General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Alcoholics Anonymous has a terrible success rate, addiction expert finds [View all]Andy823
(11,495 posts)But I don't know many who left, or would not attend because of the prayer at the end of the meeting. Sure there are other things that can work, but support groups of people who have gone through the problems of being an alcoholic help. For a lot of people I knew the problem with some of the other ways was that those who ran some of treatment programs had no idea of what addiction was like. They simply went to school and were told how to treat anyone that may come to them with an alcohol problem and that was the only way they knew how to treat alcoholics. Some of the court mandated programs in my area were with people who lumped everyone into the same group. If they were ordered by the courts to go, then they had to follow the program that was offered even if wasn't really working. Needles to say once their mandated time was up, they went right back to their addictions.
Myself I did alone until I went to AA. I really doubt that I would be going on 29 years of being sober today if I had not went. My years in college taking a course on addition treatment helped me considerably, that I will admit, but I was also taught by a man who had been an alcoholic and stressed that a combination of AA and treatment worked better than one or the other. Support groups work for many disorders and problems, and being around those who are going through the same things you are helps a lot.
The twelves step program really helps, but it's not pushed as the only way to sobriety, at least not at the meetings I went to. I was always told that your "higher power" was what you wanted it to be, it didn't have to be God.
Each person has to decide for themselves how to get the help they need, and then decide to stay on that path of sobriety, or go back to the way things were before. If someone went off the wagon in AA, they were welcomed back with open arms, no judgment was made on what they had did. On the other hand if you were court mandated to go to a out patient treatment program and fell off the wagon, you usually need up back in front of the judge, who was usually not to pleased with you.