From: carnes@sparky.eecs.umich.edu (Richard Carnes)
Newsgroups: alt.recovery
Subject: Re: i do it for myself
Date: 27 Jul 92 20:50:58 GMT
Organization: University of Michigan EECS Dept., Ann Arbor

decio@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Gabriel Decio) writes:

>This is my first posting in this newsgroup.  I'm an ACoA, and I have
>read that in fact there are 12 step programs for ACoA's.  I have been
>in two groups led in a totally different way, though.  I don't know
>what I would have done if someone had told me that I had to admit I
>was powerless (that's what my father tried to make me believe all my
>life!) and that I couldn't do anything by myself (another preferred
>line by my father).
>
>As someone who does not have deities, I would have a serious problem
>admitting my powerlessness, since my recovery/discovery started the
>moment I realized I was powerful and could be in control.  How can I
>hand over the driver's seat to an entity that I don't even know
>exists?  That's pretty much like throwing the steering wheel out the
>window in the middle of the road.
>
>I mean this posting to be a friendly one.  I just do not understand
>how people with poor self-images and a devastating sense of
>powerlessness (over the self, that is) can enhance the very crux of
>their lives to seek recovery.

Gabriel, you put your finger on a real problem that many people have
with 12-step programs such as AA.  While the message of powerlessness
may be just what some people need to hear, it may be that what *you*
need to hear is quite different: that you are not a helpless plaything
of powerful forces and that it is within your power to make choices
that will turn your life in the direction you want it to go.

For *some* people, the dictum about powerlessness may promote
irresponsibility.  Let's say you have a drinking problem, moderate or
serious, and on some occasion you take that first drink.  Which is the
more helpful thought to think at that moment: "I am powerless against
alcohol; I am in the grip of a force against which struggle is
futile"; or "I want to stop drinking now, I can and I will"?

Other problems that *some* people have with twelve-steps groups:

* Related to point about powerlessness, for some people the groups may
undermine confidence by focusing on weaknesses instead of strengths.
Disaster is predicted for those who fail to follow the program or who
leave the group, which may then become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

* Some people experience them as religious, dogmatic, and close-minded
in nature, with true believers intent on making converts to the True
Religion.  Just as not everyone has to become a Christian to be saved,
not everyone has to follow a twelve-step program to recover.

* The groups teach that you are an addict for the rest of your life.
But some people need to be able to work toward the time when they can
say, "I am a *former* addict: I have left that life behind", and shed
the old identity.

* They tend to be focused on the addictive behavior and on the group
itself, at the expense of focusing on the quality of the members'
lives *outside* the group.

Programs like AA have evidently benefited many people and I have no
wish to take them away from anybody who finds them useful.  But what
concerns me is that there may be struggling people who read this
newsgroup or the popular press and get the message that AA and
twelve-step groups are The Answer; then if they go to some meetings
and find out that the group does not meet their needs, they may
conclude that they are hopeless cases or just rotten people.

Although I am certainly no expert on the subject, I don't know of any
scientific evidence that AA is the most effective treatment for
alcoholism.  In _Treating Addictive Behavior_ (1986), Miller and
Hester found that AA, Antabuse therapy, individual counseling, and
other approaches showed little evidence of effectiveness against
alcoholism, while the effective therapies included aversion therapy,
behavioral self-control training, marital and family therapy,
social-skills training, job skills, and stress management.  The most
effective therapy was found to be "community reinforcement", in which
a home and work environment was set up that discourages drinking and
drug use and that promotes the development of general life skills.  Of
course, this is only one study and not necessarily the gospel.

People are very diverse.  Everyone must find his or her own path.

Richard Carnes
Newsgroups: alt.recovery