Alcoholics Anonymous doesn't work for everyone -- and that's OK
Failing to achieve sobriety using AA and other programs that insist alcoholics are powerless over their 'disease' doesn't mean an addict is without hope.
By Amy Lee Coy
LA Times
July 30, 2010
As I read Dr. Drew Pinsky's comments on Lindsay Lohan's problems and prognosis — that the actress should be framed so a judge could order her to a long-term treatment program, remarks for which he has since apologized — I felt worried and even scared for all the people who are suffering with addiction today.
Why? Because what Dr. Drew was saying expressed the attitude that so many people have regarding addiction and recovery, which, in my experience, is ineffective and even damaging for some of us. I suspect Lohan is one such person. She has not told us why rehab has not helped her to quit her substance-abusing behavior, but it seems to me she is in an informed position to do so given that she's been in rehab before. The Times recently published two pieces related to alcohol and addiction recovery, most recently with Stanton Peele's July 21 Times Op-Ed article on alcohol and health, and a July 4 piece by a man named calling himself "Chas" who achieved sobriety with Alcoholics Anonymous.
I was 14 when, in 1984, I entered my first drug and alcohol rehab program. Since then, and over the course of more than 20 years, I returned to rehab seven times; not one stint proved effective in helping me eliminate my addictive behaviors. I could blame myself for that failure to be helped, as many who treated me did, but at this point in my life, doing so would not make sense. This is because it was only after I abandoned the burden of blame that I was able to quit drinking and using drugs, including the many psychoactive pharmaceuticals I was on toward the end of my drinking days. Of course, I had to do that on my own since the typical way of thinking about recovery was premised on the assumption that it was my fault treatment was not working.
(More here.)
By Amy Lee Coy
LA Times
July 30, 2010
As I read Dr. Drew Pinsky's comments on Lindsay Lohan's problems and prognosis — that the actress should be framed so a judge could order her to a long-term treatment program, remarks for which he has since apologized — I felt worried and even scared for all the people who are suffering with addiction today.
Why? Because what Dr. Drew was saying expressed the attitude that so many people have regarding addiction and recovery, which, in my experience, is ineffective and even damaging for some of us. I suspect Lohan is one such person. She has not told us why rehab has not helped her to quit her substance-abusing behavior, but it seems to me she is in an informed position to do so given that she's been in rehab before. The Times recently published two pieces related to alcohol and addiction recovery, most recently with Stanton Peele's July 21 Times Op-Ed article on alcohol and health, and a July 4 piece by a man named calling himself "Chas" who achieved sobriety with Alcoholics Anonymous.
I was 14 when, in 1984, I entered my first drug and alcohol rehab program. Since then, and over the course of more than 20 years, I returned to rehab seven times; not one stint proved effective in helping me eliminate my addictive behaviors. I could blame myself for that failure to be helped, as many who treated me did, but at this point in my life, doing so would not make sense. This is because it was only after I abandoned the burden of blame that I was able to quit drinking and using drugs, including the many psychoactive pharmaceuticals I was on toward the end of my drinking days. Of course, I had to do that on my own since the typical way of thinking about recovery was premised on the assumption that it was my fault treatment was not working.
(More here.)
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