Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Why does AA work?
Interesting piece in Wired about Alcoholics Anonymous, describing it as the best available treatment, but still one that fails for more people than it helps. And we don't yet know why.
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Although I haven't yet read the article- I can already tell you why AA doesn't always work. AA is geared towards religious types who tend to believe that their faith and a few steps, that only drudge up old pain, are all it takes to quit. That is False. You must really want to quit and quit for good. Then make it happen. Easier said than done, but can be done. You have to believe in yourself. That is the most important element.
ReplyDeleteHello, Anonymous. Were you purposely anonymous? The blogger interface seems to make it easy to be accidentally anonymous. :)
ReplyDeleteI found this article interesting precisely because the surrender yourself to God and the group aspects of AA are the ones I think I would find difficult, and yet some people clearly get a lot out of them. Also I note that AA, while spiritual, is pretty nonspecific bland unthreatening about it.
Anyway, one hears a lot about how great AA is...it's important to realize the very real and large limits to its effectiveness. Maybe by analyzing it we could figure out systems that work for the rest of the population.