Don’t Confuse AA with Addiction Treatment

When alcohol treatment centers first started popping up around the US decades ago, they mainly concentrated on the treatment of alcoholism and relied heavily on the 12 steps of AA (Alcoholics Anonymous). Now addiction treatment facilities treat all kinds of drug addictions — opiates, meth, cocaine, benzos, etc., including the drug alcohol. While most treatment facilities recommend that clients who finish treatment continue in a support group of some kind, they don’t rely solely on AA. You can go online and search the many addiction recovery support groups. AA is still considered by many to be the most effective support program for alcoholics, but many people don’t respond well to AA.

AA and addiction treatment are two separate entities. I don’t know how many times, but it’s a lot, clients have come into treatment who’ve been to AA, and one of the first things they say is “I’m not going to AA, if that’s what you’re recommending.” We make recommendations, but if someone doesn’t want to attend AA, then their follow-up recovery management plan will entail other forms of ongoing support. Quality treatment involves an individualized treatment plan approach – not every one fits into the same box. Bill Wilson, one of the co-founders of AA, even said that AA is not for everyone, and that AA doesn’t have all the answers, even for alcoholism.

Many people who’re recovering from an addiction to cocaine or opiates might not relate to alcoholism (although they might, in the way that addiction is addiction), so each person has to find their own way in recovery. There are many considerations when an individualized recovery plan is developed. It does no good to make recommendations that a person will not do or find benefit from. The key is that the person in recovery be honest. First the person needs to look at why they’re rejecting a certain support group or recommendation. If the recovering person’s sincere intention is to stay straight and recover, they they’ll keep an open mind and not reject recommendations without first giving it a try or talking about it in depth to find legitimate recovery/support alternatives. Some people reject AA because they think it’s too religious, but there are now AA groups that are agnostic, so that could be alternative, or Rational Recovery, or something entirely different than the standard support group — there’s always an alternative.

The idea is to have a well thought out plan to manage recovery and for the person to not reject recommendations just because they’re uncomfortable or difficult. Recovery can be difficult, and the recovering person will have to do things that are uncomfortable, but one plan doesn’t fit all. And, remember, there’s much more to addiction treatment than a recommendation to attend a support group – if that were the case, there would be need for treatment facilities.