tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6154923121857389373.post5025418217057425204..comments2023-07-07T05:11:26.707-05:00Comments on Substance Matters: What do medications add to recovery?Mark Willenbring, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10556707753571367243noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6154923121857389373.post-55328085697580986242010-04-27T11:39:52.423-05:002010-04-27T11:39:52.423-05:00It seems like most doctors have a idealistic conce...It seems like most doctors have a idealistic concept of AA, knowing that it is the mainstay of the addiction industry despite a questionable reputation. The comments in the blog sound as though the doctor has never been to AA but has only read about it. First, AA is not a clear path to recovery because even those that maintain sobriety have either transferred their addictive personality onto other substances or activities or have become dependent on AA philosophy to the exclusion of anything else. Most continue to display psychological and emotional distress. A typical AA meeting may have people professing their sobriety but smoking two packs of cigarettes a day,drinking six cups of coffee and 4 cokes while having relationship problems, anger issues, etc. Without these areas of their lives improving and with the focus only on sobriety, there is no recovery. The doctor talks about a shift in major values and character. Most people who go to rehab go over and over. Few experience lasting change. The idea of major changes in values and character is hardly ever apparent. The doctor states that through this spiritual transformation the person gains maturity. Nobody that understands alcoholics or drug addicts would refer to them becoming mature by being abstinent. Immaturity seems to be the most apparent byproduct of those recovering through a powerless message. There is a big difference between the value of religion and spiritual practices to strengthen character and to encourage growth and change and quality of life, but is quite another thing to label someone, make them affirm their weakness and dependency and then refer to them as being mature and value driven. There are people that have been in and out of AA for years whose view of themselves and others as changed little. I knew a person that spent 18 years in AA who did not even like to drink! He had emotional problems and would perhaps have a couple of beers a few times a week. Recruited into AA for some reason, he was told his emotional problems were the result of his drinking problem! This is not a spiritual transformation. To be sure, AA has saved many people who otherwise die, but to suggest that everyone is recovering by becoming more mature and developing better values and character is simply not true. This is another example in the wild wild west of addiction rhetoric where the theory, the belief, the culturally ingrained ideology is not what is actually occurring in practice for the majority of people.Anthony Moyernoreply@blogger.com