Many drug and alcohol rehab centers base at least part of their program on the 12 steps from alcoholics anonymous (A.A.).  In the past half century since the development of A.A. many things have changed.  Society has tackled many of it's ills and life is much different than that of the 1950's.  Society is much more open and everyone's right's are much more respected and  protected. 

Many people today follow the disease model of addiction, put forth by A.A., that it is a chronic disease that requires a lifetime of treatment and relapse is part of the recovery.  In light of this, is it still good for A.A. to be anonymous?  Keeping it anonymous, may somehow reinforce the shame, that alcoholism is a disease that needs to be treated without revealing who you are.  You have done something wrong, or have something wrong with you that you need to not reveal. 

Mental illness, aids, women's right's, homosexual issues have all come out from under the cloud of silence.  Heck if you believe the ads on the television, erectile dysfunction, is a condition with such an amazing cure we should all wish for it.  So in the new century, and the year 2007 does it make sense to keep treatment anonymous? 

Keeping A.A. anonymous simply perpetuates the myth that having an addiction is something you need to be ashamed of.  It also makes it very difficult to research and improve.  An anonymous organization ran by anonymous people is not going to be easy to find the most efficient and effective ways to utilize the 12 Steps.  You could not imagine the treatment of diabetes being  anonymous with no identification of the clients, no follow up on outcome.  Why do we accept this with addiction?

We all owe a debt of gratitude to the footsteps of A.A.  They started an organization at a time when there wasn't many options open to those with drug and alcohol addiction.  Maybe by removing the anonymous from A.A. now would be a way of showing how far we really have come, and that addiction is just one of many challenges we may face in life.  And it should be treated with the same dignity, respect and science as any other condition we have.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 22nd, 2007 at 7:37 am and is filed under Drug Rehab. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.