title: 12-Step Horror Stories: True Tales of Misery, Betrayal, and Abuse in Aa, Na, and 12-Step Treatment
author: Rebecca Fransway
description: Editor Fransway pulls away the veil concealing the ugly side of 12-step groups with true-life tales from that dark side. Usually seen as a helping hand to alcoholics, drug addicts, overeaters, smokers, survivors of childhood sexual abuse, and others, 12-step groups can be ineffectual and even harmful to some. A satiric 12-step glossary seemingly written in acid precedes the contributors' accounts of rejection, betrayal, cultlike brainwashing, and even rape experienced in 12-step programs. Some of the purportedly spiritual groups, based on the notion of a loving "higher power," have apparently condoned any number of questionable practices. Those include routine denunciation by a group of individual members' anger as being "nonspiritual," regardless of circumstances; a rigidly collective approach that put one contributor into a psych ward; and exploitation of newcomers' vulnerability, as in the case of the contributor who was raped. In an age when multitudes dance the 12-step, these words of warning may help many avoid its pitfalls. <i>Whitney Scott</i><br /><i>Copyright  American Library Association. All rights reserved</i>
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  Black Bells
  
  
  Dawn Napier
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Chapter One
  
  
  Megan went to bed without brushing her teeth. Her mouth felt furry and sick,
  as if she'd been licking a dog, but she didn't care. She wanted to wake up
  with a dozen cavities. Maybe even need a root canal. She felt the need to
  punish herself, hurt herself, feel enough physical pain that maybe the pain in
  her heart would go away.
  
  
  None of this was her fault. Everyone said so, and she believed them. But
  still, she felt wrong. And bad.
  
  
  The house she trudged through was clean and uncluttered. Through her haze of
  grief she noticed this, simply because it was so out of character for the home
  of a family of four with two small children. Brian had cleaned the house at
  some point. He'd done it for her, and he would want her to rest and relax
  after the stress of the last few days.
  
  
  The girls disappeared upstairs and into Jenna's room. They’d been quiet all
  day, speaking to nobody but each other, and then in hushed tones. 