History of the 12 Step Program
Alcoholics Anonymous and the 12-steps began in June of 1935, during the great depression. Bill Wilson, a reformed lush and stockbroker founded the organization after meeting his Higher Power while detoxing in a Manhattan drug rehab center. His methods, the resulting 12 steps and rules are at the heart of AA. Wilson had no formal medical or psychology training; instead the 12 Steps were created by combining ideas from philosophy and religion. He condensed these ideas into concise list with a structure inspired by the Bible.
The Alcoholics Anonymous book also known as “The Big Book” has since become the foundation of addiction treatment throughout the United States, where approximately 23 million people struggle with the disease of alcoholism or substance abuse—this is more than double the number of Americans afflicted with cancer. An estimated 1.2 million people belong to one of the 55,000 Alcoholic Anonymous meeting groups in the United States. Another significant number of people participate in the steps while receiving drug treatment at one of the nation’s 11,000 drug rehab centers. Anyone who is recovering from a drug or alcohol problem will undoubtedly encounter Wilson’s system as they work their way to recovery.
Alcoholics Anonymous is the largest of the different twelve-step programs. The next largest group is Narcotics Anonymous or NA. The largest numbers of twelve-step members are in recovery for addiction to drugs or alcohol; however, the majority of twelve-step programs deal with illnesses other than addiction. An example of this is Al-Anon , the third largest twelve-step program which assists family members of drug and alcohol addicts. Roughly twenty percent of twelve-step programs help those struggling with addiction. The other eighty percent deal with a variety of problems from depression to debt.
The 12 Steps
These are the Twelve Steps as published by Alcoholics Anonymous:
1. We admitted our powerlessness over our illness, or drugs and alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of our Higher Power.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to our Higher Power, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have our Higher Power remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked our Higher Power to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with our Higher Power, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to drug and alcohol addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Power of the Group
Individual therapy is effective, but according to Psychologists one of the best ways to change human behavior is to treat individuals with similar problems in groups. In 1905 Joseph Pratt, a physician in Boston was one of the first to note this occurrence. He began organizing tuberculosis patients into weekly group meetings. Even though he initially he thought the groups would teach members better hygiene, Pratt quickly realized group therapy provided members a beneficial emotional uplift. He noted that by giving patients the chance to share their hardships with one another, “In a common disease, they have a bond.” More recently a pair of Stanford University researchers identified why this group approach is so effective. After reviewing approximately 200 articles on group therapy their conclusion was that: “Members find the group to be a compelling emotional experience; they develop close bonds with the other members and are deeply influenced by their acceptance and feedback.”
12-Step Effectiveness
According to Project Match, a multisite clinical trial of alcohol treatment at the University of Connecticut Health Center “No single treatment approach is effective for all persons with alcohol [drug] problems. A more promising strategy involves assigning patients to alternative treatments based on specific needs and characteristics of patients.”
Project Match was conducted between 1989 and 1997 wherein more than 1,700 alcoholics were assigned to one of three successful drug treatment therapies used by professional drug rehab programs. The therapy used was called 12-step facilitation, wherein a licensed therapist assists clients through Bill Wilson’s 12-Step method. The second was cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), this teaches addicts to recognize the triggers and situations that have previously lead to relapse. By specifically Identifying people, places, and situations that have lead to relapse people can learn avoid these compromising situations in the future. Finally was motivational enhancement therapy, an individual-therapy-interview process that strengthens a person’s reasons for maintaining sobriety.
The final conclusion of Project Match was that all three of these therapies were about equally successful at reducing alcohol [drug] intake among participants. Although 12-step facilitation was substantially more effective in two important areas: First, it was more effective for individuals without co-occurring psychiatric problems, and second, 12-Step facilitation was more effective at achieving total abstinence as compared to just limiting alcohol [drug] consumption. In conclusion, the 12-Steps were slightly more effective than the other two therapies.
The 12-Step Program at Cold Creek Wellness Center
Because no single approach is effective for every individual we utilize 12-Step Facilitation and 12-Step meetings, along with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Individual Therapy, Group Therapy and Motivational enhancement therapy. This gives our clients the best chance for success. During treatment, clients attend 12-Step meetings two times per week with an outside group that is unaffiliated with Cold Creek’s program. This establishes a routine of attending weekly meetings, establishes clients with an existing support group and eliminates the fear and anxiety associated with starting a 12-Step program alone. This is a powerful tool for our clients as they transition from the protective inpatient setting to the less structured intensive outpatient program.
