Re: Fwd: Re: Question

[Guest guest]

There are all sorts of data on comparisons of success rates with various treatment protocols. Unfortunately none of them are predicatbly successful. The 95 percent figure I believe is one which comes from a study which shows that of people who make one AA meeting, only five percent are still attending a year later. That does not mean they didn't get sober, only that they are not attending meetings.

There is a data which show that most people get sober on their own. They simply quit drinking. Of those who can't quit on their, the odds are against them. For a person in middle age who is still actively alcoholic, I believe most studies the chances of getting sober are about 1 in 3 they can quit alone, 1 in 3 they can get sober with therapy or a support group, and 1 in three they will fail. These figures are very approximate. Oddly, there have been very few rigourous studies of the efficacy of various therapies.

What is known is that you have the best chance of getting sober if you are educated, employed, have a supportive family, go through rehab and then support group or therapy. Under those conditions you have a pretty good chance of making it. Without those resources, the odds are against you.

As discouraging as the data are on the chances of getting sober, that doesn't mean your individual effort will fail. We are all different and we have different odds of getting sober.

One of the reason for the massive cutbacks in reimbursement for rehabs is that there is little evidence that they have a very high success rate. Most rehabs, of course, use AA principles.

Fwd: Re: Question

95% questionThanks . I understand your desire to know the truth, but I deliberatly didn't even let the full question reprint, in my personal effort to snuff out such a life threating untruth. Statistics say that negatives are circulated 19 times more often than positives. I suspect that is the case with this negative inference about AA. I wouldn't want to be responsible for contributing even one of those 19 times.Truth- Noone knows the actual success rate of AA because no records are kept at any level from the most humble local meeting of just two alcoholics, all the way up to things like last month's international convention and to the World Service office.It would be against the traditions, especially a violation of the anonyminity which is part of the success of Alcoholics Anonymous.Attendance is not taken in AA.The sign sheets we see sometimes belong to the individual who might have been court ordered to AA and who must report back to the court on his/her attendance. Thankfully, we often see those people back on a voluntary basis after they discover that the program of Alcoholics Anonymous does work for those who work it.In my opinion, the statement you heard was most likely made by a person who doesn't want AA to work. This is sometimes because they either don't _want_ to get sober, or because they believe _they_ are the power in their lives and are grounded in the idea that there is no power greater than themselves. Sometimes it is resistance to the idea of God and they don't hear that it's "God, as you understand Him." This means we get to choose our own conception of God. Nothing is imposed. Everything (but drinking) is respected.The program of AA has helped me stay sober 10+ years. I go to meetings where the person with the longest sobriety has 22+years and the newest person has less than 2 weeks. We all wish a new drunk would come through the door.I hope this helps answer your question. What counts is: Do you think you are an alcoholic? Do you _want_ to get sober? Will you go to any length to get sober? If so, go to six meetings before you make a decision on whether AA is for you. Get the book "Alcoholics Anonymous" commonly called the "big book" and _read_ it over and over. Read the stories at the back, looking for the similarities of thought, not the differences. Reread those stories and look for how those people found a solution. Go to meetings and look for people you are willing to get to know and let them know you. Ask one to temporarily sponsor you and show you how to work the 12 steps. Start to follow the steps to getting sober. They work. There are over 2 million people who will attest to that. Don't listen to the ones who say it doesn't work. They don't want the freedom from the alcohlic pit that we want.Happy traveling. Hope I see you at a meeting. R. Oklahoma--- End forwarded message ---