Murdoch and Lilian MacDonald, two former alcoholics from Ayrshire in Scotland, have issued a challenge to Alcoholics Anonymous to take part in an open debate in the media about alcoholism and AA’s 12-Step programme.

“Firstly, Alcoholics Anonymous is wrong,” Murdoch and Lilian say. “Alcoholism is not a progressive, incurable disease or illness which alcoholics are born with. It is a behaviour problem, a response to dysfunctional childhood.
 
“Alcoholics are not addicted to alcohol. They are addicted to the escape that alcohol affords. Escape from life, or certain aspects of life which they find too difficult or too painful to cope with, or the associated feelings that go with not coping. Alcohol is a quick fix, and addiction means an habitual response or repetitive behaviour.”

In the first step of the programme, Alcoholics Anonymous members are told that they “powerless over alcohol” and that therefore there is nothing they can do about it but accept lifelong abstinence. But Murdoch and Lilian have proved that the opposite is true and that there‘s a lot that alcoholics can do for themselves.

They believe that everybody is capable of changing their behaviour. They say: “If, as we did, alcoholics choose to identify and to address their issues from the past, or, alternatively, simply take a more mature attitude of responsibility for their behaviour and learn to deal with their life, most will be able drink responsibly once again if and when they so wish.
 
“Advocating lifelong abstinence from alcohol on the other hand is merely treating the symptom rather than the underlying problem, and is just a damage-limitation exercise.”

Murdoch and Lilian’s second point is that Alcoholics Anonymous is not effective.

According to both an independent US government survey and AA’s own membership surveys, AA-style treatment works for only 5% of its participants.

And a report published by the prestigious Cochrane Collaboration says: “The available experimental studies did not demonstrate the effectiveness of AA or other 12-step approaches in reducing alcohol use and achieving abstinence compared with other treatments,” although they say further research is needed.
 
Moreover. leading American addiction expert Dr Stanton Peele shows that most sufferers from all so-called addictions, including  alcoholism, mature out of their dependence without any intervention whatsoever, and in the case of alcoholism, a sizeable proportion of them are able to drink normally again.

The third point of Lilian and Murdoch’s challenge is that Alcoholics Anonymous is dogmatic, inflexible and impervious to change.

“Any normal organisation would be open to new ideas,” they say, “and would welcome discussion and change as new discoveries and progress are made in the field of alcoholism.
 
“Unfortunately AA has adopted a cult-like attitude, and regards its so-called programme of recovery as set in stone forever. No changes have been made or even allowed in more than 70 years of its existence, and no questioning or discussion is tolerated.”

The waters are further muddied, Murdoch and Lilian say, by the fact that AA’s 12-Step Programme is borrowed from an early 19th century American evangelical movement, with half of the twelve steps mentioning God.

Interestingly, all American courts have ruled that government agencies cannot encourage or support AA or 12-step treatment, since their religious basis violates the First Amendment’s ban against state support of religion.

And the status quo has been perpetuated by private rehab clinics that have piggybacked AA and hijacked its 12-Step programme for their own profit. Profit that is maximised by using a ready-made one size fits all prescription instead of providing individual treatment for individual people.
 
So Murdoch and Lilian conclude that a completely new organisation may be the only solution if Alcoholics Anonymous remains unwilling to embrace change and progress. They say that AA’s absolute refusal to accept change that is already happening is their greatest weakness.

EDITOR’S NOTE

Dr Stanton Peele PhD JD is an internationally recognised addiction expert and father of three. His books include “7 Tools to Beat Addiction” and “Addiction-Proof Your Child”. Stanton Peele has had no part in the preparation or issue of this press release.

http://www.peele.net

Murdoch and Lilian are authors of “Phoenix in a Bottle” - how they overcame alcoholism by dealing with the underlying cause, and are now able to drink responsibly again.

Available direct from the publisher:
http://www.melrosebooks.com/bookDetails.php?id=15

Available on Amazon UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Phoenix-Bottle-Lilian-MacDonald/dp/1905226144

Lilian and Murdoch’s website:
http://www.alcoholicscandrinksafelyagain.com

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