- More worrying, I am afraid of what it would do to the War On Drugs. Right now one of the rallying cries for the anti-Drug War movement is “treatment, not prison”. And although I haven’t looked seriously at the data for any drug besides alcohol. I think some data there are similar. There’s very good medication for drugs, for example methadone and suboxone for opiate abuse, but in terms of psychotherapy it’s mostly the same stuff you get for alcohol. Rehabs, whether they work or not, seem to serve an important sort of ritual function, where if you can send a drug abuser to a rehab you at least feel like something has been done. Deny people that ritual, and it might make prison the only politically acceptable option.
This is an excellent article. It's interesting to those in addiction research -- but more so, anyone reading health research studies should check this article just to see -- the problems with published and republished studies. -- the interpretations and misinterpretations of data -- the way certain data is selected and other data ignored -- the differences in subjects (for example, in an AA study are they voluntary attendees or court-ordered) In addition, this piece is well-written and humorous. The author is impressive. Regarding AA As the author points out, if you want to quit drinking there are many ways to be successful. Anecdotally though, AA has been a life saver for a close friend of mine, but a lot was at stake and he really had to quit drinking.
Thanks for taking the time to read it. I've seen a lot of material on this subject and most comes off as just AA bashing. This piece seems unbiased and quite thoughtful for the reasons you mentioned. I'm glad your friend got their life back together through the program. Having been down that road myself I believe rehabilitation and anonymous support go hand in hand. Help aside, it's mostly on the individual whether they succeed or not. People have different ideas of sobriety. My biggest issue with AA was the absolute stubborness of their mission. You will follow all these steps and you will go to meetings for the rest of your life or you will die! My other issue was the cliqueness of it. Many I met in the program treated it like high school. A popularity contest. God help you if you became romantically involved with one of them. I'd say half the people I knew seemed addicted to the program itself. That left a bad taste in my mouth. They had replaced one addiction with another. I guess it's better than drugging and drinking yourself to death but it's still a compulsion that rules you. I cleaned myself up, rebuilt the life I'd destroyed, and moved on. AA played a part, but doctors and medicine is what saved my life. Different strokes I guess. The biggest thing I learned was not to judge people. Whatever works for the ones you love.
The makeup of the group and one's ability to connect with one's sponsor make a big difference.
The biggest thing I learned was not to judge people.
Indeed, and if they need meetings to keep them grounded then bravo to them for finding a way to stay grounded and connected to others. I know people who believe they need to meditate for two hours a day or their lives go to ratshit. They get unfocussed and fall into self-destructive behaviours.Thanks for taking the time to read it.
No, thank you for posting. One of my ever-changing rituals is to try to read one hubskthing early and contribute in some way. Now I must focus on the ever-expanding tasks at hand.
I agree with lil's points about the article. I wanted to share my own experience with AA and "recovery" based movements. I have no clear bias against it, but against users. As previously stated, my dad is a bad guy. He often took me to his AA meetings when we lived in East St. Louis. I sometimes had the opportunity to walk down the street and watch some kids LARP, but (not surprisingly), I found AA much more interesting. I never actually went into the meetings - I'm almost positive I wasn't allowed to (I never asked, so I don't know). Instead, I'd sit in a kitchenette area with an older black guy. I've either forgotten or never picked up his name, but he was your standard Cool Old Guy - AA has a lot of those. He was a nice guy, always very kind, got me a drink if I was thirsty, etc. Told stories. He wasn't always a nice guy. Turns out, drinking makes him a brute. But he was a good guy to me. The other AA guy I knew well (much better than COBG) was my dad's sponsor. Somehow, the shittiest person I've ever known, managed to get one of the best people I've ever known as his sponsor. He was always very proud of his place in AA, and he wouldn't have minded if I used his name: Herb. Herb was an Important Guy to the AA organization. I can't recall what specifically the letter was for, but he had framed in his house a flag that flew above the White House, and a letter of thanks from Bill Clinton (almost certainly signed by a real computer!). Younger me was more impressed with it than I would be now, but it was impressive. Even without, Herb was a great guy. He got my dad and I out of living in basements and into a very nice house in a nice part of Belleville, Illinois. It had a freshly remodeled interior, and Herb was going to put it on the market, but decided to rent it out to dad at an absurdly cheap price. He also got my dad a job, working as the Manager of an Auto Body shop - the exact job my dad had gotten fired from a few years before for embezzlement. Herb had some faults: he was too trusting, and he really liked younger women. I never saw him far from his 20-something year old girlfriend (at least the old guy was monogamous, I guess). But he was a good guy, and just like my dad does with everyone in his life, he ruined Herb. By the end of it, dad had done the same thing to Herb that he did to a large semi-truck sales/shop in So.Il. - embezzled money to the point where the shop closed. It ruined Herb, but my dad blamed it all on him. AA had done nothing for my dad, he'd simply used it to get more money for even more crack. I went to look for Herb's address/contact info a few months ago to apologize for my dad's actions and to thank him for what he did, but he died about two years ago. --- My overall point is that, AA is a group. You can replace it with other group therapy, a movie club, hell - even a drinking club. Recovery isn't about the group, it's about A group. I'm skeptical of AA, mainly because of how badly my dad failed - but it isn't their fault. He didn't want to get better, he didn't and doesn't care about anyone around him. That was his fault. Outside the occasional cigar, I don't smoke. Outside the occasional sip of whiskey followed by, 'that shit still sucks', I don't drink. I don't and have never smoked pot or any other drug (even after being offered it by my mother - out of fear - that's another story). I detest them, and I have serious trouble not hating people who use them. It's because I know where the long road ends, and it's not a good place. I don't believe in people's ability to control themselves once drugs/alcohol enter the equation, and thus, those who do use them, are (in my mind) irresponsible and looking to hurt everyone around them. It makes me a bit of a killjoy. But, when you consider all of my dad's shit, and the fact that one night of one chemical drug put my best friend in a month long coma, I'm perfectly fine with where I stand on them. I've often told my closest friends that if I ever saw them with a crack pipe, I'd lock them up in a cabin in the woods for a month to dry them out - that probably wouldn't be the best idea, but it is what I would do. I don't believe that recovery in it's current form is a valid thinking. I don't believe that prison is either. I'm torn between hating the crime and being unable to separate the person from it. Thankfully it's not up to me to have a valid opinion on it. Bottom line for me is, people who want to get better, can get better. And here ends your by-weekly rant from myself.
I get that you're coming from your personal experience, and with your personal experience your viewpoint is understandable. However, it still remains black and white, with nary a shade of gray. I do believe there is a place where one can drink, and even smoke a bit of weed from time to time, without being completely irresponsible and ruining a life. Not everyone who eats a slice of cake from time to time becomes obese. Not everyone who has a drink from time to time becomes an alcoholic or hurts those around them. Even the people who sometimes overindulge all night (party! let's eat cake, onion dip, AND damn those appetizers look great!) don't have to end up "at the end of the road."I have serious trouble not hating people who use them. It's because I know where the long road ends, and it's not a good place. I don't believe in people's ability to control themselves once drugs/alcohol enter the equation, and thus, those who do use them, are (in my mind) irresponsible and looking to hurt everyone around them.
I get that - and I feel bad for how I feel. I don't like seeing good people opened up to what I see as a danger. I probably see it that way because I know if I got hooked on something, I wouldn't have the will to get out of it.I get that you're coming from your personal experience, and with your personal experience your viewpoint is understandable. However, it still remains black and white, with nary a shade of gray. I do believe there is a place where one can drink, and even smoke a bit of weed from time to time, without being completely irresponsible and ruining a life.
To be honest? I used to completely not understand why people would drink, and certainly not why they would get drunk, at all either, and I'm sure look down on them for it as well. So I do get where you're coming from. My views have just changed a lot.
Love this article.Brief opportunistic intervention is the most trollish medical intervention ever, because here are all these brilliant psychologists and counselors trying to unravel the deepest mysteries of the human psyche in order to convince people to stop drinking, and then someone comes along and asks “Hey, have you tried just asking them politely?”. And it works.