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Aa will even have a meeting on your cruise ship floating in the middle of the caribbean. all of this was built not by government, or by business, but rather in an incredibly social way. two people started talking to each other and supporting each other on how to stop drinking. aa meetings grew out of that concept. millions of people say it changed and saved their lives, including many in our legal system. with courts often mandating aa for people with alcohol or drug problems. one of that is also just a completely central part of our culture. when someone talks about someone going into recovery, we know what that means. according to a new article in the atlantic, today there are more than 13,000 rehab facilities in the united states and 70 to 80% of them are in the 12 steps. here s the question, does aa work? or more precisely, is there medical evidence that it works better than other possible ....
Thing that has happened to them. it s stipulated literally millions of people credit this program with turning their life around, okay? i want to stipulate that right? the second thing i think people get worried about questioning it. because they feel like it will essentially give excuses to people to do things they shouldn t do that would be self-destructive. the third thing i want to say is, as a policy matter we have a question about, is this the best thing for people to do particularly as you note now that medicaid will be paying for recovery, right? and there s a real question i think, about this question of whether aa has crowded out other treatments. can you talk a little bit about that? i found whether aa works for some people or doesn t, there s a degree to which when we think of recovery, we think of the 12-step and abstinence and maybe that works for some people, maybe it will work for other people and it s hard to get the oxygen and money into the other stuff. exactly. an ....
Cogative behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing which is helping people resolve the ambivalence they have about using their drugs or drinking and there are also lots of peer supported groups, smart recovery, practical recovery, women for sobriety that are also i don t know why someone would need to attack aa in order to advise that are there other treatments available. i think anybody who is dealing with an addiction, we have to know and get the message out there. no one treatment is right for everybody. if aa doesn t work for you, it doesn t mean aa is a failure. right. here s the reason i think whether it s attacking or not is that there is a nexus between 12-step recovery and policy in numerous places, right? courts say, you are sentenced to go to aa 12-step recovery. or we pay sometimes, whether it s health insurance, or it s for medicaid, right, a recovery program, a treatment program is 28 days of this specific type of treatment. ....
In the single digits, under 10%. my understanding is that also the best guess for other alternatives is also rather low. the baseline that we re dealing with when we re talking about people in the groups of addiction, whether that s alcohol specifically or narcotics and other drugs, is we re dealing with relatively low success rates. the question is, how do you define success. exactly. aa defines success with abstinence. that s the metric, that s the yardstick. a lot of people have a really hard time to keep to that. what s your feeling about this? i think it is a very dangerous to put out the idea that aa doesn t work. does it work for everybody? no. there s not going to be one form of treatment that works for everybody. and also, there are many people in aa, and i treat many of them, who not only go to aa in order to achieve recovery, but they re compensating for, let s say a mood disorder that needs to be treated. in addition to attending aa, they see a psychiatrist, they re ....
And yes, it is concerning if the sponsor would advise that. i ve not heard that. let me stipulate a few things here. i m sure there are people watching this tearing their hair out. there are people in recovery and feel it s the most incredible thing that has happened to them. it s stipulated literally millions of people credit this program with turning their life around, okay? i want to stipulate that, right? the second thing i think people get worried about questioning it. because they feel like it will essentially give excuses to people to do things they shouldn t do that would be self-destructive. the third thing i want to say is, as a policy matter, we have a question about, is this the best thing for people to do, particularly as you note now that medicaid will be paying for recovery, right? and there s a real question, i think, about this question of whether aa has crowded out other treatments. can you talk a little bit about that? i found whether aa works for some people or do ....