“Alcoholics Anonymous was proclaimed the correct treatment for alcoholism over seventy-five years ago despite the absence of any scientific evidence of the approach’s efficacy, and we have been on the wrong path ever since. Today, almost every treatment center, physician,… — Lance Dodes Copy Share Image
“In the seventy-six years since AA was created, 12-step programs have expanded to include over three hundred different organizations, focusing on such diverse issues as smoking, shoplifting, social phobia, debt, recovery from incest, even vulgarity. All told, more than five… — Lance Dodes Copy Share Image
“Addiction is not a moral defect, and to suggest that does a great disservice to people suffering with this disorder.” — Lance Dodes Copy Share
“AA makes inflated claims about itself. Its foundational document, Alcoholics Anonymous (commonly referred to as the “Big Book” and a perennial best seller), spells… — Lance Dodes Copy Share
“I have met and listened to a very large number of people who have “failed” at AA and some who continue to swear by… — Lance Dodes Copy Share
“The degradation woven through these steps also seems unwittingly designed to exacerbate, rather than relieve, the humiliating feelings so common in addiction. If moral… — Lance Dodes Copy Share
“Alcoholics Anonymous was proclaimed the correct treatment for alcoholism over seventy-five years ago despite the absence of any scientific evidence of the approach’s efficacy,… — Lance Dodes Copy Share
“Every year, our state and federal governments spend over $15 billion on substance-abuse treatment for addicts, the vast majority of which are based on… — Lance Dodes Copy Share
“People suffering with addictions as a rule tend to be well aware of the many “wrongs” they have committed. Awareness of this fact doesn’t… — Lance Dodes Copy Share
“Going to rehab” is likewise a common refrain in music and film, where it is almost always uncritically presented as the one true hope… — Lance Dodes Copy Share
“AA has managed to survive, in part, because members who become and remain sober speak and write about it regularly. This is no accident:… — Lance Dodes Copy Share
“Peer-reviewed studies peg the success rate of AA somewhere between 5 and 10 percent. That is, about one of every fifteen people who enter… — Lance Dodes Copy Share
“There is nothing inherently wrong with apologizing to those who have been harmed, directly or indirectly, by the consequences of addiction. The problem is… — Lance Dodes Copy Share
“He also found himself increasingly resentful of the “tally system” that AA uses to measure sobriety: every time he “slipped” and had a drink,… — Lance Dodes Copy Share
“AA began as a nonprofessional attempt to grapple with the alcoholism of its founders. It arose and took its famous twelve steps directly from… — Lance Dodes Copy Share
“More than anything, AA offers a comforting veneer of actionable change: it is something you can do.” — Lance Dodes Copy Share
“In 2006, one of the most prestigious scientific research organizations in the world, the Cochrane Collaboration, conducted a review of the many studies conducted… — Lance Dodes Copy Share
