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Religion is less obviously injected into AA today. But some overtly religious values are still communicated by AA and other twelve-step programs. For example, the view that the best way to surmount a problem is by acknowledging one’s powerlessness over it—and “that [only] a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity”—offends some people’s values. These people just don’t choose to view the universe that way; they don’t feel that submission is the answer to their problems. And these people can overcome addictions in their own independent way.
Self-Efficacy As a Value
Powerlessness may thus be a more controversial aspect of the AA philosophy than its roots in Christianity. Many addicted people already believe they are powerless before ever encountering the twelve steps. In many ways, this is part and parcel of the addiction. For example, believing that alcoholism is a disease, that no one escapes the grip of heroin or cigarettes, that withdrawal from either is too horrible to resist, or that you are born to be addicted plays into the power and irresistibility of the way you experience the substance (or activity) to which you become addicted.
Psychologist William Miller and his colleagues at the University of New Mexico conducted an important study in which they tracked subjects who reported for outpatient treatment for an alcohol problem. [14] The investigators’ purpose was to forecast which subjects were more likely to relapse following treatment. They found two primary factors predicted relapse—“lack of coping skills and belief in the disease model of alcoholism.” [15]
Think of it—treatment in the United States is geared primarily toward teaching people to believe something that makes it more likely that they will relapse! Instead, psychological theory and research indicate that it is more empowering and successful for you to believe in—and to value—your own strength. In this view, the critical element in cure is to develop your sense of self-efficacy. Yet if you express this view, or that you are uncomfortable with the value of powerlessness taught in the twelve-step approach, you will be told that you are in denial and that you cannot succeed at quitting addiction.
We often wonder why so many people decline to enter treatment or to join AA. And AA’s own surveys reveal that only 5 percent of those who enter AA continue to attend for as long as a year. [16] One researcher, Barry Tuchfeld, interviewed people who strove to lick a drinking problem on their own. [17] These individuals rejected the value of AA and treatment in their lives. If you believe the AA model and treatment personnel, these statements represent denial. Contradicting this, the subjects Tuchfeld selected for his study had successfully eliminated their drinking problems for many years.
Values and Your Recovery
Here are some of the statements made by Tuchfeld’s subjects in which they explain why they wouldn’t enter treatment or join a support group:
“The one thing I could never do is go into formal rehab. For me to have to ask somebody else to help with a self-made problem, I’d rather drink myself to death.”
“Formal treatment seemed to be a sort of a pigeonhole that I didn’t want to be put in.”
“I’d never consider going to a doctor or minister for help. Good Lord, no! That would make me drink twice as much. I’m the kind of person who has to do things on his own.”
“But as far as I . . . was concerned, AA was absolutely of no attraction to me at all, absolutely not. And as far as a doctor is concerned . . . And preachers—boo—I’d rather go out and talk to my donkeys than a preacher.”
“Who wants to get up there and listen to somebody else’s problems when they’re sitting there with so many of the problems on their own shoulders . . . ?” [18]
These voices clearly illustrate that some people are eager for an alternative to AA. And independent recovery is a valid option—especially when we consider that the large majority of addicts do quit on their own. It is entirely possible that the repeated alcoholic or addictive relapses of people such as Joan Kennedy, Robert Downey Jr., Calvin Klein, Kitty Dukakis, and others are due at least in part to their continuing reliance on someone or some group outside of themselves to solve their problems. If they were counseled more about self-reliance, they might be more successful in fighting addiction.
Nonetheless, it is not for this book, or anyone else, to determine the best path for you. Undergoing treatment, attending AA for a brief or extended time, selecting a nontraditional treatment, alternating treatment and going it on your own—these and other paths have succeeded for many and could succeed for you. What is important is to be clear on and to respect your values and preferences.
Regardless of whether you seek treatment or make efforts to change outside of formal treatment, you and others dealing with you must respect your values.True, you may need to learn how to do things in a new way, or to value new ways of looking at the world. However, in order to decide what recovery path to take, you must first understand what is important to you, what you believe, and what you consider to be right. (Exercises at the end of this chapter will help you to identify such values.) Otherwise, your energy will be wasted in an unacknowledged values war between you and your would-be helpers or, worse, in a war with yourself.
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