This year, a new book looks at 12 Step outcomes. It’s called, If You Work It It Works! The Science Behind 12 Step Recovery by psychologist and award winning author, Joe Nowinski PhD. It is a jargon-free look at how, 12 Step modality help alcoholics/addicts. I read it, I interviewed Dr. Nowinski and I will share our conversation with you in this show.

There is lots of debate on both sides of the 12 Step campfire. Gabrielle Glaser wrote a 2015 feature for the Atlantic called "The Irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymous."

Her urgency has to do with how Obama Care dollars are going to be spent. Glaser says, "The debate over the efficacy of 12-step programs has been quietly bubbling for decades among addiction specialists. But it has taken on new urgency with the passage of the Affordable Care Act, which requires all insurers and state Medicaid programs to pay for alcohol- and substance-abuse treatment, extending coverage to 32 million Americans who did not previously have it and providing a higher level of coverage for an additional 30 million.The United States already spends about $35 billion a year on alcohol- and substance-abuse treatment, yet heavy drinking causes 88,000 deaths a year—including deaths from car accidents and diseases linked to alcohol. It also costs the country hundreds of billions of dollars in expenses related to health care, criminal justice, motor-vehicle crashes, and lost workplace productivity, according to the CDC. With the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of coverage, it’s time to ask some important questions: Which treatments should we be willing to pay for? Have they been proved effective?"

We'll talk about this. We will explore who or what is irrational, because Dr. Nowinski delivers the goods in terms of statistical facts on how meetings, sponsorship and engagement with the 12 Step fellowship improve results? Nowinski has the numbers; he knows how significantly these factors predict outcomes in people with low, medium and high engagement in 12 Step recovery models.

The Fix pitted advocate Joe Nowinski against the critical Lance Dodes earlier this year. READ IT HERE. We talked about the Lance Dodes book, The Sober Truth: Debunking the Bad Science of the 12-Step and the Rehab Industry in Episode 04 of Rebellion Dogs Radio where we looked at 50 years of critics that have taken a hatchet to the AA tree. 

For a transcript of this show CLICK HERE :-)

Our show features a great new song by Halifax songwriter, Joel Plaskett, called, "The Park Avenue Sobriety Test."

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