Is the AA model of treatment outdated?
The AA model is outdated. There are new treatment models that address today’s Addicrion needs. Don’t let any program bully you which is what AA does. Unless a person is certified or licensed all they can do is identify they have aubstance abuse issues.
Does AA or CBT work?
Actually, neither AA or CBT works very well, at least in getting people to quit drinking. AA’s effectiveness is abysmal, being no better than no treatment at all, and according to one study (Valiant), it is less effective than no treatment (3% effectiveness for AA vs 5% effectiveness for no treatment).
Are you looking for perfection in AA?
If you are looking for perfection in AA, keep looking. If you are finding perfection in what you are doing, keep looking. Best wishes to all! I’ve been sober almost 12 years. About 4 years ago I became more and more troubled by meetings, the constant self-abasement, the culty rhetoric, the falsehoods, the fear mongering.
Why do professionals send you to A.A?
Therapists and Counselors treat people with all sorts of serious and persistent mental illnesses so why do they recommend that clients with a drinking problem attend AA meetings?
The 12 steps include a focused system of change
Embedded in the “working” of steps are the elements of problem identification, change steps, and a program of maintenance. While a therapist may help you work on one problem, depression, or anxiety, the steps are a way of changing your thinking about life and all your problems.
Attending meetings helps creates a new set of friends that are clean and sober
One critical issue in recovery is relapse triggers; hanging out with your old drinking or drugging friends results in a high risk of relapse. Finding friends that do not drink and use requires a change. The more sober friends you make the more support you will have in staying sober.
Seeing others who have changed is very encouraging
When your therapist tells you that people can change and do recover, you may say yes some people do, but what about me? When you attend meetings and hear the stories of those who have turned their lives around it becomes easy to believe you can do this, especially with the help of people who have themselves recovered.
The longer you stay connected to therapeutic recovery the better the chances
Continuing to stay in treatment for up to two years has been shown to create better results. Most therapy programs will not cover or include two years of aftercare. A.A. while not professional treatment is a free or very low-cost way to continue to have “booster shots” of recovery for as long as you need them.
adrienne
AA was not the right plan for me, but I have to believe that there are people out there for whom this works. Otherwise it would not have been successful for so many years, right?
But I agree with you, I needed to feel like I had more control over my drinking than what AA told me that I did.
Caleb
AA is definitely one of the more recognizable names in help with alcohol dependency and addiction, butby no means does this mean that this will be the treatment plan that will work for you or that you even have to try.
susan
whether you should stay or leave depends on how much of a control you think you have over your sobriety.if you can handle things and need no more support constantly then you can stop but if you feel you need that constant little telling every now and then you should continue.
Rodney
I think that it is pretty silly to assume that if you do not choose to go to AA than you will die. Obviosly there are plenty of people in recovery who did not walk the AA syeps and they have not died but have thrived. This is the think that I hate the most about some of these programs that insist that there way is the only way.
Damien
I’ve been to AA before and although it is extremely helpful I have to concede that it can get overwhelming at times. There was a time when I wondered if the addiction I was overcoming would make me a permanent AA person. I was scared to be honest.
tonia miller
If you think that AA is not for you, then it’s not for you.
I can only say that from my own personal experience it saved my life.
I had a hard time getting to a meeting in the beginning, just becaus ei did not really think that I had a problem.
But after I started going to meetings out of curiosity, I learned that I did have a problem with drinking, and that it was affecting my life in many more adverse ways than I thought.
I will not say that AA is the only way, but it was the only way for me to get the help I needed in the way that I needed it..
A. Adams
you just have to go and see for yourself if this is right, it may have worked great for a friend and not so well fro you but that’s oaky. just because the first thing you try doesn’t work doesn’t mean that there is snot something that will, you just have to find the right shoe to fit