Today we're going to point our skeptical eye at 12 step programs.

A religious practice intended to stop addictive behavior of almost any kind.

They're very popular and have been around for nearly a century, and many of us just

assume that they're among the best treatment programs available.

Does adding the religious element make an addiction program work better?

There are these programs just substitute addictions themselves.

We're going to find out today on Skeptoid.

You're listening to Skeptoid.

I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com.

12 Step Programs

In 1935, alcoholics anonymous was formed by two men struggling for sobriety, Bill Wilson

and Bob Smith.

The first was a new type of program, in that it formalized a series of 12 steps that an

alcoholic must follow in order to get sober and stay that way.

The original alcoholics anonymous was only the first of many such programs set up to

address just about every type of addiction and obsessive behavior you can think of.

Overeders anonymous, marijuana anonymous, under-erner's anonymous, sex-aholics anonymous,

plot-erers anonymous, gamblers anonymous, and even online gamers anonymous.

Today we're going to look a bit into the history of 12 stepping and also how it compares

to mainstream psychological treatment of addiction, but mainly into the most important

question.

Does it work?

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