Dilworth means well and the community is great but they are very sadly deceived in their beliefs…read moreabout how to fix the problem of substance abuse.
Unfortunately for me, this program was a gigantic waste of time and money and I would strongly recommend that anyone encountering a substance use problem stay as far away as possible.
They teach the core tenets of A.A and these beliefs (from the 1950s) have been factually disproven. Dilworth is doing tons of vulnerable people a MAJOR disservice in giving them false information about this problem.
Specifically, I am referencing these claims:
You are powerless (Really meaning you have no self control and you never will have an ability to moderate your drinking)
You have a chronic disease that is incurable.
Meeting makers "make it"
You are a drink away from disaster
All of this is hogwash. Your beliefs matter tremendously when it comes to getting better. If you believe you are a drink away from "Death, Jails, and Institutions", then that will be the case.
If you believe you have self control, then you will have self control.
Here are some things to consider:
More than 90% of heavy alcohol abusers eventually quit or moderate, most without formal help. This statistic cites a nationally representative study estimating lifetime remission from alcohol dependence at 90.6%. It also cites data from Dawson's showing that, among people with prior alcohol dependence, 49.9% were drinking without current abuse or dependence and 22.3% were abstinent.
The core empirical point is very strong:
Most people who become dependent eventually cease being dependent. Most accomplish that without formal treatment. Abstinence is NOT the only observed outcome.
The claim that an "alcoholic" is permanently powerless is flatly inconsistent with population data.
Why, then, does society still push AA, rehab and lifelong "recovery"? A huge part of it is institutional inertia. AA became culturally dominant before good population-level research existed. Treatment centers then absorbed its assumptions: incurable disease, powerlessness, lifelong vigilance, relapse always waiting.
Families are frightened and want a visible intervention. Doctors want something concrete to prescribe. Courts and employers want a compliance mechanism. Rehab companies have an obvious financial interest in portraying treatment as necessary. Once that whole ecosystem existed, people who succeeded inside it were displayed as proof, while the much larger population who quietly changed on their own remained invisible.
There's also a massive confusion between medical stabilization and solving the preference for heavy drinking. Medical detox can genuinely save someone from seizures or delirium during dangerous withdrawal. A protected environment can temporarily keep someone alive. But that does not mean 28 days in rehab, meetings forever, or adopting an alcoholic identity changes what someone believes alcohol does for them.
Problematic drinking is a LEARNED behavior. Behaviors and habits can change. You get into this with your mind and you also get out of it with your mind.
Specifically, you get out of it by GENUINELY having a preference change for not getting high or drunk. It's not so black and white. You do not get sober because you attend 7 meetings a week in a brainwashed cult....mind you...who's core founder asked for alcohol on his death bed...... Why are we mistakenly giving A.A the credit for sobriety when the DECISION was made by the individual to change their behavior and go in the first place? It's utter nonsense.
If you find value in community and can live with the false identity of being an alcoholic for the rest of your life, then by all means go to Dilworth and go to A.A, let your dependency to be sober be tied to that and live the rest of your life "recovering" from a problem that you never actually "recover" from. Spend your valuable time dealing with repetitive meetings, sponsors, and doing a whole bunch of other useless activities and missing the entire point of the problem.
The problem for anyone is that for whatever reason, they developed an extremely strong preference for getting high and drunk. "Recovery" does not and will never solve this problem. It may get the abuse to stop, but you'll never truly be able to move on.
Common sense says that tying your sobriety to anything other than yourself is foolish.
If you want to truly understand what you're dealing with, I would recommend reading the freedom model for addictions by Mark Scheeren, Steven Slate, and Michelle Dunbar. The contents of this book are all you need to move on from this problem without ANY dependence on "recovery".
Sadly, places like Dilworth miss the point and it's extremely simple. Figure out how to change your preference for problematic drinking and then STOP, because you DO have self control. Anywhere that tells you that you don't has no business trying to help people with this problem.
