Self Help Groups

By the end of January, plenty of New Year's resolutions have been broken. For those who have ignored pledges to hit the gym every day, or stay away from "American Idol," a broken resolution is little more than an annual defeat of the will. But for people trying to get their alcohol problem under control, a broken resolution can have devastating consequences. Alcoholics Anonymous, with 2 million members worldwide, is the largest organization people turn to when they recognize they have a drinking problem. But the religious overtones in AA's famous "12 Steps" — with their focus on God and the powerlessness of the individual — can be jarring to those whose vision of faith differs from AA's.

The effects of taking one drug are not doubled when two supposedly similarly reacting substances are taken. The only possible answer when you add alcohol to another drug is ‘unpredictable’. The effects of drugs taken together can be very different from when they are  taken individually.

A national survey of mutual-aid support groups for addiction was conducted to identify key differences between participants in recovery groups. Religious respondents were more likely to participate in 12-Step groups and Women for Sobriety. Non-religious respondents were significantly less likely to participate in 12-Step groups. Religiosity had little impact on SMART Recovery participation, but actually decreased participation in SOS.

Mutual support (also called self-help) groups are an important part of recovery from substance use disorders (SUDs). Groups exist both for persons with an SUD and for their families or significant others. This issue of Substance Abuse in Brief Fact Sheet will help healthcare and social service providers understand the effect of mutual support groups on recovery, become familiar with the different types of mutual support groups available, and make informed referrals to such groups.

It is time we made a thorough investigation of Alcoholics Anonymous in the interest of our public health. A.A. is identified in the public mind as a God-fearing fellowship of 350,000 "arrested alcoholics" who keep one another sober and rescue others from the horrors of alcoholism. Unfortunately, A.A. has become a dogmatic cult...

Active involvement in groups significantly improves the chances of remaining clean and sober, regardless of the group (SOS, SMART, WFS, 12-step) in which one participates. Respondents whose individual beliefs better matched those of their primary support groups showed greater levels of group participation, resulting in better outcomes as measured by increased number of days clean and sober.

I realise that AA provided a place of safety for many people who, if they had carried on in the same way, would have drunk themselves into prison, a psychiatric hospital, or even a premature grave, although there will be others like me who faced the same fate, as a result of finding the AA doctrine completely unacceptable.

The A.A. failure rate ranges from 95% to 100%. Sometimes, the A.A. success rate is actually less than zero, which means that A.A. indoctrination is positively harmful to people, and prevents recovery.

When Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step programs are examined in controlled studies, scientists find no proof that they are superior to any other intervention in reducing alcohol dependence or alcohol-related problems.

Multiple article summaries and links from Google Answers.