Really? I don’t think so.
Alcohol has been around for thousands of years. Alcoholics and/or alcoholism has been around for thousands of years.
Since 1935, we’ve not really advanced too far in the realm of science, medicine, psychology, the understanding of human nature and behavior, the realm of spirituality and religion, etc.
All we’ve done since 1935 is advanced a bit with regards to applications of advancements made over the last few hundred years and beyond.
If anything, we’ve gone backwards in many ways.
It seems a very old-fashioned way of doing things, those 12 Steps. Maybe not so. Maybe doing a set of steps, getting yourself prepared to do that one-on-one recovery with a thirsty yet whipped drunk is an old and proven ancient technique, but it got lost in the shuffle… or wasn’t properly documented and/or written down. Who knows? I do know this; the way I was shown… which looks an awful lot like the 164, sure does seem more and more sensible.
We have and we haven't advanced in our knowledge of alcoholism. Biggest problem as I've said before is that we can't even agree on how to define it.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, it'd pretty well recognized as some form of genetic idiosyncrasy that affects 10% of the drinking population. Is it hereditary? No one can say for sure. We do know that it can be treated but not cured.
And now comes the drama. How to best treat alcohol addiction? AA is probably the most successful treatment program out there, but certainly not the only one. AA doesn't work for every alcoholic. And then there's a certain group (you reading this, MA?) that feels that AA has no validity as a treatment program whatsoever. That's their prerogative.
I can only offer my personal experience here and say that the information contained in the 164 got me sober and keeps me sober. And I know a lot of people who make the same claim. So MA and I disagree.
And I don't look at the 12 steps as being old fashioned. Yeah, the writing in the Big Book is a little archaic, but the fundamentals are as valid today as they were 75 years ago.
It's a process whereby we change ourselves; we modify our character to enable us to live a life no longer dependent on alcohol to survive. Once we get sober, we help other alcoholics ad infinitum. That's what's kept AA successful - a simple mission of one alcoholic helping another alcoholic.
Whether this is some sort of ancient, hidden mystery lost through the ages is meaningless. For the past 75 years it's worked pretty well, warts and all. No reason to feel it won't continue to be successful. If someone comes along with a better program, Terrific! I'll be one of the first to sign up.