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The Science of 12-Step Programs
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Since the inception of Alcoholics Anonymous — the progenitor of 12-step programs — science has sometimes been at odds with the notion that laypeople can cure themselves because the numerous spiritual references that go with the 12-step program puts A.A. on "the fringe" in the minds of many scientists. But there is an interesting read at National Geographic where Jarret Liotta writes that new research shows that the success of the 12-step approach may ultimately be explained through medical science and psychology. According to Marvin Seppala, chief medical officer at Hazelden and sober 37 years, attending 12-step meetings does more than give an addict warm, fuzzy feelings. The unconscious neurological pull of addiction undermines healthy survival drives, causing individuals to make disastrous choices, he says. "People will regularly risk their lives—risk everything—to continue use of a substance." Addicts don't want to engage in these behaviors, but they can't control themselves. "The only way to truly treat it is with something more powerful," like the 12 steps, that can change patterns in the brain. Philip Flores, author of Addiction as an Attachment Disorder, says the human need for social interaction is a physiological one, linked to the well-being of the nervous system. When someone becomes addicted, Flores says, mechanisms for healthy attachment are "hijacked," resulting in dependence on addictive substances or behaviors. Some believe that addicts, even before their disease kicks in, struggle with knowing how to form emotional bonds that connect them to other people. Co-occurring disorders, such as depression and anxiety, make it even harder to build those essential emotional attachments. "We, as social mammals, cannot regulate our central nervous systems by ourselves," Flores says. "We need other people to do that.""
The problem with 12 step programs isn't the people who they work for, the problem is that so often they are presented as the only option. Not everyone who has ever used any addictive substance has no control over themselves.Some people used them for different reasons, and those people are often forcefully pushed into these 12 step programs right along side the people who need them.
Most schools are trying to come to terms with the fact that people learn differently, when will treatment programs come to terms with the fact that people recover differently?
Step 0.5 is to stop drinking. They won't let you in if you are actively drinking at the moment, so they assume you have quit, even if it's one day sober (while not sober).
The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking. Anyone can go to meetings, sober or drunk, doesn't matter.
There is a lot of evidence to suggest that 12-step programs are nothing more than window-dressing. That they take credit for spontaneous remission - the percentage of people who just quit on their own.
For example, alcoholics have a spontaneous remission rate of roughly 5% - so if an AA program has a 5% success rate (including the people who give up on the program - the AA people don't like to count them) then AA is just a no-op.
Here's one of many analyses making the argument that 12-steppers are just bad at math.
http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-effectiveness.html
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Since there are tens of thousands of groups that are all different, I can't say that anything in particular is true of every group, but the book "Alcoholics Anonymous" tells us what it's designed to be. The book is abundantly clear. Drinking can be replaced by service to others. As I write this, I'm caring for a severely autistic young man while his parents are in church, instead of getting drunk with my brother. Here with me is my beautiful wife, who wouldn't have married me if I were still living like I used to. It works for me.