Psychological Transformations of Alcoholics Anonymous Members - Essay Example

What Kinds Of Psychological Transformations Do AA Members Undergo? Alcoholics Anonymous was founded by a formerly promising stockbroker d Bill Wilson. He was an alcoholic who kept on relapsing until he turned himself over to a “higher power”. He created a fellowship and an addiction program to treat alcoholism that worked on the basis of anonymity for the recovering alcoholic. Alcoholics Anonymous was established over a half century ago. Yet people are still trying to figure out how it works. There is no doubt that Alcoholics Anonymous is a successful fellowship program which helps numerous alcoholics in overcoming their addiction. Their mysterious 12-step program is promoted as one of the most effective methods for the treatment of addiction by many professionals and researchers. Ironically, nobody knows exactly how the steps work for addiction and why the method is so life changing for its members. What will AA members experience during the AA activity? The psychological transformation among AA members may answer this question. That is why we have to look at the 12-steps closely and study how it applies to alcoholics and their inner journey from seeking help, to conquering alcoholism, to achieve sobriety. A member who completed the 12-steps program is most likely to experience the whole psychological transformation as he achieves sobriety towards the end. The 12-steps and 12 traditions are the primary tenets of AA. The 12 traditions are known as the perspective of AA. This keeps AA anonymous, non-religious and non-profit. The 12 steps can be defined as a step-by-step program for members to follow. Once a member strictly follows the first step, then he can move on and begin with the second. After he goes through all steps and understand and embodies all of the steps, he will achieve long term sobriety. When a person participates in the program, he undergoes a great transformation than will lead him to stop drinking. Those experiences include admitting powerlessness, appeal for the “higher power”, confession and a new social relationship. Although the actual success rate of AA is hard to estimate, some researchers have found realistic data to reflect how AA succeeds. Hal Arkowitz and Scott Lilienfeld, in their online article, “Does Alcoholics Anonymous Work?” describe the statistic about AA. The authors cite an investigation called “Project Match”, issued in 1997 proves that AA is effective in achieving sobriety through abstinence. The experiment divided more than 900 alcoholics into three different therapies. One is mainly 12-steps program associated with a professional; others are cognitive-behavioral and motivational enhancement therapies. The results suggest those three approaches receive the same effectiveness, showing 12-steps program works well as other forms of professional therapy. In all three groups, before the treatment, roughly 20 percent of the participants were abstinent. At the end of the first year or treatment, the figures rose to about 80 percent. Also, 19 percent of them became teetotalers during the yearly follow-up. The authors also refer to a 2006 study by psychologist Rudolf H. Moos and Bernice S. Moos. The 16 years research involved alcoholics who joined AA. The results showed that after participating in 27 AA meetings or more in the first year, 67 percent were abstinent after the 16 year follow up. The 12-steps program brings members a profound mental change of attitude toward life by ingraining a new habit to replace the addiction. One important aspect that has to be pointed out is that a bad habit will not cease by itself . In the article “Alcoholics Anonymous: Cult or Cure?” written by George E. Vaillant, he explains “Methadone maintenance in heroin abuse – facilitate relapse prevention because they offer a carrot as well as a stick. In contrast, imprisonment per se did not reduce relapse to heroin abuse. For punishment alone does not alter deeply ingrained habits.” (2) The key is to find something similar to replace the addiction. People fall to alcohol mostly not really like the taste of alcohol, they addicted to the pleasurable feeling that alcohol brought. Moreover, in his book “Power Of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business” Charles Duhigg points out that AA can create a new habit because the 12-step program forces members to identify their cues and rewards when consuming alcohol, then replace the old drinking routine with a new social AA meeting routine. The comfort from alcohol is replaced by the comfort from other AA members and “sponsor” during the AA meeting. (Duhigg 61) The cues, routine and rewards are the basic parts of a habit loop. If we want to change a habit, we need to change the routine. (65) Therefore, if an alcoholic finds something to substitute that routine, his chance to relapse will go extremely lower. When people actively participate in AA, they share more with the group, they confess to each other and they help prepare for the meeting. AA is a place for members to get understanding and communicate their problems. Although their problems may not be solved immediately, it is still a better way to get comfort rather than grabbing a dozen beers then drinking alone in a bar. Once a new habit emerges to replace the old one, their life will totally change. This transformation is caused by the brain habit system. AA meetings provide members an atmosphere to create new bonds between other people and re-establish their social skills. In his article “Secret of AA: After 75 Years, We Don’t Know How It Works” from Wired Magazine, writer Brendan Koerner emphases “It may derive from something more fundamental: the power of the group. Psychologists have long known that one of the best ways to change human behavior is to gather people with similar problems into groups, rather than treat them individually.” (5) One reason why AA is so popular and effective is because it gathers alcoholic fellows as a group. Some researchers find that the group will generate compassion and encouragement for each other. Koerner refers to a study by Boston physician Joseph Pratt finding that a weekly meeting among the tubercular patients helps the patients share more about their inner feeling and hardship. Also, he cites research people with post traumatic stress disorder to show that simply being part of a group of people who share the same condition may lead to better outcomes. (5) During AA meetings, members get to know each other and they all have chance to tell their story. They are all alcoholic, and all group members are in a common situation. That special bond pulls them together. Moreover, as George Vaillant claims in his article, “Alcoholics Anonymous: cult or cure?”, “Similarly, an AA sponsor, analogous to a new spouse, can promote relapse prevention better than some long-suffering family member whom they have tortured for years.” (2) In general, alcoholics mostly refuse to face their family or someone they had tortured because of their great sense of guilt. On the contrary, members of AA are all strangers; they do not know each other. It is always easy to develop new relationships with those who are not emotionally in debt. People who lack social skills, or had lost their family or friends, will find a good place to bond with fellow alcoholics and develop a new relationship within a new society. AA enhances their members spirituality by encouraging them to go through the 12-steps and develop a new insight of the “higher power”. In her journal “De Profundis: Spiritual Transformations in Alcoholics Anonymous”, Dr. Alyssa Forcehimes summarizes the spiritual transformation in three steps. These steps are Hitting Bottom, Contrition and Surrender. Hitting bottom is the first step that leads AA members to admit their inability to control their illness and their extremely low point in life. As the process moves forward, members will confess their despair in relation to their present situation and show more desire for a brand new way of life. The last step requires surrender or a turning over of his or her life to God. Handing themselves over to God changes their personal will to God’s will. This is the most remarkable step in the sequence because it involves making a resolution to start a new life. Making a public confession and appealing to “God” are two big steps in the program. Members will experience huge changes during these stages because they come to realize their mistakes and generate the urge to change their behavior. In the Talk Of The Nation broadcast, “Alcoholics Anonymous: 75 Years Of 12 Steps”, held by Neal Conan, a caller named Janine, proclaimed that AA is her lifesaver. She is the first alcoholic in her family history and she thinks the higher power of the program is the most essential part. She acknowledges to us that the members who admit there is a supernatural power will probably succeed. At this point, we can see how the spirituality aspect of AA offers its members a chance to their mind when it comes to religion and self criticism. AA programs work to develop interpersonal trust, honesty and open mindedness for members. In their research journal “The Psychosocial Benefits of Alcoholics Anonymous”, Jared Suire and Robert Bothwell initiated a research among AA members to see what extent of personality change they actually experience from AA. According to AA, the powerful 12-steps program will lead a hopeless alcoholic to transform into a more productive and healthier life. In this research project, Suire and Bothwell discovered that compared to other AA members, the people who finish the 12-steps program show more interpersonal security than others who just begin with the AA process. Furthermore, the research finds that the program is effective in raising the level of self-esteem for those people who feel insecure about the society. Suire and Bothwell also assert, “The current study revealed that there was a significant difference in interpersonal insecurity between alcoholics who had completed all twelve steps in a community-based AA program and those who had started to work the steps but had not yet completed all of them.” (3) This means completing the 12-steps program will raise the self-security level of a person. On the other hand, since the program also involvse appealing to the “higher power” and confessing, the more realistic approach will correct the attitude of people with over-confidence. Although there might be other factors encouraging AA members to change, I believe the AA program is helpful in creating a new insight for its members. The most important thing is to get involved with the group and admit the mistakes they made, and then the transformation will occur. Some argue AA works because it is a cult that brain-washes people to change their drinking behavior; I believe that AA is instead the cure for alcoholism rather than a cult. The common mistake people make about AA is that they promote some sort of “God” or “higher power”, which is religiously compelling people to twist their ideas about existence of God or the supernatural. In fact, AA is not promoting a religious view to its members because the most important aspect of AA is giving its members the ability to believe in a God or higher power. In the book “Power Of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business”, Charles Duhigg urges the main thing that supports AA members is not “God” but the belief itself. When people learn to believe in something, they will apply the belief to the other parts of their life until they actually believe it works. Belief is something that is important when it comes to changing the habit into a permanent behavior. (70) Once we look closer at AA, we learn that AA is not forcing members to believe in certain religious. AA brings a new belief to members when they are falling into a hopeless situation. Belief is one of the most powerful encouragements the group gives people. It follows it up with hope, faith and chances. What AA provides is faith for those willing to change. In the Talk Of The Nation broadcast, “Alcoholics Anonymous: 75 Years Of 12 Steps”, the guest and the author of the wired article Brendan Koerner also asserts people can find many variations of religious beliefs in AA groups. When he once visited a meeting in New York, there was one speaker who credited Jesus Christ for helping him stay sober, and other persons disagreed. The other person was an atheist and had set the meeting room as his higher power. We can see how AA transformed members’ opinion about higher power leads them to appeal for their higher power and admit they cannot live without that power, even though the high power is in fact their belief. While they are appealing to their higher power, the power of faith rises too. Therefore, people with a steady belief will tend to show more faith and have a higher chance to achieve sobriety. AA encourages its member to raise their confidence to the “high power” and themselves because they believe in their inability, yet raise their capacity of self-control. One thing we have to clarify is that Alcoholic Anonymous is for people who are ready to change. People resistant to change are mostly likely to fail when participate in the meeting. People with open-minds and deeper interpersonal trust will show a higher chance of staying sober. Specially when member has a spouse or sponsor, their bond and relationship with each other gets stronger. And they will get better help from other members than any other outsider or professionals. When a person joins AA and participates in the 12-steps program, they undergo a transformative change in their life, habit and behavior. The change inside their mind encourages them to achieve sobriety. Moreover, when members devote themselves to the group, their desire to change will be urgent. As a result, abstinence is achieved. Since everyone has unique opinions about their alcoholism, they will treat their “sickness” in many different ways. In my opinion, if AA can collect more data about the success rate of their accomplishments and reveal them to the public, the confidence in AA might level up because people will know more about how AA and why AA actually works. In conclusion, we know devoted AA members are expected to undergo habit changes, rise of self-esteem, confidence and self-security levels. But the most important thing is – they achieve sobriety with no restrictions. Read More