Archive for the ‘12 Step’ Category
AA Isn’t the Best Solution: Alternatives for Alcoholics
No Comments
Building on an essay in Wired magazine by Brendan Koerner, New York Times conservative columnist David Brooks lauds to the sky AA and its founder, Bill Wilson. Both Brooks and Koerner point out the worldwide spread of AA (although it is limited mainly to the U.S. and like-minded countries), and the spread of the 12 steps to nearly all areas of behavior change, indeed, to how we approach social problems of all sorts.
Battling the booze how aa does the trick
No CommentsIn a special issue devoted to the 20th century, Time magazine selected 100 “Heroes and Icons” who exemplified “courage, selflessness, exuberance, superhuman ability and amazing grace”. One of those people was Bill Wilson.
His name may not be familiar to many, but Bill W — as he liked to be known — has changed the lives of millions of people, many of whom were born after his death in 1971.
New Empirical Model Quantifies And Gauges An Alcohol Addict’s Level Of Engagement In AA-Related Helping
No CommentsMaria Pagano, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, has established an empirical model to quantify and gauge an alcohol addicts’ level of engagement in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)-related helping (AAH). The instrument validity study, “Running Head: Service to Others in Sobriety,” is published in the spring 2010 issue of Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly.
This study is a natural extension of Dr. Pagano’s 2004 study, “Helping others in Alcoholics Anonymous and drinking outcomes: Findings from Project MATCH,” published in the Journal of Studies on Alcoholism (65, 766-773).The study involved 1,726 treatment-seeking alcoholics in Project MATCH. In this study, Dr. Pagano demonstrated that AAH cut the risk of relapse in half in the year following discharge.
The Future of AA, NA and Other Recovery Mutual Aid Organizations
No CommentsAddiction recovery mutual aid societies have played a significant role in the resolution of severe alcohol and other drug problems throughout the world and have exerted a particularly profound influence on the professional treatment of addiction (Humphreys, 2004; White, 2004). The purpose of this article is to discuss five current contextual influences that will influence the future of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA), and other addiction recovery mutual aid groups. First, we will place that future within its historical context.
Drug users’ voices must be heard in the battle against addiction
No CommentsThe chance to recover through abstinence-based residential programmes should be offered in jail – the place where most addicts go sooner or later:
I was humbled by the many people who contacted me about my last column, in which I labelled the way our government keeps drug-addicted people on controlled methadone prescriptions as a human rights abuse. As usual, however, the voices of the service users could barely be heard above the loud certainty of the service providers.
I believe everyone should be given the chance to recover from addiction, preferably through abstinence-based residential programmes, and there is no better opportunity to do this than in that huge residential institution where most addicts go sooner or later: jail.
