[Magdalen] More Clergy DWI

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

Since I worked in psychiatric rehabilitation for thirty years, the subject
of ethanol abuse treatment came up quite often. Many who were themselves
twelve-steppers talked about how important it was to find a group that was
a good fit.

Some groups have a bias against taking any (any at all) medication.  They
tend to view any substance as a crutch, and will condemn it vigorously. We
steered our consumers away from those as much as we could.

Some groups had a religious overtone, and some had no religious overtone.
One twelve-stepper once took some time to explain that in the program, one
did not need to acknowledge God at all. Since he was a member and the
writer probably wasn't, I'm betting the writer just doesn't have the full
picture.  I have heard from many in AA over the years, and you'll find both
people of faith and people who are at least agnostics in the program.

I've sat in on a number of groups, and I think the problem folks have is
they overthink it.

"What is the secret of AA?"
"We help the person not to drink today."
"Yeah, yeah. Right -- Seriously, what's the secret of AA?"
"<sigh>"

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 11:28 AM, Jim Guthrie <jguthrie at pipeline.com> wrote:

> I realize that some here will denounce the heresy, but Chris Hayes on
> MSNBC alerted me to an article in the Atlantic magazine
>
> "The Surprising Failures of 12 Steps
>
> "How a pseudoscientific, religious organization birthed the most trusted
> method of addiction treatment
>
> "Say you’ve been diagnosed with a serious, life-altering illness or
> psychological condition. In lieu of medication, psychotherapy, or a
> combination thereof, your doctor prescribes nightly meetings with a group
> of similarly afflicted individuals, and a set of 12 non-medical guidelines
> for recovery, half of which require direct appeals to God. What would you
> do?"
>
> See more at:
>
> http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/03/the-
> surprising-failures-of-12-steps/284616/
>
> Cheers,
> Jim Guthrie
>
>