The Surprising Failures of 12 Steps (The Atlantic, March 2013), details their atrocious success rates. I do not blame AA. A $42 BILLION industry has grown out of AA. The treatment centers preach AA as the only game in town so they keep sending people to AA and doctors keep sending patients to treatment and it’s a never-ending cycle. I blame the perversion of capitalism that cares more about profit and the resultant concentration of wealth than societal benefit at the expense of the workers and the middle class; in this instance, I blame the system that allows a few to get rich on the backs of the sick.
I blame society for stigmatizing substance abuse.
The abuser is not weak for lack of willpower nor blameless for having a disease — those unnecessary binaries are societal constructs.
A new paradigm is required.
Destigmatize substance abuse.
