Category Archives: Alcoholics Anonymous

Anyone v. NYS Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS 13-Stepping)

Amos Doctor v. OASAS (PDF) (Doctor appears to be the surname)

Here is a case of sexual harassment by an OASAS counselor where the AA curriculum of admitting ‘honesty’ problems was used to completely undermine the complaint.

“At the conclusion of that hearing, the arbitrator dismissed all four charges and specifications against petitioner finding, among other things, that the testimony offered by client A and the intern was not credible. Specifically, the arbitrator noted that client A admitted that she had “feelings” for petitioner and that she had acknowledged – on a self-assessment form completed in connection with her treatment – that she was only sometimes honest with herself and others.”

(Client C was also found to have admitted she was ‘honest with herself and others only some of the time’). The intern was also found to be ‘not credible’.

So, after being told to depend on a sober person for her very life, and then being told that the reason she doesn’t recover is because she has problems with being honest, her complaint is thrown out because she had ‘feelings’ for her counselor and had admitted as part of her 12-step ‘work’ that anything she says might be a lie.

This is How it Works. New York State doesn’t look into the ‘AA thing’. But actually, my whole blog is about this exact dynamic: client develops feelings for the person supposedly saving his/her life, counselor gets off on it, client gets confused by being constantly described as powerless, insane, defective, selfish and dishonest, then counselor denies everything and says addicts just make shit up out of nowhere for no comprehensible reason.

So, I guess it’s only OK to fool around with clients if the client has admitted on paper that s/he is “constitutionally incapable of being honest”, according to New York State Supreme Court. Doing the mandatory AA homework is equivalent to signing all your rights away. In AA, ‘honesty’ is directly correlated to ‘sobriety’, and people who are not helped by the program (or the ‘treatment’ providers) are encouraged to admit problems with ‘honesty’ and confess their thoughts and feelings, which are then inevitably used against them.

‘Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates.’

oasas_sex

Bludgeoning people into AA with a 2×4 (between the eyes repeatedly)

Here is the former Drug Czar Robert DuPont. At 6:30 you can hear about the ‘between the eyes repeatedly with a 2×4′ method of getting professionals into ‘Recovery’, which got Talbott sued (successfully) for false imprisonment and medical malpractice in 1999. DuPont was also a consultant for the Straight, Inc. program that was shut down by multiple lawsuits alleging abuse and malpractice, several of which were successful. He is part of a long history of this abusive industry.

The ARISE Intervention by Judith Landau – My review

Judith Landau

The ARISE method misrepresents itself. It IS about coercion. It is an extended Johnson intervention that ‘gradually escalates’ with ‘serious consequences’ for not entering 12-step treatment. The contracts in the book Invitational Intervention involve immediate inpatient rehab if any drug is used, mandatory drug tests, and ‘natural consequences’ (which are not actually natural consequences, because it is not natural to face consequences for not wanting intensive 12-step facilitation.

Here are articles I’ve written on my experience of the ARISE intervention, which involved using my family and trusted therapists to continually re-leverage me into meetings and treatment that I was already very familiar with and had rejected.

Here is something interesting: AA and rehab often say that you have to WANT it for it to work. The ARISE method is, like EAPs, PHPs and Drug Courts, coercive. If you read the book, you will find that they are lying when they say it is not coercive, because the method actually says that self-referrals don’t work — that coercion is part of the process. Also, their success rates (the 83% quoted) involve measuring success at getting people INTO treatment, a fact that is easily lost on people who assume the treatment will actually be helpful. Also note that they will try to bring your whole family into the 12-step cult and treatment because it’s a so-called ‘family disease’.
Summary: false advertisement, easily verified bait-and-switch. It is more a system for addiction specialists to make money off of rehab referrals.

http://notpowerless.com/?s=arise

New York State Education Department Investigator Admits Policy of Willful Negligence

or religion

Investigator Patrick Flynn told me on the phone when he was closing out my case that 1. My therapist denied everything so it was “he said she said” and 2. ‘We don’t look into the AA thing’. So, after three attempts at getting New York State to acknowledge a very serious problem with two-hatting therapists over the course of two years, this has always been and is still their official position, regardless of how it is clearly willful negligence.

New York State should, of course, acknowledge facts like:

– Treatment coercion is illegal. When networks of people are coached to impose ‘consequences’ for not entering treatment, it’s still coercion even if you say it’s not. It may even be a form of insurance fraud.
– Religious indoctrination into AA is a First Amendment violation, as well as a bad treatment for most conditions. It is ineffective and should not be protected from malpractice and fraud complaints.
– The 12-step treatment industry is psychologically abusive and extortionist in its approach. This is verifiable and not up for debate. ‘Treatment’ is life-and-death necessity until it fails or it’s questioned, and then suddenly “AA isn’t treatment”.

Finally, other abuses are easily hidden under the guise of ‘help’ in a 12-step organization, and also often arise out of the confusion that 12-step programs create. It is not necessary to lie to your clients, seduce them, or punish them to ‘motivate change’. The ‘unforced forces’ of better arguments have their own power.

In my opinion, it should be standard practice for New York State Education Department to inform therapists accused of 12-step coercion that this is not acceptable for a variety of reasons and they are being warned and will face consequences to their license status if new complaints arise. It’s the f*cking EDUCATION department; they need to be setting some standards for basic knowledge about treatment options.

AA Service Manual Page 69

69

AA Service Manual

Sounds like some kind of mafia talk (for such a ‘voluntary’, ‘live and let live’ organization!):

“Privately, however, we can inform Tradition-violators that they are out of order. When they persist, we can follow up by using such other resources of persuasion as we may have, and these are often considerable.”

“This combination of counter forces can be very discouraging to violators or would-be violators. Under these conditions they soon find their deviations to be unprofitable and unwise.”

“Feeling the weight of all these forces, certain members who run counter to AAs Traditions sometimes say that they are being censored or punished and that they are therefore being governed….Some deviators have suffered rather severe personal criticism from individual AA members, and this is to be deplored…It can be said in all fairness that the difficulties of those who contravene the Traditions are chiefly troubles of their own making.”

After Two and a Half years, this complaint is disregarded by New York State

The last complaint to New York State Department of Education Office of Professions (the licensing board). The investigator told me that he called my therapist and she just denied everything, so he said it’s a ‘he said she said’ thing. He also told me ‘We don’t look into the AA thing”.

silver

SilverSamaritan (PDF)

I am writing in support of my brother (PDF 2nd Letter)

So, there are two letters explaining just how much has gone ignored by Samaritan Counseling, Samaritan Institute, New York State Licensing Board (which is staffed by the Clinical Director of Samaritan Counseling at the time), and the Justice Center. For anybody who thinks this is an isolated incident, like I initially thought it must be, please consider the following comments found on a FaceBook post about two Hope House employees getting arrested within the same week for having sex with rehab clients:

mutual

recovery

The pattern is clear and should not be ignored. It is a product of 12-step culture. Invoking high-school-level “addicts are con artists” or “only sometimes honest with themselves and others” after having some fun with them doesn’t fly when you’re supposed to be a treatment provider. People have basic human rights and deserve to be taken seriously, and Medicaid and insurance shouldn’t be paying for the “Spiritual Recovery” Dating Game.

The New Recovery Advocacy Movement

There are a couple of recent documentaries on the culture of Alcoholics Anonymous (see The 13th Step the film which documents systemic psychologically damaging dynamics), and the $35 billion dollar business arm called the ‘rehab’ industry (thebusinessofrecovery.com which documents deceptive business practices). Those films have only started being distributed in the last year, and not widely. A book called The Sober Truth: Debunking the Bad Science behind AA and the Rehab Industry by Lance Dodes also takes a good critical look at evidence.

While these are newer attempts to inform the public about real problems with AA, complaints are not new and have been increasing. Rehabilitation programs like Straight, Inc. in the eighties were controversial and faced lawsuits for false imprisonment and abusive practices. In 1999 a doctor won a case against a rehab program for false imprisonment, fraud and medical malpractice. In 2001 the Department of Justice issued a statement that any use of DoJ funds to indoctrinate religion (specifically 12-step programs) was a violation of the 1st Amendment, yet my own investigation found that state programs are still very actively involved in spreading the AA message.

Several cases have set precedent that it is illegal for judges to order people to AA, and yet they still do it. Many doctors who have heard about getting help with an addiction problem entered into Physicians’ Health Programs only to find that they will lose their licenses if they don’t attend a 90-day rehab (at their own expense), 3 AA meetings a week (for years) or try to dispute mandatory, random drug tests (paid for by them). These programs establish behavioral contracts with the license as leverage and any violation adds YEARS to the contract and severe consequences (such as loss of license, with no ability to dispute or argue). (see disruptedphysician.com ) Doctors, nurses, pilots who have lost their livelihood, when they don’t kill themselves, sometimes realize they have nothing to lose anymore and decide to speak out. Many of them straightforwardly identify the system as a racket, unfair, and ‘kafkaesque’.

Sober living environments are presented as a treatment option, and often turn out to be not much more than slumlording as a non-profit — no actual treatment, no medical oversight, but maybe a pee testing scheme to make money for each ‘head’ from insurance companies. These places are often even considered ‘rehabs’ or halfway houses but often are nothing but houses with AA members in them.

AA through its pamphlets teaches members how to promote these professional systems and rehabs through the media, and yet denies any involvement or responsibility. What is called the New Recovery Advocacy Movement is the cultural cooption of AA alternatives (like MM and SMART) and tries to gather them all under the umbrella of ‘spiritual recovery’ and the rehab and sober living industry. One example of this is a movie called The Anonymous People which found some data about 20 million people in America being considered ‘in recovery’ because they had a substance use issue and resolved it, and used that to enhance the image of ‘Recovery Culture. In reality there are only about 2 million people in AA and the majority recover without treatment or religious conversion, and there is even evidence that treatment is counterproductive. I could go on and on.

This is all to say that someone approaching AA with a methodological atheist standpoint will be tempted to reinterpret AA in secular terms assuming that the interpretation will explain ‘how it works’, when it actually doesn’t (as treatment). The assumption that it works in the first place is only an assumption. Even the concept of needing a support group is mostly an invention of AA, and prematurely assumed to be an important aspect of any secular approach.

A closer look at evidence, even the positive evidence such as experts claiming it works or that “they don’t force people into AA anymore” doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, and these dynamics (such as the fact that critics may never be allowed to BE professionals in the recovery industry and may in fact not want a piece of it) does more to explain how racketeering, censorship and misinformation works than how a treatment for ‘alcoholism’ works.

Typical responses and non-responses – AA BS fools ethics guru

I found this site about “Ethics” by an “ethics training and consultant firm” in Alexandria, VA. There was a glowing article about what a wonderful organization AA is. I thought I’d set him straight because his “About” page says we don’t have to agree. He shut me down pretty quick though without seeming to have considered any of the points I raised. Much like the NYS Education Department and Samaritan Institute. I write this blog to try to explain how people can become so personally invested in ideology that it becomes impossible to even consider arguments to the contrary.

I post my whole interaction with him below, but here’s a summary of his conclusion:

I’m full of shit,12 Step programs are a godsend for millions with an incurable disease. I obviously have issues with AA. AA doesn’t lie. Don’t post here again. Good day, sir!

Why would an ethicist be completely uninterested in examining ethical violations so clear as this: National Association of Social Workers Ethics Code class action complaint against social workers in Alcohholics Anonymous. 

An ethicist should be aware that when a party has been presented with facts and chooses to disregard them, that can amount to negligence. I hope he would not advise his clients to delete and ignore important information required for ethical choice, especially since he “has led non-profit organizations devoted to education, public policy research, legal services and health.”

So, here’s how it went. Maybe I didn’t have tact. I didn’t think I needed to because he’s not a member; he just LOVES AA and how ethical it is and doesn’t know about its problems yet, right? After this exchange, I’m pretty sure he’s not swayed by facts.

Tom
Most people that end up in AA are either sent there by judges or rehab programs unethically. It’s a first amendment violation as well as usually a scam, since rehabs have the appearance of medical treatment, charge a lot of money to medicaid and then mostly just ship people to free AA meetings and don’t even manage detox. The whole industry is plagued by the very fundamental ethical breach which is pretending that 12 religious ideas is ‘treatment’ for a ‘spiritual disease’ which can only be arrested by the 12-steps.

Jack
September 3, 2016 at 6:35 pm

MOST people aho go to AA are ordered there? Absolute and complete nonsense. Not even close to true. Where did you get such a silly idea?

Tom
September 3, 2016 at 7:15 pm

For many people it is the way to stay out of jail, keep their family, keep their job, or not end up in jails, in institutions, or dead. In many cases this is only because those families or courts have been told that forcing people into regular AA meetings or else ‘lovingly detaching’ is the only ethical thing to do and the only way that person will ever get better or stay better — By AA members who are following the 12-step tradition proselytizing to professionals and patients. Thus the rehab industry has a constant source of free word-of-mouth advertising, because AA meetings are training sessions for formulating a personal story of debauchery, disaster/miracle, and redemption.

The 12-step rehab industry and the AA 501(c)3 are some of the most unethical organizations in the world. You can see ‘How it Works’ in a documentary called The Business of Recovery and The 13th Step. What is wrong? Well, AA seems to give its members the sense that if they don’t participate in and proselytize for and defend their little religious program, most ‘alcoholics’ will die; for one. There are many such simple flat out lies, such as the “rarely have we seen a person fail” lie. They also refuse to provide members with new scientific information about alcohol use or empirical data about what is normal. They do not have a sexual harassment policy and instead have unspoken traditions not only of “13th stepping” but also of blaming the victim for being upset. This blaming the victim dynamic is also very apparent in the rehab industry where when treatment fails (and it nearly always does, or worse) the client is told to either come back for another round or shut up because they obviously didn’t put enough into it.

I could go on but I don’t need to.

Jack
September 3, 2016 at 8:25 pm

Yeah, don’t, because you’re full of shit, to be blunt, as you showed in your initial post. 12 Step programs give hope, support and assistance in dealing with an incurable disease. I have a lot of experience with AA (though I have never personally been a member). It’s not for everyone, but it is still a godsend for millions, and your characterization is false. I don’t know if you had a bad experience or are a flack for a competitor. There is no “rarely have we seen a person fail” lie—AA and ALANON make it very clear that anyone can relapse any time. The point is that doing so isn’t “failure.” It’s the disease.
I don’t know your motives, but this is the last anti-AA rant you get to post here. Got it: you have some issues with AA. Your characterization is absurd, however.


My Rebuttal

Instead of rehashing the whole debate here, I’ll just link to the original, because it did go on for a while longer before I finally “apologized” and he forgave me. https://ethicsalarms.com/2011/02/07/alcoholics-anonymous-and-ethics/

Samaritan Institute

update Jan 20 2020: Samaritan Institute is now called Solihten Institute.

What’s crazy is when a counseling center and therapist I put my faith into (and not in any crazy way against their suggestions) not only refuse to acknowledge my experience but have over the past two and a half years refused to acknowledge dozens of letters from me and others, over 150 petition signatures, and a whole lot of research presented asking them to acknowledge very real and serious problems with their ‘preferred mode of treatment’ which involves wholesale disregarding of these kinds of things, and to modify their current standards of practice. That’s crazy and weird IMO.

I’m talking about not just one therapist, not just her supervisor and the clinical director, but a whole network of over 300 ‘faith-based’ (and state licensed) centers accredited by one organization that seems to have no interest in addressing this.

“Declaration of any particular religious belief is not a requirement for treatment, however, and counselors do not impose personal theological beliefs upon counselees, but instead work within a spiritual context when appropriate.”

That’s not actually what happened. I have almost no reason to believe that this is not a 12-step front group. One Samaritan Counseling Center (of Western PA) said they did not coerce 12-steps and did not want to be confused with this. Nobody else including the Institute itself has said anything as compassionate. I’ve documented their refusal to speak with me if I did not engage in expensive and frustrating 12-step treatment. These are state licensed therapists. And I have emailed at least 62 of the centers as well as the Institute itself, to no reply.