Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Forced 12-step attendance

An email about the following line from and article I posted about earlier:
Twelve-step programs can work for people who choose that option, she said, but it’s not effective for people who are forced into such programs.
The question was whether this was an empirical statement. I haven't seen replicated research on the subject. AA is full of people who were court-ordered and coerced by families and employers. There are all sorts of reasonable arguments against coerced attendance--that it changes AA in undesirable ways; that it might be less effective for people who are forced than for people who go voluntarily; that, for people who are unwilling, it might be less effective than alternatives; that it's unconstitutional; that it's wrong or unjust; that 12-step groups aren't for everyone; etc.

Clearly, 12-steps groups sometimes doesn't work for people who go voluntarily and sometimes works for people who are coerced/forced.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Forcing the 12 step witchcraft/sorcery is wrong. Spiritual Awakening is just plain voodoo.

Anonymous said...

I never thought of AA/NA like that, but know that I think about it 12 step is culty and relies on "came to believe" religion. That is wrong to force this on anyone; they make kids caught drinking go to these 12 step meeting and a kid drinking once IS NOT ALCOHOLIC; this is plain bate-and-switch for evangelical christians.

Anonymous said...

I don't think anything forced on anyone works otherwise it's brainwashing. This girl I know takes diet pills and she says the help her lose weight. She is as huge as she ever was and have been using the pills for 5 years.