Today, we have a special story from two friends and former Free Pressers, Andy Mills and Matt Boll. They have a new podcast, Reflector, that I think you’re going to love, and we’re sharing an episode where they look at some of the hidden truths and misconceptions about alcoholism and how to treat it.
Alcohol consumption increased more during the Covid years than it had at any time in the past 50 years. In fact, Americans were drinking so much that from 2020 through 2021, there were approximately 178,000 alcohol-related deaths, which is more deaths than from all drug overdoses combined, including opioids.
And yet most Americans with a drinking problem never speak to their doctors about their drinking, and fewer than 6 percent of them receive any form of treatment whatsoever.
Today, a woman named Katie tells the story of her self-experimentation with a little-known but highly effective drug to combat her alcohol addiction.
It’s not only an incredibly moving story of one woman’s journey but it also gets to the bigger question of why these types of medications aren’t widely used in America, and it challenges everything we know about alcoholism and how to treat it.
Check out Reflector wherever you get your podcasts, or by going to reflector.show and becoming a subscriber.
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As a former therapist with a decade of recovery, I appreciate The Free Press and the Honestly podcast for their diverse viewpoints on addiction, which are valuable for learning. However, there are some inaccuracies and biases regarding Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) that need addressing.
Firstly, AA is distinct from rehab centers. While rehabs face issues related to financial incentives and growth, AA operates on a different model. AA refuses contributions from foundations or individual donors and is entirely self-financed through small donations collected during meetings held worldwide.
Additionally, the portrayal of AA's beliefs about the causes of drinking is inaccurate. AA does not attribute alcoholism to childhood experiences or current traumatic events. Instead, AA emphasizes an individualized approach, where many members find faith and belief in a higher power as crucial elements in overcoming addiction.
While I support exploring all options to improve the lives of addicts, alcoholics, and their communities, it's crucial to provide accurate information about existing ones like AA, which has been effective for many. Misrepresenting AA undermines a method that has helped countless individuals and could potentially assist many more. Keep the diversity of methodology on the treatment of addiction coming….just add in more balance please.
I wrote a detailed letter to the editor about this but I'll only post part of it here.
I've been sober for 13 years and I'm a Licensed Mental Health Counselor. Who currently has some clients that are in recovery.
Naltrexone, Methadone, and Suboxone aren’t news. They are drugs that are commonly used all across the United States and have been in widespread use for at least a decade. It is rare that I have a client in a dedicated substance abuse treatment program who isn’t prescribed one of these medications. So, the ignorance shows through immediately here. Podcast hosts aren’t addicts, they’ve never been through recovery themselves, they have never worked in a recovery program, or bothered to talk to anyone who has, and quite frankly, it shows. If you are going to your PCP expect to be disappointed. PCP’s are responsible for knowing every little thing about the human body, which is an insane amount of information to cover. Needless to say, they aren’t very good at any of it. They just have a basic understanding of everything. I frequently have to correct the inaccurate mental health diagnoses that PCP’s issue to patients. They never spot Bipolar disorder and very dangerously put bipolar people on SSRI medications. This is why people need to be in a substance abuse treatment program and not just go to their PCP. Most PCP’s will tell you to enter one, but people ignore it.
You’re already off base in the whole premise of your podcast episode. Next, you mention a study of 150 participants that had a stunning 75% success rate in lowering drinking. I literally put my face into my palm when I heard this. Journalists should not cite research that they do not understand. Journalists don’t understand statistics very well or how these studies are constructed. The podcast host even stated 150 participants as though it were a large number. That number is so small to the point of being meaningless. When studies are that small you need to wait for enough research to be published for there to be a meta-analysis on the subject. The smaller a data set is, the more prone it is to random variations in the data. Thus, it becomes extremely important to know who those 150 people were and how the researchers found them.
There was a Cochrane review of AA’s effectiveness in which there was a meta-analysis of over 10,000 participants, and they found AA to be an effective intervention.
https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD012880.pub2/full
You don’t want to fight me when it comes to my occupation. I am very good at what I do, and you should take the time to talk to people like me.
This link is more succinct the first one links to the full study:
https://www.cochrane.org/news/new-cochrane-review-finds-alcoholics-anonymous-and-12-step-facilitation-programs-help-people
They found AA led to a 42% success rate in participants being sober after one year.
Also, Katie sounds like she has a comorbidity, a dual diagnosis, with how she describes obessing over alcohol. That stuck out to me even as someone who has spent time in AA and worked with many addicts.