What are the Innovative Alcoholism Treatments that are Available Today?
Are there any innovative alcoholism treatments available today that can actually work better than those of the past?
The history of treating alcoholism basically starts with AA. Before that, they just locked people up, threw them into asylums, and so on. There was no real help for the alcoholic.
AA came along and changed all that. Now, recovering alcoholics could come together, and help each other. This was definitely innovative over the past. This was progress.
In our modern day world, however, AA is sort of lagging behind a bit. It has failed to innovate or change itself, in any way. It remains stuck, and stubborn. The advocates of AA claim that it will work for anyone who really wants it, but so very few succeed in AA. Most drop out after one year, something like 87 percent of everyone who goes to an AA meeting leaves within a year and never comes back.
If that is really our best solution, then that is pretty horrifying. Almost 90 percent just walk away from it, reject it outright.
Could this really be the fault of the alcoholic? Could this really be put entirely on the drunk, and the rest of us just brush our hands and say “well, they don’t want it bad enough?”
Simply saying “If you wanted it bad enough, you would be willing to do anything, and you would make AA work for you” is a fallacy. That logic can be used to justify any solution. So it is bogus. Just because AA works for 2 percent of everyone who tries it does not mean it is the best solution.
If we are going to innovate then that means we have to look at NEW solutions. It means that we have to experiment and try new things. The success rate of AA is deplorable, and it certainly nothing to brag about.
People have come to this website before and complained that a message that is slightly against AA is “killing people” and that I should take such messages down. Ridiculous! AA only retains 13 percent of new members! Almost 90 percent reject it outright! Of those who stay, a certain percentage live in constant relapse mode! It is only successful for about 3 percent or so!
I would think we should steer people away from something with such a spectacularly high failure rate. You want to kill some people, then send them to AA, where only 13 percent will “stick and stay,” and only 3 percent make it to 2 years sober. Sheesh. Give me a break here people. Your “solution” is pretty much awful.
So what is the answer? I think the pendulum is swinging back the other way, toward people helping themselves. Dependence on a group is not necessarily a good thing. Dependence on daily meetings is not exactly a sign of strength. People who find success in recovery eventually find that they are recovering based on personal growth and development, not based on daily meeting attendance. Those who rely on meetings to keep them sober eventually relapse or find a better solution.
AA would claim that “the solution is in the steps” and in finding God, but this is actually shorthand for saying “figure out how to deal with your alcoholism yourself, without relying on the group every day to do it.” Some people may do this through a connection with a higher power (which is arguably a mental construct), or they may do it through a more holistic approach (such as with daily exercise, etc.).
Certainly the addict or alcoholic has to change something, and they need to do it fast. And they need to do it BIG. Just making small changes in the life of the alcoholic does not work. Long term treatment is an interesting idea, and somewhat more powerful than traditional rehab models. Especially interesting are self sufficient long term rehabs, where the recovering alcoholics support the house that they live in.
You want innovative treatment, then focus on personal growth. Everything else is just details.
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