people who attend AA stick with the program, AA-ers themselves will usually guess the correct 5-10 percent figure. Their argument is that those who depart are bound to fail altogether, since theirs is the only road to recovery. Within AA groups themselves, people who leave the program are ostracized by their former “soul mates” who predict — some might even say they hope for — the prodigals’ failure and demise. That is, unless they return to the fold. AA Daytona Meetings in Sunrise Park complaints.
AA rules out other, often more effective, approaches. AA is a jealous lover. A body of research has grown that investigates the efficacy of alcoholism and addiction therapies with names like motivational interviewing, life skills training, community reinforcement, brief interventions, harm reduction, etc. These therapies share a number of general characteristics relative to AA and its 12 steps: They are more pragmatic and impact addicts’ functioning and life situations, they often permit reduced or less unhealthy use in addition to abstinence, they tap into users’ personal value systems rather than imposing their own, and they don’t rely on a “higher power.” And they generally demonstrate greater success than AA (no clinical study of AA has ever found it superior to any alternative offered to randomly selected alcoholics). And how do AA-ers feel about such alternatives? Disinterest is probably too positive a way to describe their reaction.
AA’s underlying temperance message actually creates alcoholism and addiction. The American temperance movement anticipated every aspect of the 12-step approach (keep this in mind when reviewing Ken Burns’ documentary on Prohibition). These include the claims that drinking problems inevitably progress to death or other forms of self-destruction, the permanence and irreversibility of human substance abuse problems (which in turn leads to the fixation on abstinence and disbelief in moderation), the need for divine intervention and the reliance on God and a higher power, etc.
But this type of black-and-white thinking is actually associated with the greatest drinking problems — think Irish-style versus Italian-style drinking. (Pat O’Hare, with his Irish and Liverpool background, says with amazement, “In my 12 years in Rome, I never saw a drunk person — not even a tipsy one.”) In other words, the cultural outlook underlying the 12-step model is the one likely to lead to the most excessive drinking/alcoholism/addiction. This is particularly true when, in the same society — as is true in contemporary America — people are ubiquitously exposed to the very intoxicants whose use they are taught that they are incapable of controlling. Consider that a higher percentage of American youth disapprove of those 18 and older having 1-2 drinks daily than disapprove of weekend binge drinking. AA Meetings in Holly Hill Sunrise Parks not paying rent and smoking.
The ascendance of AA and the 12 steps in the UK, Denmark and elsewhere in the world won’t be associated with greater abstinence or relief from addictive problems (has it had that effect in the U.S.?). It is a self-fulfilling philosophy — that is, its own failures feed its claims for its own necessity (ask someone in AA if the rate of alcohol and other substance use problems has declined or increased in America since AA was formed in 1935). Most important of all, the 12-steps deprive people — societies — of the belief in their own ability to manage substance use. And this loss of personal efficacy is not likely to be a good thing in the coming century. Holly Hill Commissioner John Penny running for Mayor.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stanton-peele/problems-with-aa_b_989832.html?
I really like what Stanton has to say. His books really helped me and were so welcome after AA, which was so depressing. I really like his new book which uses techniques similar to ones that also helped me. I just read Love and addiction which was his first book and is now out on Kindle. It is well ahead of its time.
Even though Stanton Peele has been around awhile I really do think the anti-AA ers and those supporting other 12 step options have put more of a spotlight on him. I am really glad to see him getting more attention in the media, and he seems to be out there more in social media and writing articles.
From Stinkin Thinkin http://www.stinkin-thinkin.com
Recover! Stop Thinking Like an Addict
By ilse on January 11, 2014
The book I have been working on with Stanton Peele will be released on February 4th, 2014. Recover! is now available for resale on Amazon and at my friend’s bookstore, St. Johns Booksellers, in Portland, OR.
Recover-
Reviews are in!
Recover! goes well beyond brainless, mindless, and choiceless approaches to addiction. Dr. Stanton Peele’s work offers hope for mindful, practical, and liberating addiction treatment and self-help.
–Harold J. Bursztajn, M.D., Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Co-Founder, Program in Psychiatry and the Law at BIDMC Psychiatry of Harvard Medical School
12-step treatment worsened my addiction to the point that I nearly died of withdrawal. Stanton Peele’s books saved my life by showing me that I was not powerless and did not need to be rescued by a “Higher Power.” For a step-by-step guide on how to overcome addiction I most highly recommend Dr. Peele’s new book Recover!
–Kenneth Anderson, MA, Founder and CEO of HAMS Harm Reduction for Alcohol
In Recover!, Stanton Peele and Ilse Thompson offer a blueprint to help addicts cope with their triggers, from loneliness and feeling unworthy, anxious, and overwhelmed. Recover! focuses on what’s right in the addict’s life, and adding to it. It’s a hopeful, tangible set of tools designed to give power back to the addict—not give it up.
–Gabrielle Glaser, author of The New York Times bestseller Her Best-Kept Secret: Why Women Drink—And How They Can Regain Control
“I am a recovering addict” was the way someone introduced himself to me on my first visit to the USA. He explained he had been in recovery for the past 25 years. The irrationality, helplessness and disempowerment inherent in this statement shocked me. This is what the disease model of addiction does to people. I am in agreement with Stanton Peele that people are not powerless or helpless in the face of dependence on drugs, and the evidence supports this view. This book dispels that, and other myths about drugs. Stanton has come up with another must-read book.
–Professor Pat O’Hare, co-founder and former director of Harm Reduction International
At a time when addiction is being trumpeted as a “brain disease,” Peele slashes through the hyper-medicalized rhetoric to get to the human core of addiction and recovery. This acutely insightful and compassionate book is required reading for anyone struggling with an overwhelming habit.
–Sally Satel, MD, co-author of Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience; lecturer, Yale University School of Medicine
Stanton Peele’s insistence that addiction is not a disease, but a symptom of dysfunctional societies, families, and/or psyches is compelling, compassionate, and almost certainly correct. In Recover!, his most impressive work to date, he lays out a program—both utterly simple and profound—that will quite literally save lives by addressing the root causes of addiction rather than pathologizing its many manifestations.
–Christopher Ryan, Ph.D. & Cacilda Jethá, M.D., authors of The New York Times bestseller Sex at Dawn
In his latest book, Recover!, pioneering addiction expert Dr. Stanton Peele moves on to exciting new ground by providing practical advice and tools for dealing with addiction, based on Buddhist-inspired mindfulness techniques. It is essential reading for those who want to understand the reality of addiction and ways it can be effectively addressed. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to move on from their own addiction or is supporting someone else to overcome their addiction.
–Julian Cohen, author of Drugs and Young People: Essential Information and Advice for Parents and Professionals
For decades, Stanton Peele has been at the forefront of the battle to understand addictions and eliminate the twin myths that addicts are powerless over their addictions and that they have a lifelong “brain disease.” In Recover! he has taken another crucial step toward freeing us from these prejudicial, disempowering misconceptions while truly helping people suffering with addiction.
–Lance Dodes, M.D., Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School (Retired); co-author, The Sober Truth: Debunking the Bad Science Behind 12-Step Programs and the Rehab Industry
Recover! is Stanton Peele’s most comprehensive workbook. It provides an astonishing array of resources, neatly organized into accessible and sensible tasks, and a final chapter for coping with unexpected problems. In this book you will find guidance on everything you need to address in recovery. Peele writes as if he were a close friend, explaining important concepts carefully and with genuine concern that you truly understand them. You can relax and soak up what he says, feeling your perspective and life change with each sentence. He doesn’t tell you what to do, but shows you the tasks that need to be accomplished and gives you options for moving forward. Many readers may well emerge from this book and think, “I knew that!” True enough, but only after reading Peele, who masterfully re-connects us with our own wisdom.
–Tom Horvath, Ph.D., ABPP; President, SMART Recovery® and Practical Recovery; Past President, American Psychological Association’s Division on Addictions
Stanton Peele’s writing has been a Copernican paradigm shift in the field of recovery. With his Diseasing of America, Peele emerged as a savvy provocateur with the guts to take on the recovery establishment. With Recover! Peele shares his clinical wisdom and compassion with those who are on the path of change and self-acceptance. Recover! is a recovery program of practical perfection without the typical recovery perfectionism.
–Pavel Somov, Ph.D., author of Lotus Effect and Eating the Moment: 141 Mindful Practices to Overcome Overeating One Meal at a Time
Recover! is a powerful new tool for helping people with addictions heal and grow. Dr. Stanton Peele is a trailblazer who has led each new progressive wave in the addictive behaviors field since the 1970s. Today, Dr. Peele is a leading voice for a new shift in the field, one that refutes the myth that addicted people are victims of a permanent disease that they can arrest only by accepting their powerlessness and lifelong abstinence. Recover! is a how-to guide to recovery through cultivating mindful awareness and self-compassion. The book introduces Stanton’s PERFECT Program, a creative blend of ideas and practical strategies for leaving addiction behind while creating the life you want. Inspiring, hopeful, and a good read as well.
–Andrew Tatarsky, PhD, author, Harm Reduction Psychotherapy: A New Treatment for Drug and Alcohol Problems; Director, Center for Optimal Living, NYC
Probably the world’s most notable figure in addiction studies, Stanton Peele has written another great book. Recover! really is a self-help book. Unlike most of what you read, it teaches you to help yourself, rather than telling you to rely on a treatment system because helping oneself is impossible. Stanton’s work assisted my recovery many years ago, and he can help you now.
–Peter Ferentzy, Ph.D., author of Dealing with an Addict: What You Need to Know if Someone You Care for Has a Drug or Alcohol Problem
Stanton Peele knows more about addiction than anyone in the world. Every one of his books is a masterpiece. So is this one. The materials in this book are factual, inspiring and helpful for anyone making for change on their own. If you need additional help, take this book to a good therapist. Ask them to help you apply Peele’s materials. You will be very happy with the results!
–Robert M. Muscala, R.N., Addiction/Chemical Health Specialist, Minnesota
In the midst of the turbulence about defining and dealing with addiction, Stanton Peele has consistently articulated one of the few sane voices. Increasingly, research has proved that he is right. Recover! continues and extends his presence at the forefront of advice and help based on common sense and efficacy for those struggling with addiction.
–Liese Recke, Manager of Clinical Treatment, Oslo Norway, and former addict
http://stinkin-thinkin.com/2014/01/11/recover-stop-thinking-like-an-addict-and-reclaim-your-life-from-addiction/