~~~~~~~~~~~~~Sciency question~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Have they ever tested "rehab" and AA programs by allowing "non-addicts" to participate in them and monitored the results?
I'm watching the end of Celebrity Rehab and I don't think Jamiee Foxworth is an addict... I can't find any news about her, so I don't know if she "relapsed" or not.
3.07.2008
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9 comments:
The TV show Bullshit said 12 step programs are, well, bullshit. So it must be true. On the other hand, I hear my uncle got through an AA program successfully. So, I dunno.
It just seems like everyone is forced to admit addiction, even if it is to prescription drugs they take as a regular dosage once per day. I mean, if someone has chronic pain from a back injury, why couldn't they use pain killers to walk?
I know quite a few people who have been through AA and have successfully kicked the habit.
What would be the point in putting non addicts through? They have nothing to change and it wouldn't really be a control group.
Taking pain meds for actual pain is fine, but when it becomes something a person thinks they can't live without then it's an addiction and probably not healthy.
Lisa has a point. The way to set up the experiment would be to have 2 groups of addicts. One group would go through a 12-step program and one group would just meet on a regular basis. You'd have to find a way to make sure that neither group knew which treatment they were getting. Then at the end you'd compare to see if there was a statistically significant difference in the number of habits kicked between people who went through a 12-step program and people who just met once a week.
There isn't really a question about programs working or not working for people with problems with mind altering substances, what I was wondering about is if it doesn't simply turn people into "addicts" who otherwise might not have a problem. In Celeb Rehab, Jeff Conway's gf states, "if I need a drink, I'm gonna have to go out and get a drink." To that, Dr. Drew responds, "If you're using alcohol as a mood regulator, thats a problem."
But that's a feeling I've had every now and then - everyone's had that feeling of "damn, I need a drink." It doesn't mean that alcohol is my mood regulator or that I need a twelve step program. It means I'm a grown-up with stresses and sometimes, I just want a little buzz, but I wonder if rehab would make me admit some kind of addiction.
Rehab might make you admit addiction, but you'd have to land yourself in rehab first.
Saying, "I need a drink" and going out and getting one once in awhile when you're stressed isn't going to land you there. People are sent into rehab programs when they're caught drunk driving, abusing others or when their friends or family see them drink themselves to sleep every single night. I'm not sure about AA, I got the feeling that people that went to AA were doing so by choice--hence why people who go through it often say it works--they want to change. I think a lot of rehab facilities that are forced on addicts due to their breaking the law don't work because the people don't WANT to stop drinking/using. But going for a drink on occasion isn't going to make someone send you to rehab. Nor is taking a prescription drug--it's prescribed to you. If someone starts abusing prescription drugs, or becomes helplessly addicted--then yes, they are addicts.
Have any of you ever seen "Intervention"? There, the addicts are ambushed and essentially forced into treatment. They go "willingly," under pressure of all their crying family members. Sometimes rehab works out, sometimes it doesn't. Anyway, just wondering...
I never watched "Intervention" although I've seen promos for it. It just looks like a trainwreck.
I loved Intervention, but then we decided cable was way too much for the few extra channels we ever watched. Plus, not like I have much time to sit in front of the TV anyways - thank God for TiVo!
Even on that show, it was ultimately the addicts choice, but if they didn't go it pretty much meant disownment by family and friends. Rehab & AA can work and I totally agree with JMo about when having a drink becomes more like needing a drink to function.
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