Maia Szalavitz says that in some cases group therapy in which it is mandatory to do the 12-step program entices the people to continue to do drugs. In some cases it actually can increase the persons addiction problem. Thomas states that going into a program, people introduce themselves by their name and then tell you their drug of choice, and how that drug makes you feel. By doing this, it entices people to go out and try the drug on their own to see how it may be. People will go out in the real world and want to try the drug the first time they have the choice, when getting out of rehab.Teens impact on each other tends to be a negative one, impacting them to misbehavior together. Joining a 12-step program has the first step of admitting to having a problem and being “powerless,” to teenagers, the feeling of powerless only leads to them falling back into using drugs to cope with their problems. The program is not developed for teenagers with a major drug problem because it helps groups and can not usually help just one individual at a time. People usually join a 12-year program because it is cheaper than individual help although it can not help lead to a solution. Now NIDA is trying to work together to find ways to help teens and adults with their drug abuse problems that will help bring them to success in fighting their problem and overcoming it completely.
I don’t really think that someone could get addicted to a drug they are trying to recover from. I mean the whole point of the rehab is to help the person stop taking the drug. So they already know what the drugs are like and how they make them feel. Its not like the therapy is taking in teenagers who have never tried drugs and are going there to try them for the first time. It is true that teenagers can talk about their own personal experiences with a certain drug and maybe entice someone else to taking it. However, a person going into therapy, like I mentioned earlier, is not doing it to keep trying drugs they are doing it to get over them. I can see where the author of this article is trying to go with his idea but unless he has been heavy on drugs and going through a 12- step recovery program, to me his theory is useless. It may seem harsh the way I put it, but drugs are not what people, who don’t do them, think they are. In other words, lets say bananas were illegal. Some people eat bananas because they are good and make them feel better. Bananas aren’t bad for you, but if you eat them, its super wrong because its illegal? The people who do eat bananas though, understand why they do it. The feeling they get is not like any other feeling you can get from anything else. Doesn’t make sense does it? That’s just my take on it. The author needs to back up his opinions with better information to convince me.
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