NYT | S Lavalette
Today, around two-thirds of American addiction treatment programs for alcohol and other drug disorders, including over 90 percent of residential treatment centers surveyed, use the 12 steps originated by Alcoholics Anonymous, often telling patients that this is the only way to recover. These 12 steps — common to other “anonymous” groups, like Narcotics Anonymous — are based on Christian principles. A.A.’s founders were members of an early-20th-century revival movement known as the Oxford Group, and they adopted the steps from its doctrine.