Welcome to CyberPsych.
|
Welcome to CyberPsych. |
|
See other areas of interest Eating Disorders Information | Find-A-Therapist | PenPals for Anxiety Disorders | Support Groups | Teen OCD | Apology Project | CyberPsych Home |
|
There is no professional intervention, and it is not intended to be psychological treatment or education. For HotLine help, especially for suicidal feelings, try 1.800.SUICIDE (784.2433). Also dialing 211 can refer you to help in many areas of the US. HotLine for Eating Disorders is 1.800.931.2237
|
| |
Discussion of Alcoholism
Re: Recovery rate: Twelve-Step programs
Posted By: Richard G. Burns, J.D. In Response To: Re: Recovery rate: Twelve-Step programs (Joe)
Date: Monday, 9 January 2006, at 2:57 p.m.
A comment or two on Steve's professional approach to "success rates." First of all, I am an historian, writer, Bible student, Retired attorney, and Recovered A.A. and have published 26 titles on the history of early A.A. and its spiritual roots. In the course of doing so, I have often discussed the "success rates" in early A.A. which were between 75 and 93% and the success rates in today's A.A. which are something below 5%. Steve says he has been to thousands of A.A. meetings, and so have I. And my interest first was to get well and then to help others get well. To help them be cured just as the pioneers were. In the course of my sobriety, I discovered that the key to early A.A. success was reliance on the Creator. The early program of 5 mandatory ideas is laid out in Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers and represents an onsite study of Akron A.A. by Frank T. Amos, representative of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Essentially, the five fundamentals were abstinence, reliance on the Creator, elimination of sin by obedience to the Creator, growth in strength and understanding through Bible study and prayer, and working with others. While there were plenty of rim-runners in those days, just as there are today, it seems quite clear that those who were real alcoholics, pronounced medically incurable, who really tried were achieving great success. For a decade, A.A., newspapers, magazines, and observers reported the cure of alcoholism. A Readers Digest pundit pointed out that A.A.'s medicine was God. But times have changed. Anyone can come to A.A. Anyone can believe what he or she wishes. Many, if not most, are propelled to A.A. by probation officers, courts, therapists, and treatment centers. And the results are there for any honest observer to see: Very few make it. Therefore to me, it has not become a matter of how many succeeded or failed in early A.A. or how many succeed or fail in today's A.A. It is a matter of who succeeds, by what means, and what success means. I dug in with a fervor. I relied on God. I resisted temptation. I helped others by giving them that message; and I'm an A.A. supporter. But I don't need statisticians or social surveys to tell me that the diversity, secularism, and universalism in today's fellowship leaves little for the uninformed and sick new person to grab hold of. I maintain that a knowledge of how the early fellowship worked is a great factor in showing newcomers how they can achieve recovery, cure, and spiritual wholeness if they want to. God Bless, Dick B.
| |
Discussion of Alcoholism is maintained by Administrator with WebBBS 5.12. hosted by CyberPsych.org