yes it's a crutch, it has its's place but it is not a cure nor does it make them recover. But it can help to get them through the rough time and closer to recovery.
How you doing on quitting smoking? The patch analogy comes real close, but slightly different. {they are different drugs.} I mean the patch helped you through the hardest withdraw and weening off. The rest, taking control and quitting it was up to you to work through.
As always recovery is solely up to the A to do and go through.
Just my thoughts, though I have no personal experience with it. My opinion is from knowledge from four other family members. In some cases it helped but others were not ready to quit.