Comments on: Double Trouble: Mental Illness and Addiction, Part 2

By: KP

KP — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:19:38 +0000

Here, let me help you understand the 95% failure rate. Please take a look at the Valliant 1995 study:

The A.A. failure rate ranges from 95% to 100%. Sometimes, the A.A. success rate is actually less than zero, which means that A.A. indoctrination is positively harmful to people, and prevents recovery. Some tests have shown that even receiving no treatment at all for alcoholism is much better than receiving A.A. treatment:
One of the most enthusiastic boosters of Alcoholics Anonymous, Professor George Vaillant of Harvard University, who is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. (AAWS), showed by his own 8 years of testing of A.A. that A.A. was worse than useless — that it didn’t help the alcoholics any more than no treatment at all, and it had the highest death rate of any treatment program tested — a death rate that Professor Vaillant himself described as “appalling”. While trying to prove that A.A. treatment works, Professor Vaillant actually proved that A.A. kills. After 8 years of A.A. treatment, the score with Dr. Vaillant’s first 100 alcoholic patients was: 5 sober, 29 dead, and 66 still drinking.

In short, the A.A. meeting room has a revolving door. The therapists, judges, and parole officers (many of whom are themselves members of A.A. or N.A.) continually send new people to A.A., but those newcomers vote with their feet once they see what A.A. really is. Even A.A.’s own triennial surveys, conducted by the A.A. headquarters (the GSO), say that:
81% of the newcomers are gone within 30 days,
90% are gone in 3 months, and
95% are gone at the end of a year.
That automatically gives A.A. a failure rate of at least 95%.

By: Richard Zwolinski, LMHC, CASAC

Richard Zwolinski, LMHC, CASAC — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 22:28:55 +0000

Hi KP,
12 Steps do work for many people. But not for everyone. And having the peer support of a 12 Step program in addition to therapy and medication is helpful. I haven’t heard the 95 percent failure rate before. But, in general I agree that the evidence shows treating addiction as a disease with all that that entails has the best results.

By: KP

KP — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 22:15:21 +0000

12-steps programs do NOT work! 95% failure rate. I wish professionals in the treatment INDUSTRY would quit talking about AA/NA as the only thing that works. A “spritual” solution to the addiction leaves many people who are suffering even more discouraged. Please don’t forget other help such as Rational Recovery, SMART, etc.

By: Richard Zwolinski

Richard Zwolinski — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 01:35:53 +0000

Hi Adam,
You are welcome! It’s important for students and professionals to remember to evaluate for substance abuse and mental healh issues (and medical issues that can imitate or instigate psychiatric disorders, a topic I hope to address later on.
Best,
Richard

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By: Adam

Adam — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:09:39 +0000

Thanks a lot for sharing this practical and compassionate interview with us.

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