Do you think teenagers should be in AA?
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Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Texas
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Originally Posted by sugarbear1 
3 groups of court-mandated offenders got either AA, cognitive behavioral therapy or nothing (control group). The AA group had 5 times as much binge drinking as the control group, and 9 times as much as the CBT group.
The "study" you linked is just an examination of Project MATCH, which only concluded that it didn't matter what the intervention was (CBT, Motivational Enhancement or AA), the results were the same. AA was not more effective than the other treatments based on drinking frequency. It has been criticized for its poor design, primarily in that there was no control group.
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Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Gulf Coast, Florida USA
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Originally Posted by caboblanco
No Dee this didn't happen to me, well not when I was a teenager anyway. I hear a lot of the disease model people saying that people are alcoholics before they even have their first drink. In that case we should bring AA into elementary schools. They are already filled with alcoholics. I don't buy that there is a genetic component to alcoholism(there is 0 proof) and I don't think addiction or alcoholism is a disease anybody can be born with. In fact it's not a disease at all it's a behavior
Alcoholism or alcohol dependence is defined by the American Medical Association (AMA) as "a primary, chronic disease with genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations."
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Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Texas
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Originally Posted by deeker
Do you really think that regular members of AA would tolerate inappropriate behavior in a meeting.
Originally Posted by deeker
Have you ever been to an AA meeting.
Originally Posted by deeker
These so called hardened long term alcoholics have an illness and are human beings. If you had a bad experience at a meeting I am sorry but please do not put all alcoholics in this classification. It is very judgemental as alcoholism does not discriminate. And it's just plain negative to the forum!!!
Originally Posted by deeker
I have been in jail 7 times. Read most of my posts and see just how hardened I am.
It sounds like AA has done you a world of good, and for that I am glad. You are an adult and you attend voluntarily.
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Originally Posted by SoberKnitter
It's the "directed there by someone who thinks they might need it" part that I find objectionable and probably harmful. Teens are very often forced to go to AA when there is no evidence that they are alcohol dependent, only evidence that they use or abuse alcohol. Having an adult sit them down and explain that they have no control over their use and it will only get worse is insane.
I don't think anyone should be coerced into AA participation, but to do it to teens repugnant.
I don't think anyone should be coerced into AA participation, but to do it to teens repugnant.
The young people's meetings I have checked in on in the city here are the most vibrant, most exciting, most enthusiastic meetings I have ever been to. They don't look like kids who are in danger of anything other than living the life they were meant to. And that goes for all of us, regardless of age.
Alcoholism doesn't discriminate in age, so why should AA?
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Originally Posted by paul99
No one in my neck of the woods is coerced in any way to be in AA, regardless of age.
Originally Posted by paul99
... In the end, the only people who are going to do well in AA, or any recovery program period, are the ones who want it.
Those of you who speak of the successes you see with teens are forgetting that you are not privy to experiences of the population of teens who were coerced in one way or another to attend AA, got information or had experiences that impacted them negatively and eventually stopped attending.
I have no doubt that people who choose to attend AA for a long time and have achieved sobriety are by in large having wonderful lives. It's the other people - the ones you don't see anymore - that I'm speaking of.
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Originally Posted by SoberKnitter
It's not just the law. It's often well-meaning parents who coerce teens to attend AA.
I would call having to even be there under duress "forced participation." It actually might be the end of the world if a teen who would have outgrown his or her irresponsible behavior gets the idea (unique to AA) that they have a disease and no control over their behavior. Phrases like "learned helplessness" and "self-fulfilling prophesy" come to mind.
I would call having to even be there under duress "forced participation." It actually might be the end of the world if a teen who would have outgrown his or her irresponsible behavior gets the idea (unique to AA) that they have a disease and no control over their behavior. Phrases like "learned helplessness" and "self-fulfilling prophesy" come to mind.
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