9 reasons why Alcoholics Anonymous are no longer best option
Gabrielle Glaser is an American author and journalist. For three years she investigated to write the book Her Best-Kept Secret Why Women Drink — And How They Can Regain Control (Simon & Schuster, 2013). In early April 2015, The Atlantic published her article The irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymous. I took the following information from this text and I adapted it for write this note.
Versión en español: 9 razones por las cuáles Alcohólicos Anónimos no son la mejor opción
To Alcoholics Anonymous, if a patient fails to recover, is a person deeply flawed
What The Big Book, the Alcoholics Anonymous’s bible, says about it: “Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path The only ones who do not recover are people who can not or do not want to surrender himself to this simple program, usually are men and women incapable by nature of being honest with themselves. There are beings unfortunate as these. They are not guilty, it seems were born so by their nature are unable to understand and make a lifestyle which requires more rigorous honesty”.
There are more effective and different alternatives
Although few people seem to realize this, there are other options to stop drinking. These include prescription drugs and therapies with which patients learn to drink in a moderate way. And unlike Alcoholics Anonymous, there are methods based on modern science. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved three of those medications: antabuse, a drug that induces nausea and dizziness when taken with alcohol; acamprosate, which has proven useful in suppressing cravings; and naltrexone, which controls the consumption of alcohol.
It is difficult to keep track it to Alcoholics Anonymous records
Alcoholics Anonymous attend meetings but do not keep any record of the people attending them. They come and go, and, of course, are anonymous. As an organization, Alcoholics Anonymous has no real central authority. Meetings operate more or less in an autonomous way.
The success rate of Alcoholics Anonymous is unknown
No conclusive data on its effectiveness exist. In 2006, a research group health, Cochrane Collaboration, reviewed the available information and found that, “no experimental study clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of Alcoholics Anonymous to reduce alcohol dependence.” In this recent book “The Sober Truth: Debunking the Science Behind Bud 12-Step Programs and the Rehab Industry”, Lance Dodes, a retired Harvard Medical School psychiatrist, sets the actual rate of success of Alcoholics Anonymous somewhere between 5 and 8 percent.
Alcoholics Anonymous puts all the alcoholic’s in the same category
Alcoholics Anonymous was originally created to treat chronic illnesses or severe drinkers. But over time, coverage became more extensive. So much, so that today, for example, US judges need offenders to attend meetings after a DUI arrest (Driving under the influence). Twelve percent of the members of Alcoholics Anonymous are in this program by court order.
Alcoholics Anonymous conceive the alcoholism as a progressive disease that follows an inevitable path of destruction to the individual
A federally funded survey called the National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions showed, that nearly one-fifth of those who have had alcohol dependence go on to drink at low-risk levels with no symptoms of abuse. Furthermore, a recent survey of nearly 140,000 adults by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that nine out of 10 heavy drinkers are not dependent on alcohol and, with the help of a medical professional’s brief intervention, can change unhealthy habits.
To Alcoholics Anonymous there is no a middle ground: a person is either an alcoholic or is not
Today experts describe a variety of disease states. An estimated 18 million Americans suffer from some alcohol use disorder (term used in the latest edition of the diagnostic manual of the American Psychiatric Association; it replaces “alcohol abuse” and “alcohol”). Of these, only 15 percent are in the low end; the rest is in the range of mild to moderate. These last people have been largely ignored by researchers and clinicians. Both groups, chronic and moderate drinkers, need personalized treatment.
Alcoholics Anonymous was created when the knowledge of the brain was in its infancy
Alcoholics Anonymous offers a unique way to recovery: total abstinence from alcohol. The program instructs members to surrender their ego, accept that they are “powerless” over booze, make amends to those they’ve wronged, and pray. Alcoholics Anonymous focuses on behavioral change, not in the biological process of the disease, about which science has learned a lot.
On the Board of Alcoholics Anonymous, there are no professionals, either in the medical or mental health professions
There are no mandatory national certification exam for addiction counselors. The 2012 Columbia University report on addiction medicine found that, only six states required alcohol- and substance-abuse counselors to have at least a bachelor’s degree and that only one state, Vermont, required a master’s degree. Fourteen states had no license requirements whatsoever — not even a GED or an introductory training course was necessary — and yet counselors are often called on by the judicial system and medical boards to give expert opinions on their clients’ prospects for recovery.
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Author
Jorge Luis Alonso G. is a freelance journalist, editor and content creator based in Argentina (jorgealonso24@gmail.com).
