Addiction and Recovery are Changing

Two things everyone in society or recovery have been dancing around for the last twenty-five years or so, and so very few have been willing to talk about are: # 1 – Twelve-step programs and what we call treatment aren’t working. We are maintaining a 93 % failure rate (or a 7% ‘success’ rate) in all styles of interventions and treatment in recovery houses, treatment centres including the ultra-expensive ones, and in all twelve-step self-help groups. Despite all the hype and self-promotion, Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are failing miserably. And # 2 – What the quasi-Christian members of old-fashioned AA/NA call meetings are nothing more than a thinly veiled indoctrination into Christianity. That religious indoctrination called Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous ‘recovery’ is failing badly. Yes, we get the committed hard-liners proclaiming their miracles and faith in God, but traditional AA and NA are still in the 93 % failure rate. More to the point, atheism in society and secular recovery groups have consistently experienced growth in their membership over the last fifteen years. The 93% failure rate of all things we have called ‘treatment’ is admirably documented in Dr. Lance Dodes’ book The Sober Truth.

This first series of posts will be to outline and explain why these are truths that can no longer be ignored. Addiction is moving into lower and lower age groups and is being witnessed in a much wider range of destructive behaviours. Well informed therapists and counsellors, and many parents, are seeing addiction-like symptoms and behaviours in children as young as 4 and 5. Addiction is now prominent in the three main constellations of addiction—process, distraction, and ingestion addictions. It is now a global, social crisis of epidemic proportions. And, in my experience, in fact, addicts turning to religion and the God-prayer-forgiveness model (like traditional AA and other twelve-step groups) actually add fuel to the fire. The 7 % of recovery people who report success in traditional AA or NA are achieving some recovery; that is true. Religious recovery seems to work, but in understanding depth psychology, going from active addiction to a sober life in religion is simply transferring dysfunctions.

The psychology of addiction—how it operates in real time—is two things. # 1 – It is a mental illness. No, it isn’t a disease, and it certainly isn’t a collection of character defects as we are led to believe in twelve-step programs. Recovery from addiction is not a character defect reduction strategy (which is what society has been fed and believes since 1939). # 2 – Addiction, whether mild or severe, whether process, distraction, or ingestion, is always the manifest consequence of a person living in a secret mental world of broken relationships. Addiction is the illness of broken relationships. This is why ‘religion’ or God-beliefs are always a second-best solution to addiction—religion and God-beliefs are the harbour of broken relationships and disrespect.

When symptom management is established, recovery must embrace the depth psychology of healthy relationships. Recovery is to first establish symptom management like abstinence, being honest, and some degree of the reduction of anger or self-hate. Once changes in an addict’s life are somewhat consistent: abstinence or bottom-line behaviour, being increasingly and deliberately honest, gaining some measure of not blaming (being less angry), and acquiring some self-respect, the counsellor or therapist will (hopefully) gently begin to explore the addict’s inner life of how their relationships are constructed.

Addiction is the mental illness of broken relationships on three levels. 1 – Relationships with substances, rituals, and distractions (the external level). 2 – Relationships with other people in resentments, lack of trust, shame, fear, manipulation, dishonesty, isolation (the immediate social level). And 3 – the inner mental relationship with themselves (cognitive dissonance, self-hate and self-deprecation, chaos, indecision, perpetual incompetence). Religion and traditional twelve-step programs cannot offer resolution to these mental problems of addiction.

Kind regards and thank you for your time. I’ll add more in a few days. I hope this helps. Richard