The Problem with Alcoholics Anonymous

There are several flaws or problems with alcoholics anonymous. First and foremost is that it is an incomplete approach to alcoholism. There is no denying that it does have many good benefits that are helpful to some people, but it is limited to a select few.

It offers emotional support, people you can relate to, a place to go to fill your time and feel connected to others, helps you reconnect with your morals and values which have most often been obliterated by drunkenness, helps break down denial, build a new social life that takes you away from the old places and friends, educates and gives people something to hang onto. These are all great aspects, but does not encompass all that is needed.

Spirituality Alone Does Not Cure

People who don't believe in God or follow a spiritual path can still find sobriety by addressing their biochemical issues.

The other point of issue with the spiritual/religious aspect in Alcoholics Anonymous, is that AA comes very close to being a religion. It tends to be a little punitive, rigid, and tries to brain wash the individual into believing everything they say is true and abiding by their rules. It encourages powerlessness, which can be counterproductive.

Spirituality is a very personal, individualized experience. People get very mixed up and think of religion and spirituality as one. Being spiritual does not necessarily have anything to do with religion or God, although religion tries to make you believe they are one in the same.

I don't believe in a "higher power" in the same sense as AA or religion and yet consider myself a deeply spiritual person. My spiritual connection and fulfillment is found in nature, meditation, writing and relationship.

Living a spiritual life does not have to include a relationship with a higher power and one does not have to embrace the whole powerlessness concept. We are not powerless over addiction. If the alcoholic addresses the biochemical roots of their alcoholism, they are empowered to take control of their recovery path.

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with using spirituality to assist in recovery of any illness, as a matter of fact, it is an essential component of my life, but not many people can make a full recovery with spirituality alone and not everyone can embrace this concept. Many people with alcoholism are too damaged physically and emotionally to begin working on their spiritual life, and some people are uncomfortable with the whole spiritual/religious aspect of AA, and other people don't believe in God.

Even those individuals who already have strong religious or spiritual beliefs most often do not succeed in long term sobriety, which leads us to the most important flaw in Alcoholics Anonymous.

Low Success Rates

Putting all statistics aside, one only needs to ask around any Alcoholics Anonymous meeting to clearly see what the statistics are. At any given meeting at any given time most people that are present are newcomers. Membership usually consists of people who have only a day sober or a few days or weeks. There are a few people who have 90 days or 120 and maybe 1 or 2 people with 6 months or one year. Depending on the size of the meeting, there may be one or if you're really lucky two old timers, someone with more than 5 years. Old timers are far and few between.

In the overall picture of life, 1 year is not a long time. That does not constitute long term, stable sobriety.

Another important fact to keep in mind is that almost all alcoholism treatment centers are based on the 12 step program and demand that all patients attend Alcoholics Anonymous. AA meetings are built into the treatment curriculum and the 12 steps and serenity prayer are recited several times a day. So that means that treatment centers are having about the same success rate and failures as AA. Alcoholics Anonymous and traditional treatment are basically one in the same.

When I was in rehab 19 years ago, our counselor told us that only 3 of us would still be around in a year. There were approximately 30 of us in rehab at the time. I remember feeling horrified by that number, but I was determined I would be one of those three.

Experts report that spontaneous remission of alcoholism will occur about %5 of the time, so treatment and alcoholics anonymous have no better success than doing it alone.

Another problem with Alcoholics Anonymous is that it promotes dependence on the program. It replaces one addiction with another, instead of teaching the individual how to take the skills they learn and apply them to their life outside the program. They will brain wash you into believing you must attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings for the rest of your life or you'll get drunk. This simply is not true. Once you address the biochemical issues of alcoholism, staying sober is no longer an issue. Alcoholics Anonymous should be a transitional phase for the early phases of recovery. Not something you're sentenced to for the rest of your life.

My Personal Journey to Sobriety

I was a chronic, falling off my barstool, disastrous drunk and drug addict when I found Alcoholics Anonymous and traditional rehab and it saved my life. I will be forever grateful to my counselor, Doc, from the Youngstown Alcohol Clinic and the people of AA who loved me back to life.

It was the foundation in my sobriety, but there came a point when I hit a wall. I could not continue to maintain my sobriety without moving onward and away from Alcoholics Anonymous. It gave me what I needed to begin, but it wasn't a complete picture.

I entered traditional rehabilitation almost 19 years ago. I participated in 30 days of in patient treatment and then went to a half way house for 3 months. I wanted to stay sober more than anything in the world and I followed the requirements of the program thoroughly.

My withdrawal and the aftermath that followed was intense, severe and prolonged. I lived with extreme levels of anxiety every minute of every day which escalated into severe anxiety attacks several times a day and frequent bouts of hyperventilating. I didn't stop shaking from head to toe until about six months later and even then it would return from time to time. I simply couldn't function normally.

I completely threw myself into Alcoholics Anonymous - 200%. For the 90 meetings in 90 days requirement, I attended somewhere between 180 and 270 meetings in 90 days. I was in a meeting 2 or 3 times a day for the first 90 days. For the next year and a half I continued to go to meetings 4 or 5 times a week. My entire life was AA.

I helped set up meetings, tear them down, I chaired meetings, attended AA dances, dinners, conferences and camp outs. I volunteered my time at the alcohol clinic to help with new patients. I gave my first lead when I had 6 months sober and for the next year I was giving leads all over the tri-county area. Everyone in my life was a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. I worked the 12 steps forwards and backwards more times than I could count.

The problem with this picture was this: I was sober, but I was incredibly miserable physically, psychologically and cognitively.

A year and a half later and I was still crippled with daily anxiety and anxiety attacks. I couldn't think clearly, couldn't remember things, my brain felt fuzzy, I couldn't stay focused on the task at hand. I was extremely irritable and agitated. It was very difficult to be a mother. I loved my son deeply who was only 7 at the time and our relationship was still suffering immensely.

I experienced wild and erratic mood swings and I was depressed. Once again I felt like I couldn't go on with things as they were. I didn't want to drink, but began to feel that I was at high risk because I needed to have relief from the intense symptoms I was experiencing.

At this time an amazing thing occurred and another woman in Alcoholics Anonymous gave me a book to read called "The Missing Diagnosis" by Dr. Orion C. Truss. It was here that I found the much needed relief I looked for. This book led me to several other books and a new doctor. Over a period of time I pieced together the missing parts of the puzzle.

Not only had I discovered relief for myself, but I had also discovered why Alcoholics Anonymous is so unsuccessful.

Biochemical Repairs are Needed

For successful recovery from alcoholism and long term sobriety without intense cravings and discomfort there must be biochemical repairs. Biochemical repairs consist of healing the body chemistry through diet, environment and nutritional factors. Conditions like food allergies, hypoglycemia, hypothyroidism, candida overgrowth, chemical sensitivities and nutritional deficiencies need to be addressed.

The alcoholic cannot continue to smoke, eat sugar, drink coffee and eat grains because they keep the addiction process active. They must stabilize their blood sugar and make major life style changes.

When I began to make biochemical repairs all the symptoms that had plagued me for most of my life and led to my drinking disappeared. The depression, anxiety, irritability, etc. etc. were all miraculously gone.

If you look around any Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, you will see that most of them are smoking, drinking coffee and eating donuts or some other form of sugar. Everyone I knew struggled to stay sober and to live life. The negative symptoms I lived with previously are pretty much the norm for alcoholics in recovery.

So I was very excited with what I had learned and wanted to share my new found knowledge with the people I loved in AA. To my surprise they didn't want to hear it. They rolled their eyes and walked away, criticized me, told me I'd get drunk , shut me out and eventually withdrew and distanced themselves from me when the couldn't manipulate me back into the brain washing.

The only person who didn't tell me I'd get drunk or withdraw from me was my counselor from rehab. I continued to stay in touch with him off and on for many years after leaving Alcoholics Anonymous. He never embraced the biochemical knowledge I shared with him, but I was very grateful that he didn't turn his back on me.

I had quit smoking and once this happened I could no longer stand to sit in a room full of cigarette smoke, because it would give me headaches, breathing difficulties etc. Back in those days smoking was allowed in public places and every AA meeting was full of so much cigarette smoke you couldn't see across the room. The distance between me and other AA members continued to grow larger and larger until I no longer fit in at all and didn't feel the need to be there anymore. Slowly I began to stop going to meetings until eventually I gave them up all together.

Cravings to drink DID NOT return. As a matter of fact, drinking was no longer an issue at all in my life. I didn't think about it or struggle with it, period.

It's been over 20 years now and I continue to be sober without cravings. I haven't attended a meeting in about 18 years. I went back to college and picked up a couple degrees in psychology and counseling and now dedicate my life to educating anyone who will listen about the importance of biochemical issues in regard to mental health.

If you'd like to learn more about biochemical repairs or just need someone to talk to, I am available for phone consultations. Visit my sobriety coaching page to learn more about the services I offer.

I also highly recommend the book "7 Weeks to Sobriety" by Joan Mathews Larson. It is the most comprehensive and effective resource for alcoholism on the market today and it goes into great detail on biochemical repairs.

I know I may get a handful of emails from a few successful sober people vehemently defending Alcoholics Anonymous and to you say I say this: I'm not here to convince anyone to leave AA. If AA works for you, then by all means keep doing what you're doing.

However, if it doesn't work for you or if you've hit a wall, then perhaps you need something in addition to or instead of.

I'm also not here to try and convince anyone not to attend AA. As I mentioned earlier, there are definite benefits to the 12 step program, especially in the early phases of recovery, and if you're one of those people who find Alcoholics Anonymous to be a good fit, but still can't achieve sobriety, then perhaps you need a combination of both.

As the saying goes, "Take what works and leave the rest."

If traditional treatment centers incorporated biochemical repairs into their program along with Alcoholics Anonymous, we could see amazing results. Alternative treatment centers that approach alcoholism from a biochemical viewpoint have a success rate of about %75 and even as high as %90.






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