“I’m not an alcoholic anymore”: Getting and staying sober without meetings

Abstract

This project studies desistance from substance abuse and 12-step meetings. In the early 1990s, The New Orleans Homeless Substance Abusers Project (NOHSAP) was created to uncover treatment strategies for homeless substance abusers. The program ran for 3 years with 670 homeless New Orleans individuals going through treatment. This project involved finding these individuals and re-interviewing them (19 years later). The methodology for this study consists of follow-up interviews with 32 individuals in a variety of settings including at their homes and in prisons. Individuals interviewed tended to be sober, but disaffiliated with 12-step meetings.

• Affiliation
• alcoholics anonymous
• attendance
• desistance
• recovery
• treatment

Declaration of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interests. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.