Most people have had some experience, small or great, with substance abuse, whether it be with ourselves or loved ones. Most of us know what kind of pain and destruction it can wrought on our everyday lives. According to the Seventh Special Report to the U.S. Congress on Alcohol and Health (from 1990) alcohol has been linked with high incidence of violence and aggression more than any other drug. Alcohol is a key factor in up to 68 percent of manslaughters, at least 42 percent of rapes, 62 percent of assaults, 54 percent of murders and attempted murders, and more than 40 percent of robberies and burglaries. This being such a glaring detriment to our society, what efforts have been made to counteract it? Frighteningly, the numerous recovery group efforts have been for the most part lame and ineffective.However, even more alarming is the effort of the most prevalent group, Alcoholics Anonymous and various other 12-Step programs to blow up their rate of success. Twelve-step programs are the most common recovery programs used in the United States, and they also are the most guilty of boasting great success without evidence.Alcoholics Anonymous appears to be more interested in increasing membership than actually tackling the larger problem of substance abuse. It has been accused by numerous parties of using “cult-like” strategies in order to gain more membership and keep the membership they already have. The primary strategy accused is the convincing of members that they are powerless and that they need to submit to a “higher power.” The first and second steps state as such: “1.) We admitted we were powerless over alcohol (and drugs)-that our lives had become unmanageable. 2.) Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” AA also requires that members commit to lifelong regular AA meetings.Another concern most often noted by AA critics is AA’s double talk about the religious nature of their methods in order to get state funding. Five of the 12 steps explicitly mention “God,” “Him” is capitalized three times, “Power” also is capitalized and prayer is included in the 11th step. AA also is self-defined as a “fellowship” and has direct roots in a Christian organization called “The Oxford Group.” But AA defenders constantly tout that “AA isn’t religious. It’s spiritual.” in order to convince politicians and health department administrators to allow the 12-Step method to be used in tax-payer funded institutions.In the case of inmates convicted of alcohol and drug related crime often attendance at AA meetings is a requirement in order to lessen prison time or gain prisoner benefits. All over the country many inmates have sued and been upheld, claiming that such a requirement violates their Constitutional freedom. Former warden Rex Zent of Columbus also has said that even Christian, Muslim and inmates of other religions have found AA’s core philosophy to be in conflict with their religious beliefs. As a result several secular alternative recovery programs such as Rational Recovery have emerged, although it’s questionable whether their methods are not simply bias toward non-believers or that they are any more or less effective.As for AA effectiveness these results are very poor. A study of AA effectiveness by Harvard psychiatrist George Vaillant found that AA’s treatment was not any better than the natural history of the disease or rather, chance. Almost all meeting attendants drop out in the first month and AA themselves admit that only 50 percent of those who do not drop out stay sober for a year, and even less after five years. On top of that, the head of the Methodist Theological Seminary’s addiction counseling training program says that 85 percent of addicts who quit do so without aid of 12-Step programs.The proliferation of recovery programs which can not serve the needs of every individual and are not run with much or any professional psychiatric aid have become a placebo for substance abuse. Unless this very real threat to our society’s safety and quality of life is dealt with head on by families, communities, the commercial industry, professional health experts and politicians who care and truly desire to change things, it will continue to destroy numerous families and lives.
Martha Knox is a senior fine arts painting and drawing major and an anthropology minor from Medina, Ohio.