The Twelve Step program: Cure or cover? ELLEN HERMAN/OUT/LOOK

I have never been a member of a Anyone who cares to look can find Twelve-Step program. To research this article, I serenity. It leaves tracks: neat rows of folding attended a lot of meetings and talked to many chairs lined up in musty church basements; the people. I asked certain key questions about the dull buzz of fluorescent lights in hospital lecture nature of addiction and the methods these halls; schoolrooms where half-erased algebra programs offer for recovery: Are all the problems problems remain on green chalkboards. addressed by Twelve-Step recovery the same? Hundreds of thousands of people across the What are the resources and analyses developed country and around the world make regular trips by feminists, gays, and progressives in response to such places-as often as once each day. They to addiction and other personal life crises? Does are members of Twelve-Step and other recovery Twelve Step philosophy have anything to say programs. about politics? What needs to these programs Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is the oldest address that could or should have been met by and best known of these self-help programs, political movements? And how does living in a and its structure and philosophy have served as Just Say No culture change the meaning of all of models for many others: Narcotics Anonymous the above? (NA); Overeaters Anonymous (OA); Incest Survivors Anonymous (ISA); Emotional Health The Twelve Steps are the heart of Anonymous (EHA); Emotions Anonymous (EA); Alcoholics Anonymous and the programs based Gamblers Anonymous (GA); Al-Anon and on the AA model. These 12 specific actions are Alateen (programs for family members and the programs’ official recipe for recovery, the friends of alcoholics); and, most recently, Sex ingredients of an addiction-free life. Their and Love Addicts Anonymous (SLAA). The sole purpose is “to relieve pain and suffering, fill our requirement for membership in any of them is a emptiness, help us find the missing something, desire to stop substance abuse or change a help us discover ourselves and the God within compulsive behavior. us, and release great quantities of the energy, In the past few years, such programs love, and joy dammed up inside ourselves”-all have become so popular that they constitute a with a minimum of discomfort and a maximum of Twelve-Step movement. Many people know, self-awareness. through personal contact, that Twelve-Step Unlike medical professionals, therapists, programs, especially AA, can be lifesavers. But or some political activists, Twelve-Step these programs sometimes resemble modern- programs do not dwell on the causes of day cults. They describe themselves in universal addiction. It is simply understood that anyone terms, pride themselves on excluding on one, who uses substances or activities in a way that suggest that their fellowship are supportive interferes with his or her life has an addiction without ever being critical, and claim to offer a problem. philosophy of spiritual enlightenment without Accordingly, Twelve-Step programs offer religious trappings. To the uninitiated, this very simple explanations and a decidedly description might sound like old-style behavioral approach, two important reasons why evangelical religion or New Age pop psychology, they seem to work for so many people. They pay with a do-you-believe-in-magic touch thrown in serious attention to ordinary pain by requiring for good measure. people to pay attention to it themselves by

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taking inventories, admitting wrongdoing, understood and accepted. Safety was almost making direct amends, praying and meditating, tangibly present in many of the meetings I and spreading the message of spiritual attended, and I believe the feeling of uncritical awakening. Working the steps one by one, and acceptance people find in these programs may repeating them indefinitely, gives people at least be one of the main reasons they flock to the two things that neither science not politics meetings. The safe environment has been consistently seems to trust people with: A largely purchased at a rather high price, however: a self-determined behavioral routine and community culture that does not allow room for permission to understand our problems direct reaction or interaction of any kind, in differently at different stages in our lives, in ways particular, criticism. that make sense to us even if they don’t to They look alike, but are all the Twelveanyone else. Step programs really the same? Does it make On a day-to-day basis, Twelve-Step sense to change compulsive eating behavior programs offer members handy directories of with the same techniques alcoholics use to keep meeting times and places, “Approved” literature sober? Is sexual addiction different from food on a range of topics, and slogans to live by, like addiction, and are they both different from “One day at a time” and “Let go and let God.” A addiction to mind-altering substances? set of 12 Traditions governs program structure. Food is something we all need to live; Members are strongly urged to frequently attend none of us needs drugs or alcohol to survive, but meetings, although they are completely alcoholism and drug addiction are characterized voluntary. Still, it is not unusual for individuals to by a physiological process of dependence participate in four or five meetings each week for completely unknown to most overeaters or sex many years. Meetings roughly follow a standard and love addicts. Food can be a way for people format: An opening statement, a speaker who to establish and maintain relationships, express comes prepared to tell his or her story, their cultural identities, or spend leisure time. spontaneous sharing by those present, and a One progressive political analysis of food and closing statement. When people speak, they do eating-fat liberation-comes in direct conflict with so for as long as they wish to without the Twelve-Step approach of Overeaters interruption. No one responds directly to Anonymous. anything that is said. There are slight variations In particular, feminists have exposed on this format, and a meeting in rural Nebraska American society’s cultural imperatives about would certainly feel different from one on Castro the physical body-what it is supposed to weigh, Street in San Francisco, but a Twelve-Step look like, feel like, smell like, and act like-and meeting anywhere would be easily recognizable claimed that accepted notions of clothing, diet, to anyone who had ever attended one before. and appearance are among the causes of Predictability is the point. women’s self-hatred. Fat liberationists have Programs encourage a sponsorship developed the convincing argument that fat itself system, where individuals who have been in the is far less of a health or self-esteem issue in the program for a while act as buddies to lives of fat people than are endless cycles of newcomers, orienting them to program debilitating diets or stereotypes about what fat philosophy and structure. In addition to their (and thin) people must be like. sponsors, members have no trouble finding Sex is no more a survival need than willing listeners outside meetings. Telephone alcohol. Yet, like the desire for food, the desire numbers are exchanged and used, at all hours for sex often exceeds the body’s need to satisfy of the day and night, when people need help or the basic hungers of human emotion and spirit. support or just want the comfort that comes from It can be a tremendous source of pleasure, making contact with other human beings who which is why most people do not choose longcare. term celibacy. People, who enjoy sex because Twelve-Step programs also provide of how it makes them feel about their partners, another thing that people are desperate to find: or those who simply look forward to the next a predictably safe place in which to feel time they have an orgasm, may be considered

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perfectly normal. They also can be considered throwing every manner of excess into the slightly neurotic, or completely obsessive. addiction pot and suggesting that a stiff upper lip Whether an individual feels sexually normal or can solve everything from a monster federal abnormal is determined by social attitudes as deficit to urban crime. Just Say No sounds much as by specifics of sexual pain and catchy, but what the slogan really means is that pleasure in her or his own life. self-control is the entire answer, that saying no Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous is an act of moral significance, and that the (SLAA) is a relatively new program; it was people who do so are strong, whereas the founded in Boston in 1976 by recovered people who don’t are pathetic weaklings. This alcoholics. An SLAA pamphlet, entitled “40 trend toward championing the heroism and Questions for Self-Diagnosis,” asks: ”Have you romanticizing the virtue of the will is probably a ever wished you could be less emotionally significant contributing factor to the popularity of dependent? Do you find yourself in a Twelve-Step programs. relationship you cannot leave? Do you believe The current war on drugs, sex, and other that sex and/or a relationship will make your life modern “evils” is a hypocritical effort to rub out bearable?” I think many people-certainly large the cultural changes of the past two decades by numbers of women-would be inclined to answer masquerading as a caring crusade. Take, for yes to questions such as these. Does that make example, the dismal state of sex education. The us all sex and love addicts? Regan administration has suggested that What exactly does recovery involve for parents instill the concept of chastity in their an SLAA member? According to members, the children by whatever means they see fit. goal is to find love and sex within a true Millionaire John LaCorte recently made national partnership, a kind of relationship (generally headlines with his modest contribution to the understood to be monogamous) that does not Just Say No campaign: an offer to pay $1,000 to fuel the addiction. If no committed, continuing any girl who guarded her virginity until age 19. relationship is possible, then total sexual AIDS educators know that they too must abstinence is called for as the only method of play by the rules that put them in an impossible maintaining sexual sobriety. Clearly, a traditional bind. They can squeak by only as long as they hierarchy of sexual values is being upheld here; say no to frank discussions about sexual Monogamy is the healthy ideal, and celibacy is pleasure, as a recent case in Massachusetts preferable to promiscuity. clearly illustrates. In November 1987, when it The Twelve-Step approach does not take looked like a long-fought-for state gay rights law up the significant differences between addictions might finally pass, opponents of the bill or people. The programs downplay instigated extensive publicity about sexually contradictions and differences by implying that explicit AIDS education materials and all substances and activities are addictive when succeeded in killing the bill for yet another year. the enable the user (or doer) to numb out and If our government were really interested suggest that people are trying to fill painful in eradicating alcohol and drug abuse, it would psychological/spiritual voids that no substance be spending time and money on rehabilitation, or activity can actually satisfy. Can all human but it is not. In January 1987, while Nancy pain be collected into one big bundle labeled Reagan was having her picture taken with bornaddiction? Should it be? What about the feelings again drug addicts, her husband cut nearly $1 of pleasure that people derive from food, drugs, billion from the national anti-drug budget and alcohol, sex, and a host of other substances and actually recommended that not a single federal activities? Are these merely self-delusions, the dollar be spent on treatment programs. sneaky evidence of addictions-in-the-making? Meanwhile, 30 million Americans undergo drug Or are Twelve-Step programs simply adding to screening today-in prisons, workplaces, sports, the guilt already inflicted on us by our the military and on campuses-and some pleasurephobic culture? estimates indicate that 50 percent of the working If defining addiction is difficult, the Just population will be tested regularly for drugs by Say No campaign has made it even more so by 1992.

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job as a clerical worker in a big law firm but No matter where the political winds are started sounding anxious when she described blowing, however, the Twelve-Step programs her new boss as “a man with a bad reputation are determined to ignore them. In fact, avoiding for kicking his secretaries around like dogs.” She public controversy at all costs is one of the most concluded that this worrisome situation was consistent structural features of such programs. really a test of her sobriety, and she resolved to AA publishes a booklet describing the “Twelve “meet the challenge to be a pleasant person, no Traditions” that govern the structure of Twelve- matter what.” Because meeting rules do not Step programs. The 10th tradition specifies: “Our permit direct responses from others in the room, fellowship has no opinions on outside issues, and because no larger social context is officially hence our name ought never to drawn into recognized, no one in the room suggested to public controversy.” This tradition implicitly this young woman that she did not deserve to be recognizes that diverse individuals with treated like an animal or that she was the conflicting viewpoints participate in Twelve-Step potential object of sex discrimination. As far as programs, and it indicates that a formal, non- the program went, the answer was for her to political identity is the only logical way to “think positive.” preserve internal unity and prevent groups from being diverted from their purpose by secondary The conflict between seeing issues. Some important questions do remain, responsibility in purely individual or purely however, about the political implications of political terms arises in the first of the Twelve Twelve-Step philosophy and structure. Steps: “We admitted we were powerless over The programs’ core concept-personal ( )— that our lives had become accountability for one’s actions-is decidedly unmanageable.” For many, this step is apolitical: The responsibility for both addiction problematic because it turns the progressive and recovery rest squarely on the individual. In political goal of empowerment on its head. But particular, the programs’ philosophy that because people generally do not like living with addiction is a disease emphasizes the person intense contradictions, politically aware Twelveand problem in isolation from any outside social Step members creatively manage the conflicts forces. This may ease some of the guilt that between their politics and their Twelve-Step people feel for pain that they and others have experiences. Here is how one politically active experience. One Al-Anon member, in great lesbian explained the importance of taking the relief, told me: ”I make no decisions. The first step, admitting powerlessness, and another disease does. I am sick.” This kind of language sticky concept, the Higher Power. and the Twelve Steps constantly refer people When I was getting sober, AA was back to themselves with the message that their completely in opposition to my experience as a old negative ways of thinking and behaving are politico because one of the big words was the sources of their pain. Consequently, only powerlessness. Every activist’s hair stands on new, positive approaches, nurtured by the end at the idea of embracing powerlessness, programs themselves, will produce serenity. which you’re supposed to be wild about in I rarely heard any speakers in meetings- AA….I found a way to rework the philosophy. It whether recounting stories of assault, workplace was clear to me that the minute you “give up,” hassles, or matters of the heart-mention directly you begin a process of empowerment….The big the realities of physical power, economic stumbling block for me was the whole God inequality, racial bigotry, or sexual coercion, thing…. To me, this was completely patriarchal even in instances where these were clearly and repugnant. So someone suggested a being described. This is true even in Women for concept of God that wouldn’t offend me- Sobriety (WFS), a “new life” program for women historical materialism [the orthodox Marxist alcoholics that differs from Twelve-Step theory of history]. programs in that it tries to identify the unique Members who aren’t quite as good at recovery needs of women. For example, one fine-tuning the Twelve-Step approach to their WFS member was talking happily about her new own personal philosophies are simply reminded

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to “take what you need and leave the rest,” a measured by our success or failure in this handy Twelve-Step slogan designed to minimize regard. conflict and to help people feel comfortable. Progressive political movements should The custom fit of the Twelve-Step be taking notes on what is so appealing about experience is undoubtedly part of its appeal, but the recovery movement. Political leaders and in the context of a Just Say No culture, it risks artists inspire us with visions of peace and social distorting personal pain to a point where people justice; activists discuss and strategize; foot who really do not have addiction problems are soldiers do the work of getting us from here to encouraged to think they do. The most striking there. Meanwhile, we all have to get through the evidence of this is that many people who are not day. Getting through the day might mean staying alcoholics, overeaters, or drug addicts are away from a bar, finding a friend to cry with in a regularly attending meetings and adopting the moment of sadness, or having wonderful sex all Twelve-Step philosophy as their own, anyway. afternoon. It might just be another day at work. The presence of non-addicts is controversial in Whatever it is, it is what political movements some but not all meetings, where addicts should be about. Changing the structure of consider them to be diluting the program and political power is not as possible, certainly not as distracting members from their main goal of meaningful, when changing ourselves is absent recovery. from the political agenda. As one follower said, “There are some There is no doubt that Twelve-Step people-I won’t say they’re addicted to the programs have helped people get through a lot programs because that’s not an appropriate use of days. But they do nothing to decipher or of the word-who do use the programs as a change the larger context in which time passes, crutch. The meetings aren’t about making especially in a Just Say No culture that would friends. They’re about changing your life.” like to wipe out progressive gains for good. But for many, the programs are about Political movements can address the making friends, and it is not unusual for larger context, and they have something unique members’ friendship networks to change to contribute to the recovery process: an radically, even completely, after entering the understanding that prevailing cultural messages program. For some, this is a necessary part of affect how people feel about themselves just as learning that relationships that do not revolve much as “Think Positive” slogans do. Self-hatred around alcohol or drugs are possible. For others, and self-love are not matters of luck or fate; they the programs are just new ways of feeding do not come and go only on uncontrollable tides unsatisfiable hungers for visibility and recognit- of willpower. People struggle for and against ion and a place to experience contrived them, and they will be won or lost just as all interactions dressed up as a recovery. The latter contests of power are won or lost. We must experience is merely a new form of dependency. keep our eyes on the prize of pleasure even when we are in pain, not allowing suffering to Substance and other abuses clearly exist become a symbol of sin or sainthood, nor in our society, taking horrible tolls on individual endorsing sickness as a test of moral character, lives. Total abstinence must be supported for and not making addiction a prerequisite for those who feel it is their only non-abusive option. support and community. If we succeed, we may But just because many things can be dangerous all get to serenity. does not mean that they always are. Positive and negative potentials exist side by side. Excerpted with permission from Out/Look: National Lesbian Drugs, sex, food, and other things can be quite and Gay Quarterly (Summer 1988 Subscriptions:$19/yr. (4issues) from Box 46030, San Francisco, CA 94146-0430. wonderful. We should be as determined to Back issues available from same address. define our right to pleasure as we are to eradicate the reality of our pain. To some degree, our dignity as a society will be

Source: Utne Reader, Nov. Dec. 1988

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