Comments on: AA and the Treatment Center Industry http://www.spiritualriver.com/aa-and-the-treatment-center-industry/ Non-traditional recovery from addiction Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:09:53 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: andrew parkhttp://www.spiritualriver.com/aa-and-the-treatment-center-industry/comment-page-1/#comment-94998 andrew park Sun, 06 Mar 2011 18:35:50 +0000 http://www.spiritualriver.com/?p=3356#comment-94998 Everyone is missing the incredibly obvious point. AA IS NOT PROFESSIONAL TREATMENT-IT IS NOT TREATMENT PERIOD!!! IT IS A SELF-HELP PROGRAM. Everyone from NIDA to intake Counselor is unaware of this. PLEASE do not use the word treatment when you use AA!!! It is this way because the fellowship and the field ,were born at the same time. The field owes a great deal to Bill's "people" then. We had no profession to speak of, so AA members were the only ones who seemed to have knowledge of them and help connect them to medical help. That was 70 years ago!! Since then we have done a lot of work and research that has given us more than a basic set of treatments that are effective. We just do not know our life without the inappropriate incorporation of AA's non- professional treatment philosophy. It is not AA's fault or responsibility for this now. It is all of us from NIDA and Hazelden pushing 12 step facilitation groups instead of SELF-HELP FACILITATION GROUPS-WHERE ALL OF THE GROUPS CAN BE PRESENTED, LITERATURE, CONTACT VENUES LIKE THE INTERNET, ENGAGING SPEAKERS FROM ALL GROUPS, and counseling staff not being able to separate personal value systems and professional ethical demands, and finally the program administrators who market, announce and state "WE ARE A 12 STEP BASED TREATMENT PROGRAM"--those are the ones needing to look at this. Also state and government regulatory agencies not ,actively screening-reviewing programs for their PROFESSIONAL content of service. I am a LCSW with 9 Addiction Credentials. I am a member of the club for 28 years and professional for 25. Currently I continue my Addiction Focused Psychotherapy Practice in Manhattan and for the last 18 years I manage the NFL's drug program for the 9 teams in the Northeast. Last; until 2009, I was Clinical Manager of the largest comprehensive treatment program at Beth Israel Medical Center in NYC. I train, write and teach. I need your feedback and input to help us get past this. Thanks Andy Park. Everyone is missing the incredibly obvious point. AA IS NOT PROFESSIONAL TREATMENT-IT IS NOT TREATMENT PERIOD!!! IT IS A SELF-HELP PROGRAM. Everyone from NIDA to intake Counselor is unaware of this. PLEASE do not use the word treatment when you use AA!!! It is this way because the fellowship and the field ,were born at the same time. The field owes a great deal to Bill’s “people” then. We had no profession to speak of, so AA members were the only ones who seemed to have knowledge of them and help connect them to medical help. That was 70 years ago!! Since then we have done a lot of work and research that has given us more than a basic set of treatments that are effective. We just do not know our life without the inappropriate incorporation of AA’s non- professional treatment philosophy. It is not AA’s fault or responsibility for this now. It is all of us from NIDA and Hazelden pushing 12 step facilitation groups instead of SELF-HELP FACILITATION GROUPS-WHERE ALL OF THE GROUPS CAN BE PRESENTED, LITERATURE, CONTACT VENUES LIKE THE INTERNET, ENGAGING SPEAKERS FROM ALL GROUPS, and counseling staff not being able to separate personal value systems and professional ethical demands, and finally the program administrators who market, announce and state “WE ARE A 12 STEP BASED TREATMENT PROGRAM”–those are the ones needing to look at this. Also state and government regulatory agencies not ,actively screening-reviewing programs for their PROFESSIONAL content of service. I am a LCSW with 9 Addiction Credentials. I am a member of the club for 28 years and professional for 25. Currently I continue my Addiction Focused Psychotherapy Practice in Manhattan and for the last 18 years I manage the NFL’s drug program for the 9 teams in the Northeast. Last; until 2009, I was Clinical Manager of the largest comprehensive treatment program at Beth Israel Medical Center in NYC. I train, write and teach. I need your feedback and input to help us get past this. Thanks Andy Park.

]]> By: Taylorhttp://www.spiritualriver.com/aa-and-the-treatment-center-industry/comment-page-1/#comment-54208 Taylor Wed, 03 Mar 2010 07:07:12 +0000 http://www.spiritualriver.com/?p=3356#comment-54208 The wish of helping more alcoholics than only one is really a great service that must be congratulated and respected. Nice sharing of great life saving information here. My best wishes for more success. The wish of helping more alcoholics than only one is really a great service that must be congratulated and respected. Nice sharing of great life saving information here.
My best wishes for more success.

]]> By: grittyhttp://www.spiritualriver.com/aa-and-the-treatment-center-industry/comment-page-1/#comment-54110 gritty Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:26:35 +0000 http://www.spiritualriver.com/?p=3356#comment-54110 Having been in and out of the various 12 step fellowships for years now; and in and out of various rehabilitation centers it is my opinion that both AA and the drug addiction treatment industry are in need of change. I disagree completely with the notion that old timers should dominate meetings in which newcomers are discouraged from talking because they have not memorized the big book and amassed long lengths of sober time. The majority of old timer AA's that I have met are miserable, preachy, and intolerant to two growing demographics?/types of addicts/alcoholics; those with co-occurring mental disorders and addiction issues, and those with problems with drugs as well as alcohol. I have personally been shunned at meetings for having both of those issues, more often than not. AA like any other institution needs to be open to rather than resistant to change if it hopes to grow and flourish. The twelve steps, straight from the book, gone through with a sponsor are what got me sober this time. I have done this with a laundry list of serious mental illnesses (which often in AA are chalked up to "quack doctors pushing legal drugs"), and serious issues with drugs as well as alcohol (which I have been told have no place in a meeting for "real alcoholics"). I have found that fellowships like CA are more progressive, attractive and welcoming due to the lack of singleness of purpose (the most important difference between CA and AA is the destruction of that ego driven "singleness of purpose" taken to the extreme". Addiction is addiction, the substance is irrelevant and the abuse of alcohol and or drugs are symptoms of the same underlying issue. I would personally like to see either an addition to the big book, or an entirely separate piece of literature addressing the modern advances in the medical/psychiatric fields in regards to the prevalence of mental disorders that require outside treatments among addicts, and other advances in the understanding of addiction that have come about since the 40's and 50's. I am not knocking the program by any means, but like anything run by human beings who are highly fallible, and often deathly afraid of change; AA will I'm pretty sure be forced to change in the near future, and hopefully its in the right ways and for the better. I think that regressing in the face of change is a horrible idea; i hope that wasn't too much of an incoherent rant. Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts. ~Arnold Bennett~ Having been in and out of the various 12 step fellowships for years now; and in and out of various rehabilitation centers it is my opinion that both AA and the drug addiction treatment industry are in need of change. I disagree completely with the notion that old timers should dominate meetings in which newcomers are discouraged from talking because they have not memorized the big book and amassed long lengths of sober time. The majority of old timer AA’s that I have met are miserable, preachy, and intolerant to two growing demographics?/types of addicts/alcoholics; those with co-occurring mental disorders and addiction issues, and those with problems with drugs as well as alcohol. I have personally been shunned at meetings for having both of those issues, more often than not. AA like any other institution needs to be open to rather than resistant to change if it hopes to grow and flourish. The twelve steps, straight from the book, gone through with a sponsor are what got me sober this time. I have done this with a laundry list of serious mental illnesses (which often in AA are chalked up to “quack doctors pushing legal drugs”), and serious issues with drugs as well as alcohol (which I have been told have no place in a meeting for “real alcoholics”). I have found that fellowships like CA are more progressive, attractive and welcoming due to the lack of singleness of purpose (the most important difference between CA and AA is the destruction of that ego driven “singleness of purpose” taken to the extreme”. Addiction is addiction, the substance is irrelevant and the abuse of alcohol and or drugs are symptoms of the same underlying issue. I would personally like to see either an addition to the big book, or an entirely separate piece of literature addressing the modern advances in the medical/psychiatric fields in regards to the prevalence of mental disorders that require outside treatments among addicts, and other advances in the understanding of addiction that have come about since the 40′s and 50′s. I am not knocking the program by any means, but like anything run by human beings who are highly fallible, and often deathly afraid of change; AA will I’m pretty sure be forced to change in the near future, and hopefully its in the right ways and for the better. I think that regressing in the face of change is a horrible idea; i hope that wasn’t too much of an incoherent rant.

Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.
~Arnold Bennett~

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