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At Hope By The Sea, our clients receive evidence-based therapies to help them adopt and sustain a program of addiction recovery. Moreover, we also rely on the 12 Step model for recovery for continual support such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA).

We offer 12 Step meetings on our premises as well, and our clients also attend outside meetings. Our program integrates an excellent balance of individual and group therapy sessions along with 12-step meetings.

After completing one of our addiction treatment tracks, clients are encouraged to continue attending 12 Step meetings. Some may choose to participate in a variety of 12 Step meetings, as many people meet the criteria for both alcohol use disorder (AUD) and substance use disorder (SUD).

Those who continue attending meetings, working with a sponsor, and then paying it forward by helping newcomers stand the best chance of achieving lasting addiction recovery. Sustaining one’s abstinence requires working together with others; sustaining addiction recovery is not a solo journey.

AA meetings are the most well-known variety of 12 Step recovery. The program was founded 85 years ago in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith. From humble beginnings, AA meetings can now be found in more than 100 countries across the globe.

The Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous has helped millions of men and women find long-term recovery and lead fulfilling lives free from drugs and alcohol. While AA is not the only program for achieving lasting sobriety, it is perhaps the most effective.

Of course, proving the above assertion about AA’s efficacy would be a challenging task for even the most diligent researchers. However, that is what a group of scientists set out to do, and their findings are worth acknowledgment.

AA is the Most Effective Pathway to Addiction Recovery

addiction recoveryA team of researchers sought to determine the most effective method for achieving long-term recovery. The study authors include John F Kelly (a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of the Recovery Research Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital), Keith Humphreys (a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University’s School of Medicine), and Marica Ferri (of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction). The researchers’ findings appear in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Review.

The group of addiction experts reached their conclusions after combing through 27 studies involving 10,565 participants, The New York Times reports. Lead author Dr. Kelly found that AA leads to increased rates and lengths of abstinence compared with other therapies. The authors also found that treatment centers that facilitate AA involvement (Twelve‐Step Facilitation (TSF) interventions) achieve the best patient outcomes.

“These results demonstrate AA’s effectiveness in helping people not only initiate but sustain abstinence and remission over the long term,” said Kelly. “The fact that AA is free and so widely available is also good news. It’s the closest thing in public health we have to a free lunch.”

AUD is a severe behavioral health disorder; heavy alcohol use and dependence cause 3.3 million deaths per year worldwide, according to the article. For perspective, that number is ten times more than deaths from all illicit drugs combined.

Addiction Treatment in Southern California

As we pointed out above, Hope By The Sea incorporates AA involvement along with the use of evidence-based addiction treatment modalities. We found through years of experience that our approach is the most effective path to achieving lasting addiction recovery long before the systematic review was published.

If you or a loved one is in the grips of AUD or SUD, we can give you hope for a better life. Please contact us today to learn more about our programs and to begin a remarkable journey of addiction recovery. Hope Starts Here!