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Free Inquiry • April/May 2009 1 Mohr, S — Exposing the Myth of Alcoholics Anonymous
Exposing the Myth of Alcoholics Anonymous
-Steven Mohr

If you have had a serious drinking problem in the United States of America, you might also have had serious troubles connected with that problem. You might have a drunken driving conviction or landed in a hospital or detoxification facility by court order.

If any of these things have happened to you, it is almost certain that you have been introduced to the program of Alcoholics Anonymous, otherwise known simply as AA. If you have been fortunate enough to have avoided jail or hospitals but have, on your own, sought professional help to stop or to moderate your alcohol consumption, the odds are still very, very high that you have been advised to attend meetings of AA.

The program of Alcoholics Anonymous, known as a twelve step program, is the number-one treatment for alcoholism in the United States imposed by the courts and supported by the medical community for the last forty years. Very few health insurance companies will cover alcohol or drug addiction treatment that is not twelve-step based. It would be reasonable to assume therefore, as most people do, that AA is not only a
successful treatment for the alcoholic but is probably the best available today.

Both assumptions are completely unfounded and unsupported by scientific or historical evidence. The truth is that the available evidence strongly suggests that AA treatment provides very little or no long-term help for active alcoholics. Further, there is ample evidence that long-term repeated exposure to this program is actually dangerous to many alcoholics who would fare better if left on their own.


This is a truly appalling and frightening state of affairs for millions of alcoholics and their loved ones. It means that the medical profession and the court system in the United States are each year directing thousands of sick people into a program that has little or no merit as a treatment for their illness. It also implies that few serious alternatives such as medical and psychiatric treatments are routinely brought to the attention of the troubled alcoholic.

What is Alcoholics Anonymous? Who are its adherents? What are its methods? How has AA become so deeply entrenched in public—and professional—thinking vis-à-vis the treatment of alcoholism? If it doesn’t work, as I have suggested, why not? What in the world could actually make it dangerous? Is there medical, therapeutic, or psychological treatment involved? Is it based on religious beliefs? Is it a religious cult?


Alcoholics Anonymous claims to be: “. . . a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. . . . Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety” (A Brief Guide to Alcoholics Anonymous,1972).

These words sound positive and hopeful, but they do not describe the true workings or intent of AA. To be plain, there is ample evidence that AA is in reality a religious cult masquerading as a self-help group. Its adherents actively indoctrinate newcomers to their way of thinking using overt and subtle misinformation, intimidation, and false promises. They routinely prey on a population subset of sick people at their weakest, namely desperate alcoholics. Through ancillary groups like Al-Anon and Alateen, AA also attempts tobring the families of alcoholics into their cult. Unless AA offers something tangible, verifiable, and repeatedly helpful to these people, it is not just deceitful but dangerous.

This might sound like an astounding accusation to anyone who has not been maltreated by AA—or studied it carefully. Likewise, you may know seemingly happy recovering alcoholics who swear by the allegedly benign and benevolent nature of the AA program. You may be one yourself. Those who believe they remain sober solely by strict adherence to the AA program and there are thousands—generally have nothing but praise for the program.


But if thousands have recovered when millions have tried, then the best that can be said is that the success rate is low. The worst that can be said I have already written: for every happily recovering anonymous alcoholic there are hundreds who have found the program at best worthless and at worst a curse or even a death sentence. Ironically, I have often heard it said in AA meetings that to be successful in one’s recovery, one must “. . . step over the bodies.”