Let me preface this by saying that I personally know at least a dozen people who were saved by AA. They swear by it. They attend regular meetings. They seem totally genuine and I have no reason to doubt them. I ask a ton of questions whenever I run into someone in the program--so many questions they probably think I'm ready to go there myself. (No. At least not yet. But never say never.) The reason I ask so many questions is because I also know a few who went the AA route and it wasn't successful for them, and I'm trying to figure out why.
This article in the Atlantic questions AA's results--and points to a few other potential treatment options. I have no idea if the writer's assumptions about AA are true or not (and neither does the writer--the second A in AA stands for anonymous--which means the actual results cannot be known or tested), I simply present it for those of you who have tried AA (maybe even multiple times) without success.
It's a subject near to my heart because alcohol led directly to the death of a person I loved very much. I don't want to disregard any possible cure or remedy. I'm encouraged by the science-based brain research at the heart of these new approaches. Maybe it will work for you.
Please don't get me wrong here. I'm not trying to besmirch AA. I have a ton of respect for anyone who has the courage to do whatever is necessary to stop--and AA has worked for many of them--including some very close friends of mine. My goal in sharing this article is to point out that failing at AA doesn't mean it's time to give up on life and just succumb to the bottle. If might just mean that a different path could be better for you.
