This is an excerpt from a rebuttal article on Why AA
works - "In a story in the April issue of The Atlantic that
was posted online earlier today, journalist Gabrielle Glaser harshly criticizes
Alcoholics Anonymous. AA and similar 12-step programs, Here and throughout
the piece, Glaser is simply ignoring a decade’s worth of science. “No, that’s
not true,” said Dr. John Kelly, a clinical psychologist and addiction
specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, when I
ran Glaser’s argument by him. “There’s quite a bit of evidence now, actually, that’s
shown that AA works.”
This is just a
snippet of what is out there right now on social media after Gabrielle Glaser
went on MSNBC with Chris Hayes to discuss "The Irrationality of Alcoholics
Anonymous". And all I can say is thank goodness for NYMag and Dr. John Kelly for their comments to balance out the whacka doo that is Gabby Glaser. In my humble opinion of course. I'm not one
to say that AA is the ONLY way to get someone sober, its just the method that
worked for me. But for some lady, Gabrielle Glaser, to go on national TV and basically trash AA is just wrong. It's wrong on so many levels. Clearly the US Justice System thinks it works as it court mandates meetings for
continual drunk drivers, as well as certain drug addicts, but to to question
what works for a few million people and throw a wrench into Recovery from a
hopeless state of mind and body is just a bunch of phooey! I think we need to
boycott anything Gabrielle Glaser says, writes or does, or at least I will.
How many stories of recovery do we need to hear before someone like dear old Gabby can just put a lid on it. I too agree there are other ways to get clean and sober and AA isn't a cure-all for everyone, but the damage she, and others in the media, are doing to AA and its Fellowship and the organization cannot be reversed. AA has been getting a bad rap in the media for a while, at least since Lindsay Lohan was photographed reading a copy of the Big Book, only to go out and relapse soon after. Hey, I'm not the poster child for AA and How it Works, but there are reasons we have traditions and service organizations and volunteers, etc. I'm just sayin'.
I'm
forever indebted to AA for changing my life and making it better. The fact that its the method that has worked for so many years and for so many people should speak for itself. I didn't think I was one of those "soap box" folks before today. But, for AA I guess I am. and there it is.