[hn_version_0023]

They seem to help a lot of people. It helped my father, and if I’d continued my ways, it might have had the opportunity to help me.

You may see pseudoscience, but I see broken people without a safety net finding empathy and a healthier group to spend their time with.

I don’t know if you’ve experienced addiction yourself, but your comment comes across as woefully dismissive of something that helps lots of people.

[sneak]

That's the thing: many things are both a) popular and b) seem to help.

These are not useful tools for scientifically measuring effectiveness, however. This is why we have clinical trials and things like double-blind studies.

There is an overarchingly popular human pastime that underlies these 12 step programs' philosophies that a majority of human beings on Earth believe will result in improving your life, but that doesn't make it true.