“Addiction is not a moral defect, and to suggest that does a great disservice to people suffering with this disorder.” — Lance Dodes 12-step-program Copy Share Image
“AA makes inflated claims about itself. Its foundational document, Alcoholics Anonymous (commonly referred to as the “Big Book” and a perennial best… — Lance Dodes 12-step-program Copy Share Image
“I have met and listened to a very large number of people who have “failed” at AA and some who continue to… — Lance Dodes 12-step-program Copy Share Image
“The degradation woven through these steps also seems unwittingly designed to exacerbate, rather than relieve, the humiliating feelings so common in addiction.… — Lance Dodes 12-step-program Copy Share Image
“Alcoholics Anonymous was proclaimed the correct treatment for alcoholism over seventy-five years ago despite the absence of any scientific evidence of the… — Lance Dodes 12-step-program Copy Share Image
“Every year, our state and federal governments spend over $15 billion on substance-abuse treatment for addicts, the vast majority of which are… — Lance Dodes 12-step-program Copy Share Image
“People suffering with addictions as a rule tend to be well aware of the many “wrongs” they have committed. Awareness of this… — Lance Dodes 12-step-program Copy Share Image
“Going to rehab” is likewise a common refrain in music and film, where it is almost always uncritically presented as the one… — Lance Dodes 12-step-program Copy Share Image
“AA has managed to survive, in part, because members who become and remain sober speak and write about it regularly. This is… — Lance Dodes 12-step-program Copy Share Image
“Peer-reviewed studies peg the success rate of AA somewhere between 5 and 10 percent. That is, about one of every fifteen people… — Lance Dodes 12-step-program Copy Share Image
“There is nothing inherently wrong with apologizing to those who have been harmed, directly or indirectly, by the consequences of addiction. The… — Lance Dodes 12-step-program Copy Share Image
“He also found himself increasingly resentful of the “tally system” that AA uses to measure sobriety: every time he “slipped” and had… — Lance Dodes 12-step-program Copy Share Image
“AA began as a nonprofessional attempt to grapple with the alcoholism of its founders. It arose and took its famous twelve steps… — Lance Dodes 12-step-program Copy Share Image
“More than anything, AA offers a comforting veneer of actionable change: it is something you can do.” — Lance Dodes 12-step-program Copy Share Image
“In 2006, one of the most prestigious scientific research organizations in the world, the Cochrane Collaboration, conducted a review of the many… — Lance Dodes 12-step-program 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… — Lance Dodes 12-step-program Copy Share Image
“AA spread like wildfire through a country desperate for hope at the end of Prohibition and in the midst of the Great… — Lance Dodes 12-step-program Copy Share Image
“For an organization that has expressly denied religious standing and publicly claims a secular—even scientific—approach, it is curious that AA retains these… — Lance Dodes 12-step-program Copy Share Image
