The Science Behind AA

by Sally Rosa | Mar 19, 2015 | 12 Steps, Addiction Articles

Spirituality & Science…Together?

We all know that AA and other twelve-step fellowships work. Most women in long-term recovery are living, breathing, and awesome proof of it! What we don’t know, though, is why AA works.

Let me clarify, we don’t know scientifically why AA works. While it’s easy to say that the twelve-steps work because of God, that answer doesn’t satisfy most scientists, researchers, or academics.

The first question you may be asking yourself is who cares what scientists think? I know I certainly asked myself that more than once! My opinion, our opinion really, doesn’t matter in this case, though. After all, think of how many suffering addicts and alcoholics would flock to AA if it were better understood!

(I know, I know, recovery is for people who want it and do it, not for people who need it. That fact aside, we can all agree that a better understand of AA, NA, CA, etc. would benefit the public at large. Remember, our lives today are about how we can best help everyone!)

Well, a substance abuse and mental health counselor named Joe Nowinski set out to understand the how and why of Alcoholics Anonymous. Find out what he found out below!

A Surprising Introduction

In the 1980’s, Joe Nowinski worked in student health at the University of Connecticut. One day, he went to a training at Hazelden, one of the country’s oldest and most respected treatment centers.

Of his introduction to AA, Joe says,

“I looked up at a large poster on the wall. It was the 12 steps. My eye was immediately caught by the word God that appeared there a number of times, and my gut reaction was something like, “Oh no! I’m a cognitive-behavioral therapist! I don’t believe in God!” (The Fix).

Sounds like someone had a little contempt prior to investigation!

After spending a week at Hazelden, Joe soon changed his mind. He was able to experience firsthand the power of twelve-step recovery. He saw the change it brought over people. He saw the benefits of honesty, open mindedness, and willingness!

Research into 12-Step Recovery

Following his auspicious introduction to Alcoholics Anonymous, Joe participated in something called Project MATCH. This was a study that looked at the outcomes, or rates of abstinence, quality of life, etc., of various therapies. It was also, to date, the largest psychotherapy outcome study ever conducted.

The results were astounding to researchers and clinicians alike. It turns out that “Twelve-Step Facilitation Treatment,” aka becoming involved in a twelve-step fellowship, kept more people sober!

William R. Miller, a therapist involved in Project MATCH, wrote,

“On at least one time-honored outcome measure—the percentage of patients maintaining complete abstinence—those in the Twelve Step Facilitation treatment fared significantly better than did patients in the other two conditions—a substantial advantage of about 10 percentage points that endured across three years” (The Fix).

I’ll stick with something that gives me a 10% better shot at staying sober!

Various other studies have examined the effectiveness of twelve-step recovery. “Twelve-Step Facilitation Treatment” was compared to something called Motivational Enhancement Therapy. The results showed that those involved with “Twelve-Step Facilitation Treatment” (really, can we just call it working the steps!!) stayed sober for longer.

Another type of therapy that includes twelve-step principles is called MAAEZ (which stands for Making AA Easier). MAAEZ has been shown to lead to higher rates of abstinence than Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, long considered the gold standard of addiction treatment.

So, it’s abundantly clear that twelve-step based therapies work! It’s obvious, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that twelve-step principles work. What Joe Nowinski also found out is that all self-help groups help people.

Organizations like SMART Recovery and Women for Sobriety (not to be confused with us, Sobriety for Women!) also help boost rates of abstinence and improve quality of life.

What Joe didn’t find out was exactly why AA and other twelve-step fellowships work. While that’s unfortunate, all he had to do to get an answer, however unscientific it might be, was ask a member of twelve-step recovery!

The twelve-steps work because they take me outside of myself. They allow me, through a God of my own understanding, to become selfless, honest, and strong. They allow all of us to experience real freedom for the first time!

Binge Drinking Harms the Body’s Immune System

by A Women in Sobriety | Jan 9, 2015 | Addiction Articles, Drug Addiction

Binge Drinking & Our Bodies

It should come as no surprise that binge drinking is dangerous! It makes people behave stupidly, puts them at high risk for all types of accidents and diseases, and costs society a ton of money. Well, now there’s one more harmful effect to add to the list.

According to a new study, conducted by researchers at Loyola University, binge drinking actually damages our body’s immune system. That doesn’t sound too good!

Okay, so binge drinking can lead to accidents, injuries, assault, general health problems, STD’s, and a damaged immune system. Seems like it’s time to stop knocking back the drinks and start taking a look at why people binge drink in the first place.

I’ll touch on that later, but first let’s look at the new research.

The New Facts about Binge Drinking

Dr. Elizabeth Kovacs, the head of Loyola’s Alcohol Research Program (shout out to women in power!), is the co-author of this new study. In it, her and other scientists measured fifteen people’s immune system responses before and after drinking.

They took a baseline reading, gave the study participants four or five shots of vodka, and took another reading. Side note – where was this study when I was drinking and drugging?! I would have loved to get drunk for science!

Interestingly enough, when the booze was at peak levels in the participants’ systems, their immune systems were more active than before drinking. Weird, right? Then the researchers measured immune system response two and five hours after drinking.

By this point, all the participants’ immune systems were moving at sluggish levels. This could be due to the depressant effects of alcohol. It could be because of a million other factors. Who knows?

What this study makes clear is that more research needs to be done! After all, binge drinking is harmful in so many ways. It’s important to figure out all of them. If there’s more knowledge of the dangers binge drinking presents, hopefully fewer people will do it!

Other Binge Drinking Dangers

Like I just mentioned above, binge drinking has a ton of negative side effects. That’s obvious enough to us, as recovering alcoholics and addicts!

There are the obvious dangers like being too drunk to consent to sexual activity. But then there are subtler dangers. Find a list of some dangers of binge drinking below:

Binge drinking has led to an increase of children being born with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders. These are cognitive impairments similar to Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, but, generally speaking, less severe.
Binge drinking costs the U.S. more than $223 billion annually. Think about that number for a second. 223 billion dollars! That’s an obscene amount of money! These costs come from lost productivity, health care costs, and crime.
Here’s an obvious one – binge drinking can, and often does, lead to alcoholism!
Binge drinking is commonly associated with unintentional injuries (car crashes, falls, accidents), sexual assault, domestic violence, STD’s (too drunk to care about using protection), and many health problems. Health problems may include: high blood pressure, an enlarged liver, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and kidney disease.

Okay…So What?

That’s a good question! Everyone knows binge drinking is dangerous. The new findings about how it compromises our immune systems aren’t incredibly surprising. So why talk about it? Why devote an entire essay to it?

The answer’s simple – we, as a society, need to change how we view alcohol. Women in recovery know how harmful it is. But what about others? Generally speaking, American culture celebrates drinking. We don’t view it as something dangerous, but rather as something that everyone does.

If we want to see less people binge drinking, and by extension less people being hurt by binge drinking, we need to change up the narrative! And what better place to start than by those in recovery? We’ve seen firsthand the harmful and sometimes fatal consequences of booze. We’re basically the experts!

So, world, listen when I say that binge drinking needs to stop! If a normie wants to have a glass of wine with dinner, that’s fine. If that same normie wants to have six glasses of wine and four Jello shots in an hour, well, that’s not fine.

Remember, we can all change!