The Axemaker's Addiction

In The Axemaker's Gift, James Burke talks about how one of the fundamental flaws with how we approach problems is that once we find a solution that seems to work, we stop looking for other solutions. After a while, the solution become so ingrained in who we are that we accept it as THE WAY to solve the problem. This is fine, as long as it DOES solve the problem. However, in many cases, the solution we believe to be the way to solve the problem doesn't always work. Unfortunately, because we now firmly believe the solution to be the ONLY WAY, we never question it.

This article at Salon tackles now this is playing out in the way we handle addiction in the US. For many years now, the Alcoholics Anonymous 12 Step program has been the basis for curing addiction. The 12 Step process is also the one most often used in rehab centers and in group therapy sessions. It is so accepted and institutionalized in the US that we have incorporated it into our legal system. Courts order people into 12 Step programs and rehab centers all the time. TV shows incorporate the success of AA into part of their story line. In fact, for a while, we had a show (Intervention) where the episode ended successfully when people would accept rehab, with the understood message being that they were on their way to recovery.

As the daughter of addicts, and as an addict myself, I can tell you that it is with no surprise that, in truth, AA only works somewhere between ten and fifteen percent of the time. Granted, while you  consider how many people do 12 Step programs, 10-15% is still a large number of people. Still, the fact remains that AA and its various programs aren't working for about 85% of the people who try the program. Most people repeat rehab programs over and over again (at a considerable cost to themselves or their families or, in some cases, the state) and many people start AA, only to give up as they begin to chafe under the powerlessness and religiosity of the program.

However, BECAUSE our culture places such FAITH in the success of the AA 12 Step programs, when we see that many people do not stay successfully sober after the program, we don't assume it is because of a flaw in the program . . . we assume it is a flaw in the people. They didn't try hard enough. They didn't take it seriously. They didn't really WANT to get clean. They won't accept they have a problem. These and any other number of excuses are given, almost all of them will blame the people who didn't successfully complete the program, all as a means to defend our faith in AA working.

I've struggled with my weight basically all of my life. I've been on tons of diets and programs and behavior modification stuff and yet I am still fat. In the last several years, I have began to finally lose that weight . . .because I realized that it wasn't my failure to conform to the programs but the failure of the programs to address what I needed in order to lose weight. What I needed involved things I worked out in therapy, modifications I made within my own control to make, and various other needs of my physical health were addressed. The process is slow and it is every day, but I know that it is something I can handle, without feeling powerless or putting myself in the hands of anything else.

When there are problems in society, we should never just STOP finding solutions once ONE solution seems to be working. After all, just because it works to solve a small part of the problem . . . or to solve it for certain people . . . doesn't mean that will be the case for everyone. To place our faith in just one answer is only only lazy and irresponsible, it's detrimental to people who are vulnerable to the problem. They slip through the cracks because we value our Solution more than we value them. In the end, a lot of people will suffer when we fail to come up with various answers to our problems.