Twelve-step programs

With the recent appearance of twelve-step programs not only for food and relationship junkies but also for those hooked on debt or on the internet, perhaps these words have lost some of their rhetorical force. Still, the caveat is well taken we should remain wary of the tendency to conflate devotion and addiction, temptation and compulsion. 

Current research has demonstrated that there are no medical treatments effective for treating amphetamine abuse. This means that other drugs cannot be substituted to assist in the weaning process. However, thousands of individuals have successfully gone through withdrawal and continue to abstain from amphetamine use despite the long and uncomfortable process. Twelve-step programs are helpful for many substance abusers in recovery. 

Removing the drug from the user s system is only the first step in an ongoing process regardless of which technique is used. For an addict, the drug has become a part of his or her lifestyle. That lifestyle must change in order for that person to remain clean. Twelve-step programs such as Narcotics Anonymous have proven very helpful to many in the everyday battle to avoid relapse. 

The treatment of drug addiction has become big business. Private treatment centers charge thousands of dollars a week to get people off cocaine, alcohol, marijuana, narcotics, and tranquilizers Twelve-step programs modeled on Alcoholics Anonymous have proliferated m all cities, and special programs now exist to treat the relatives of dependent persons — Adult Children of Alcoholics and Codependents Anonymous, for example. Despite the boom in the treatment industry, the rate of addiction has only increased. 

Based on the twelve-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA) helps those... 

Twelve-step programs do not work for everyone, nor are they the only self-help groups available to provide support. As of this writing, however. Alcoholics Anonymous and those that use its model are the most widely available and time tested. Which kind of support group should people use Whichever works best for them. 

Treatment programs based on the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and that encourage attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings have been the most common approach used in the United States. The first Alcoholics Anonymous group was formed in Akron, Ohio in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith. Today there are approximately 99,000 groups in existence across America. 

As noted above, the basis of the Alateen program is the following twelve steps that members discuss and apply to their own lives. 

The Twelve Steps are a guide designed for people to tbllow largely by themselves on the road to recovery. In addition to the bases of the steps there are other parts to the AA program. One of these is group participation. Two major types are discussion... 

Twelve Steps does not mean that A A. has reviewed or approved the contents of this publication, nor that A.A. agrees with the views expressed herein. A.A. is a program of recovery from alcoholism o/)l/- use of the Twelve Steps in connection with programs and activities which are patterned after AA., which address other problems, or in any other non-AA. context, does not imply otherwise. 

We observe parenthetically that to a first approximation no long synthesis proceeds as planned. One may ask what is the use of a computer program to generate synthetic plans when any plan from whatever source will have to be revised when exposed to laboratory practice The answer is that it is more convenient to revise (or in the worst case abandon) an eight step synthesis than to do the same for a twelve step synthesis. 

Corey noted that the twelve steps of the logic-oriented approach resembled a computer program 2 and indeed this formalism served as the framework for the original Corey and Wipke computer synthesis program,11 and for the later programs3,4,12 as well. 

Reading this, some parents may wonder that if most treatment is directed toward membership in an AA or similar self-help program, why not get their son or daughter directly into a twelve-step group (which is free) and skip treatment (which is expensive) ... 

Al-Anon, a twelve-step recovery program originally for spouses of alcoholics, provides a forum where parents, and other family members, can get necessary support and understanding to cope with their sub stance-addicted child or sibling, and to free themselves from four fateful errors. 

Twelve laboratories from eight European countries participated in the certification (see section 6.2.4). The techniques of final determination used are summarised in Table 6.3. The pretreatment steps were digestion with a combination of acids in a pressurised or atmospheric mode, programmed dry ashing, combustion or irradiation with thermal neutrons [4]. 

In a simple scheme, this valve has sixteen outlets which bring each of the twelve zeolite stages in contact either with the fresh Cu feed, or with the eluant, and with the steps in the treatment of the p-xylene rich extract and the raffinate containing the other aromatics. A recovery pump at the bottom of the column re-injects the fluid at the top, ensuring continuous liquid countercurrent flow. All these operations must be strictly controlled and programmed. 

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