most outpatient treatment programs where I'm from, will require a person to attend at least 2 aa/na meetings a week. Of the several that I've experienced, all included the 12 steps as a foundation to their program of recovery. The treatment classes themselves would generally focus on the first 5 steps, and the rest was encouraged to continue on doing as you 'worked the program' of AA or NA and leaned on your higher power, practiced the steps, maintained fellowship with your new brothers and sisters, etc etc.
I suppose I've been to about 100 AA meetings in my life, and can easily say that was only a handful of those that actually impacted me. The rest were a combination of me attending so I could get my signature at the end to prove I was there, or me uncomfortably attempting to really be a part of it, sharing when I didn't want to and forcing myself to talk to people after the meetings. I mean, I won't say there aren't some cool and interesting people that I've met at aa meetings, but overall the program represents nothing more than an overly complicated and time consuming replacement addiction for the previous addiction, and as was stated earlier, any replacement will do. If seeking after a higher power and talking about the same thing every fucking week at every fucking meeting sounds like a nice new life, more power to ya.
The saddest thing is that so many of these treatment programs force this on their patients as a cure-all, our-way-or-no-way mandate, and objection results in getting kicked out, and whatever legal consequences result from that as so many programs around here are filled with adults young and old who are only there because they have to follow through with the bullshit mandated treatment program instilled on them after getting one DUI or busted with a bag of pot.
