the 12 – step habit Should you get with the program?

Roberta Pollack Seid, Ph.D.

I confess, I really look forward to my stiff 1957 and Overeaters Anonymous in 1960, for cocktail every night, eat-more fat laden calories example). But in the past decade, the term than I intended to and worry a lot – even in my addiction has ballooned to mean any activity or sleep – about my husband, children and our emotion we feel powerless to control: work, sex, careers. Am I an alcoholic? Foodalcoholic? shopping, love, moods, you name it. At the Workaholic? Codependent? Should I get off the same time, “codependent” has expanded from treadmill and begin some serious 12-stepping? its original meaning – family members of You’d think so. Twelve -step recovery alcoholics only – to include anyone involved in, programs have been sweeping the nation, and or dependent on, any unhealthy relationship, an estimated 15 million to 45 million of us now regardless of whether alcohol is involved. By the participate in them. Book on codependency top new definitions, it seems that nearly everyone best-seller lists, and in April, a cable station all suffers from or is affected by, some sort of about recovery, the Recovery Network, began addiction. airing two hours a day and already reports to Today, 12-step philosophy is pervasive. have 15 million viewers. Even President Clinton Many therapists refer patients to such programs, and Vice President Al Gore use recovery lingo in and courts often order convicted drunken drivers some of their speeches. to attend A.A. Millions who struggle with It all began in 1935, when stockbroker destructive behavior have found healing in the Bill Wilson, struggling to stay sober, sought help 12 steps. “Try it,” says Laura, a thirteen-year from a fellow drinker. Wilson found that the member of Emotions Anonymous. “If you don’t mutual support, mixed with spirituality, was like it, we’ll refund your misery.” effective in keeping him sober, and he went on to write Alcoholics Anonymous (aka “The Book”) But There’s a Plot Twist which spells out the 12-step program he New research is starting to cool the 12-step created. fervor. A recent study by the National Institute In many ways, The Book shaped our on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism indicates that current views of addiction by pointing out that, A.A. is no more successful in curbing alcoholism whether physical or psychological, it is not a than behavioral or motivational psychotherapy contemptible moral defect; it’s the product of a treatments. Other studies suggest that A.A.’s tragic, incurable disease. The best alcoholics strict insistence on abstinence sometimes can hope for is remission, which only comes backfires. with abstinence, because even a sip can trigger According to Reid Hester, Ph.D. director craving and abuse. of division of the research Behavior Therapy According to 12-step philosophy, you Associates in Albuquerque, N.M., ex-drinkers must get support by attending meetings with who equate “one slip” with “relapse” end up other recovering addicts for the rest of your life. bingeing more often than those who are more The meetings are free and enforce anonymity, in tolerant of their lapses. In fact, European part to encourage honesty: Hence the famous alcoholic treatment programs generally introduction, “Hi, my name is (first names only) encourage moderation rather than abstinence. and I’m an alcoholic.” When it comes to drugs, studies have begun to challenge the assumption that one hit A.A. Meets the ’90s of an addictive substance begins a lifelong By the late 1950s, applications of the 12-step downhill spiral of dependency that only 12-step model had spread from chemical dependency to or professional intervention can control. Most of compulsive behaviors (Gamblers Anonymous in the soldiers addicted to heroin during the

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Vietnam War got over their addiction simply as a dangerous because it implies that we don’t have result of returning home. Of those who used the willpower to change without help from heroin on their return, only 12 percent became others. addicted again. What’s more, research suggests that by age 35, most substance abusers “mature Happily Ever After out” of the abuse and become moderate users Culturally, 12-stepping may fill a deep need. “It’s or abstainers, without intervention. really a religious movement,” says Harry Levine, Critics also are concerned about the Ph.D., professor of sociology at Queen’s College psychological impact of the 12-step philosophy. City University of New York. Wilson modeled Addiction often is symptom of other problems, A.A. on evangelical ideas, but modern and fellow sufferers, while often offering psychology infiltrated it and changed the words. precious support, don’t have the training to treat You confess you’re an addict as opposed to a such problems, says Stan J. Katz, M.D., and sinner, and you seek recovery rather than Aimee E. Liu in their book The Codependency salvation. In fact, the religious nature of A.A. has Conspiracy: How to Break the Recovery Habit prompted some legal scholars to contend that and take Charge of Your Life (Warner, 1991). In courts violate the First Amendment’s freedom of addition, the authors point out that we can religion when they order drunken drivers to become hooked on the recovery programs attend A.A., while new groups are sprouting for themselves, substituting one addiction for those who don’t believe in a higher power. another. Perhaps this movement just continues The recent codependency craze also our historical search for perfection or the age-old troubles some experts. Several codependency struggle to deal with our destructive impulses. theorists contend that the modern family is Surely, it has helped many improve their lives. dysfunctional, leaving more than 95 percent of But blaming our troubles on an addiction, or on us with a starved “inner child” and a personality dysfunctional upbringing, may not help us or our primed for dependency. Many argue that the culture. terms codependent and dysfunctional become So before you assume you’re addicted to meaningless when they include so many of us, something, consider the inner strengths you do and this viewpoint encourages us to perceive have. Rather than nurturing your inner child in a ourselves as victimized or diseased. 12-step program for the rest of your days, you In fact, 12-step thinking may lead us to might find more power in improving your coping interpret potentially harmful behavior – like skills and facing life’s responsibilities head-on. drinking a glass of wine every night – as an addiction. Some experts believe this label is Roberta P. Seid, Ph.D., a historian/writer in Santa counterproductive at best. Stanton Peele, Ph.D., Monica, Calif., is author of Never Too Thin: Why author of Diseasing of America: Addiction Women Are at War With Their Bodies (Prentice Hall Treatment out of Control (Lexington, Books, press, 1989). 1989), suggests that the A.A. message is

Source: SHAPE, November 1997.

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