The 12-step fight – it’s not about the money

You might not be aware, but there are many websites dedicated to “deprogramming” people who have participated in 12-step recovery.

In this website you can read:

The shocking truth is that AA is NOT a recovery group or treatment program for alcoholism. The actual objective of AA is to bring alcoholics under God control, or AA control. Only one of the infamous 12 steps concerns drinking. The rest are dogmatic rituals and merely a process of indoctrination into a cultish religion. The Alcoholics Anonymous text unequivocally states:

“Our real purpose is to fit ourselves to be of maximum service to God and the people about us”. ~ p. 77

Another popular anti-12-step website is called the Orange Papers. This site is very passionate about the lack of success in AA. It can be summed up here:

The A.A. failure rate ranges from 95% to 100%. Sometimes, the A.A. success rate is actually less than zero, which means that A.A. indoctrination is positively harmful to people, and prevents recovery. Some tests have shown that even receiving no treatment at all for alcoholism is much better than receiving A.A. treatment:

What do I say?

I say — if you are dying from a hopeless condition (like substance abuse or mental illness) and you find a solution that has gives you a second chance on life — good for you. I am happy for anyone who has experienced recovery, regardless of how they did it. And frankly, I am so grateful, not to be suffering from alcoholism, addiction and/or mental illness, I could care less what think of “my” recovery program.  I never want to feel that way again. The bottom line – if you are going to hate something, I want to hear a solution (at the end of your rant) otherwise it’s just a waste of time.

Money

Regardless of what treatment you love or hate, I would be remiss not to point out that 12-step programs are:

1. Very popular and found in every city and country around the world

2. Free

What does free mean?

That means – there is no cost to attend a 12-step meeting. Typically, a hat or a basket is passed during the meeting. If you want to put in a dollar or two — go ahead. If you can’t afford to, or you simply don’t want to contribute, you don’t have to.

Even if you are super wealthy and want to send a check in for $10,000 – you can’t. The maximum amount anyone can contribute is $3,000 per year. I find that oddly particular and completely unrealistic. But, it goes back to the founding of the program.

Alcoholics Anonymous
Medicine Column

Last week one of the best-known teetotalers in the U.S., John D. Rockefeller, had 60 people to dinner. No cocktails were served, for several of Mr. Rockefeller’s guests were members of “Alcoholics Anonymous,” a widespread, publicity-shy group of one-time guzzlers who have cured themselves.

Psychiatrists now generally consider alcoholism a disease, specifically a psychoneurosis. Alcoholics generally drink, not just because they like liquor, but to escape from something–a mother fixation, inferiority feelings, an intolerable domestic situation, social or economic maladjustment. They may suffer the torments of the damned, even while drinking themselves into a stupor, and especially in the brief period between waking up with a remorseful, clattering hangover and getting down the first drink of the day. Psychiatrists try to help them by discovering the hidden reason for drinking and showing how it can be removed. But cynics in sanatoriums, watching a sober man walk out the door full of good intentions, often bet on how many days or weeks will elapse before he is back. Nagging by families usually makes things worse.

About five years ago a traveling sales-man named Bill, after repeated alcoholic relapses, was pronounced hopeless by his doctors. Bill was an agnostic, but someone asked him if he couldn’t believe that there was some power bigger than himself–call it God or whatever he liked–that would help him not to drink. The idea was that though Bill was always willing to let himself down, he might be more reluctant to let God down. Bill tried it, found that he had no trouble resisting the desire to drink. He was cured. He told his discovery to others, and the cure spread. These reformed drunkards called themselves “Alcoholics Anonymous,” now number over 400 in towns all over the U.S. – They do their missionary work on their own time, as an avocation.

Aware of this interest in liquor control, some of the group wrote to John D. Rockefeller two years ago–asking not for money but for advice. Mr. Rockefeller asked a representative to look into their doings, grew so interested that he helped to publish a book, Alcoholics Anonymous (Works Publishing Co.; $3.50), in which some members described their battles with the demon and how they won.

Professional opinion on the usefulness of Alcoholics Anonymous is divided. Some psychiatrists think the group is making a mistake in not leaning more heavily on medical guidance. Others feel that it gives something that psychiatry does not, should be encouraged to the fullest extent.

(Source: Time, February 19, 1940)

I love recovery that is for fun and for free. There are lots of ways I participate in recovery aiding activities that cost “zero per hour”. Things like walking outside, helping someone besides myself, sending a thank you note, or eating something healthy are just a few. What do you have to add, that is healthy, fun and free?