Could Alcoholics Anonymous, the organization that seems to be the primary go-to for helping struggling alcoholics and problem drinkers everywhere–actually be dying?
Boulder Weekly says that “while AA attendance has seen an overall decline, newer programs like LifeRing are attracting increasing numbers in Colorado and throughout the country.”
AA is kind of an old fashioned organization, and one of the big criticisms is that it refuses to evolve. Proponents of AA argue that “it works, so why change it?” While this logic is difficult to refute, that doesn’t mean that stubbornly refusing to entertain new ideas is a recipe for success. The knowledge that the world is gaining about addiction and how it actually works in the human brain is very quickly accumulating and building. We have learned more about addiction in the last 10 years than the previous two centuries combined, and yet there are some very stubborn people who refuse to update even the dated chapter “To wives” in the big book of AA, which just reeks of sexist language and ideas.
But there are also a lot of things going for AA as well. They have created a system by which people can gather informally, declare themselves to be an AA group, and continue to thrive–whether the world approves of them or not. The spirit of AA and the idea that one alcoholic can help another is not something that can be easily squashed. Even if the world declared the organization to be shut down, the existing meetings would likely continue to thrive.
This is largely because the organization of AA really does not need a central organized governing agency to keep it going. Sure, it does have one. But it’s sort of an afterthought. AA is more of a movement, and the meetings can self organize and come together whenever and wherever they are needed.
So there are definitely good arguments both for and against Alcoholics Anonymous. But more and more, professionals within the medical community who are on the forefront of addiction research and substance abuse therapy are noticing some of the “old fashioned” and dated ideas that still exist within the AA culture.
So a couple of outcomes could come to pass. One, AA could get a bit more organized and try to update themselves in order to maintain relevance as we move forward with addiction and recovery research. They could update their book to reflect more modern language and delete the offensive, sexist subject matter. And they could incorporate more modern ideas that include some of our best efforts in terms of treating addiction and alcoholism.
Another outcome is that the organization refuses to budge while new and more modern and innovative solutions pop up, such as Smart Recovery and a host of other similar solutions.
In my experience, and in my opinion, the actual program that you use in order to recover from addiction is not all that critical when you get right down to it. What truly matters is your level of surrender and whether or not you actually hit bottom or not. Hitting bottom and being truly ready to listen and learn in a humble way is what will produce good results in recovery.
I think some people have this belief that if they could just stumble upon the perfect recovery program then everything would magically be solved. Or if the top addiction experts around the world came together and redesigned the perfect recovery program to replace AA that suddenly the addiction crisis would be magically solved.
Addiction and recovery doesn’t work that way though–at least I do not believe that it does. The problem is that addiction and alcoholism are diseases of self destruction. And you cannot do anything to help someone who is determined to self destruct, even when they do not realize that they are slowly self destructing through their disease of addiction.
Whether or not AA itself continues to thrive or not, I believe that there is always going to be a demand for some sort of organization and community that functions in much the same way–alcoholics coming together to help support each other on their quest to sobriety.
Most alcoholics go through a period in which they question their sanity. Most alcoholics feel as if they are the only person in the world who has ever truly gone insane due to their love of alcohol or other drugs. And it is because of this self doubt that an organization such as AA is necessary, so that alcoholics can come together and tell their stories and thus identify with one another. If there is no public forum that alcoholics and addicts can use to identify with each other in this way, to let the newcomer know that A) there is hope, and B) they are not really crazy or unique, then such a forum is going to be created.
In other words, while AA may not be perfect as it exists today, it still serves a very vital function to the struggling newcomer in recovery. We have to have a place where the newcomer can go where recovering alcoholics and addicts are telling their stories. Without this “net” that becomes a “fisher of men” or a fisher of alcoholics, I see that many people who struggle with addiction are going to slip through the cracks.
It is one thing to point to a medical solution and say to the struggling alcoholic: “They have solved addiction now, just go do this.” But that alcoholic may be too scared and too intimidated, believing that they are unique in their disease, and therefore they do not embrace whatever the solution becomes, or whatever modern science deems to be the modern cure for addiction. If no one is there to tell their story, if no one is there to relate to the insanity that the newcomer is feeling, then how are they ever going to buy into this new way of life?
The world may eventually reject AA. But we will always need a way for alcoholics to connect with each other in recovery.
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