This page was originally written by Dr. Ed Wilson for non12step.com. While some of Dr. Wilson’s views may not reflect those of Practical Recovery, we have preserved his writing in full.

“AA – Who It Helps, Who It Harms, Who It Kills & Why” began as a Master’s thesis at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota 30 years ago. It was refined as my Doctoral dissertation 5 years later. Over the past 15 years, my colleague and partner here at Your Empowering Solutions, Dr. Mary Ellen Barnes, and I have tested its concepts and applicability with over 500 clients and another 300 family members, spouses, partners, and friends.

Though it is a thin guide, totaling less than 100 pages, it is, like our program, all substance and no filler. You need, and deserve, real information, not marketing hokum designed to lure you into inappropriate and ineffective – by design – “rehab programs,” when you need actual help that is designed around you and your strengths, interests, abilities and circumstances.

Yes, there are people who need AA – hence the description of who they are and why the Steps work for them. But they are a tiny minority of those of you who would like to do something about your self-medication with alcohol.

As noted in the current edition of the DSM, self-medication exists at different levels, typically “mild,” “moderate,” or “severe.” People whose use ranks at mild or moderate are understandably reluctant to seek help that will label them indiscriminately, attempt – through humiliation, intimidation, and degradation – to induct them into a cult, and “gaslight” them into believing that they are the problem, not the cult.

Many more people fall into the cult in the regressed state that is, in addition to depression, associated with excessive alcohol use. Once sober, they quickly return to their actual levels of psychological and emotional maturity, but, brainwashed, are afraid to leave AA.

Part of the purpose of this book, like our program, is to help deprogram you from 12 Step mythology and return you to a normal life.