12-Step Horror Stories: True Tales of Misery, Betrayal, and Abuse in AA, Na, and 12-Step Treatment
Editor Fransway pulls away the veil concealing the ugly side of 12-step groups with true-life tales from that dark side. Usually seen as a helping hand to alcoholics, drug addicts, overeaters, smokers, survivors of childhood sexual abuse, and others, 12-step groups can be ineffectual and even harmful to some. A satiric 12-step glossary seemingly written in acid precedes the contributors' accounts of rejection, betrayal, cultlike brainwashing, and even rape experienced in 12-step programs. Some of the purportedly spiritual groups, based on the notion of a loving "higher power," have apparently condoned any number of questionable practices. Those include routine denunciation by a group of individual members' anger as being "nonspiritual," regardless of circumstances; a rigidly collective approach that put one contributor into a psych ward; and exploitation of newcomers' vulnerability, as in the case of the contributor who was raped. In an age when multitudes dance the 12-step, these words of warning may help many avoid its pitfalls.Whitney ScottCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved