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Comment by gameswithgo | Hacker News Reader

Hmmm, in America the most common intervention is AA, whose doctrine is that willpower alone is not sufficient, that you must appeal to a higher power. We also know this intervention isn't any more effective than someone just trying get over it on their own, yet it persists, and is even court ordered often. There will be replies to this post about how AA "worked for them" or something to that effect. Which doesn't mean anything.

My brother struggles with alcoholism and has been on and off the horse, with AA as the main thing all the time. The primary impact it seems to have on him is that all he wants to talk about is AA and alcoholism. It becomes his identity. "Alcoholics do this, alcoholics do that, alcoholics are like this". If I thought that was helpful then fine, but it seems more rewarding identities would be possible and less limiting.

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I think the identity of "recovering alcoholic" is quite harmful.

One of the things we've learned is that success with behavior changes happen when you normalize them. If someone is a "survivor of X" as their identity, X is still kind of controlling them. They are still defined in relation to that X. They are "James the rape survivor" and not "James the talented craftsman".

There's a very good reason that the term "I'm in recovery" is commonly said by people with substance issues.

Relapse is just around the corner, and most people don't know what will bring it on. It has happened to men and women stronger than you or me. Saying "I'm in recovery" is a way to remind yourself of that, and learn to be OK with taking things a day at a time. If a relapse happens, it's not the end. You're still taking it a day at a time, and tomorrow you'll make a plan to call your accountability partner, or structure your day to avoid those triggers.

Telling yourself "I'm recovered" makes the relapse much more damaging.

in America the most common intervention is AA, whose doctrine is that willpower alone is not sufficient, that you must appeal to a higher power. We also know this intervention isn't any more effective than someone just trying get over it on their own, yet it persists, and is even court ordered often.

I listen to old Lovelines from time to time and I thought it was weird when a caller asked Dr. Drew why he only suggests AA for alcohol addiction and never anything else. Dr. Drew, and even Adam Carolla, both got oddly defensive and started attacking the caller, as if even bringing up the question as to if alternatives exist was to question their authority to even speak on the matter. It just gave me a bad taste in my mouth for them to treat this twelve-step program as unquestionably the only way to deal with addiction.

But between that and the fact that AA is often court mandated, like you say, it makes me wonder why AA is put on this pedestal and people aren't given more treatment options.

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