This story was originally published in Group Therapy, a weekly newsletter answering questions sent by readers about what’s been weighing on their hearts and minds.Chances are, you or someone you know has gone to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
But AA isn’t a good fit everyone. Maybe you have intense social anxiety and the group model doesn’t work for you, or you feel uncomfortable with how God is invoked throughout the program. Maybe AA’s hard line on what counts as recovery — lifelong abstinence from alcohol and all other drugs — has actually made it harder for you to change your relationship to drinking.
In this newsletter, we’ll explore why AA has been successful in helping so many people, the principles of harm reduction, and recovery models that can be used instead of — or in tandem with — AA.
One of the major threats to recovery is that people who have an unhealthy relationship with drinking or drugs usually hang out with other people who use, John Kelly, an addiction researcher at Harvard Medical School, toldAA meetings provide both a social network that’s supportive of recovery and a way to socialize without drinking.