Lionhearted1

The stats are equated by the number of people that collect a 24 hr chip to a 30 day chip to the people who collect a 1 year chip and so on.

For example if 1000 people recieve a 1 day chip and 5 people recive a 1 year chip in the same area they equate that to a 5 % success rate!

Zube

They don't. Statistics can be skewed dramatically in one way or another. Most of the recovery centers that push this low number, want about $12,000 of your money before you begin their program. AA is free (or a buck, sorry)

Zube

Lionhearted1

and the only reason i now this is because i kept asking evry one in aa until some one put the question to regional level and got a reply! i needed to know because that is very low in my opinion!! it was also stated in the grapevine publication!

flutter

For what it's worth (not much ), my counselor didn't recommend AA and shared some similar statistics with me (but also conceded that the overall rate of recovery for anyone working any program was similar), but that was after we, together, determined that it wasn't the path most appropriate for me, based on what I shared with him and what my goals were in my recovery (the details of which are incredibly personal).

miamifella

A psychologist told me that the nature of 12-step programs makes it nearly impossible to get any meaningful recovery statistics. However, he did say that NO method of recovery has impressive success statistics. In fact most are dismal. However, he did say that many people DO recover. He said that the strongest indicator of success had nothing to do with the program, but rather with the addict/alcoholic's relationship to a mentor in recovery. Whether it was a sponsor, shrink, etc. does not matter. It is the relationship that does it.

And reading SR does seem to bear this out. The people who find success in AA that post here seem to be those who had strong relationships with their sponsor or others in the program.

The psychologist got off heroin with NA so he strongly supported that program. But he said that there was no magic to it, that doing the steps by themselves or going to meetings was not going to help anyone. Without some strong personal connection, nothing would help.

MIRecovery

Long term recovery rates are bad regardless of the path you take and in my estimation impossible to measure because there are so many subjective factors. You take a 20 something who got nailed for drunk driving, does not believe he/she has a problem, but are forced into a program by the courts then they start drinking again. Somehow I do not believe that is a recovery program failure but yet they are part of the statistic.

I choose AA not because I have seen a zillion people fail. I choose it because I know a ton of people with long term sobriety and they teach me how to stay sober. How you get from point A to B is immaterial. There are many paths to recovery and most of them are not mutually exclusive.

It has always be my opinion that new comers to recovery need to latch on to someone who has long term sobriety and they are comfortable with then do what they do. Arguing methodologies is just a waste of time and counter productive

BadCompany

92% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

tomsteve

heres how i look at statistics:
ok, so they say that theres this or that percent success rate for AA. no matter what that percent is, i'll put myself in the percentage of succss, but only for today. i use that thinking for fighting cancer,too.
when i was diagnosed in 06, statistics said i had about a 37% chance of being alive in 5 years. i put myself on the 37% side and am still here.

Angel8

Counselors I've had always encouraged AA and many if not most insisted I was in it while seeing them for treatment,
so I find this an interesting twist.
Personally I feel a counselor should encourage whatever is helping a person stay sober.
I believe there are different ways to get there and AA is one of the helpful outlets.

IndaMiricale

And the answer you got shows how funny the numbers are played. Because here at the home beginnings of AA in Akron and Cleveland our chips are re used and passed on from member to member. So in the rooms where your not paying thousands to be there , you have no idea because they are not new coins.

We in AA do not hold the monopoly on sobriety. But it not only got me sober and showed be how to stay sober. It has given me a productive happy lifestlye that I never would of imagined before.

FamilyMan2153

Thanks. A lot of good stuff. Remember we are all here for the same reason, to stay clean and sober. I was just asking to see what people thought. I am only 67 days sober and quite frankly have used everything I could get my hands on to stay sober. AA, this website, books other people who are sober, family, whatever it takes. Like many said, each person has to find their own way. That is why I was surprised when a counselor stated that AA was not very successful in front of 11 people instead of saying that you do whatever works for you. Either way I am good where I am at thanks to a lot people and you guys at SR.

PS: Sorry AODA is a treatment program for alcohol and drug dependency. I go 3 times a week for 3 hours a day. Did not know it was just a cheesehead thing!