It was the 4th of July, and I was mindlessly scrolling through Instagram. At this point, my feed is basically recovery-related and personal development topics only. I’ve been coming across these ads recently for apps that claim to be able to help you quit or manage your drinking when it’s gotten out of hand. Since I already have systems in place for staying clean and sober, I usually ignore them. But that day, one caught my eye and, after watching it, I got pretty bent out of shape. Let me explain.
What Ended Up Driving Me Bananas
The advertisement I saw was for the Reframe app. I recognized the name and have passed through their marketing before. The ad quickly started talking about how ineffective the program AA is to stop long-term drinking. I forget the exact statistic it gave, but it was something like it only helps less than 10% of people quit long-term. I originally had no idea where they got that number from or how accurate it was. Then they gave a statistic that showed how short-term users of their app self-reported improvement in X amount of weeks.
The message from the ad was clear. AA doesn’t work, our app does. This really pissed me off.
Now, this is kind of ironic because I don’t attend NA or AA anymore. It just didn’t feel like they were for me after a year of going to meetings, although I certainly benefited from them in that first year of recovery. Regardless, I have the utmost respect for these programs and the communities. Why? Because they obviously do work. Maybe not for everyone, and that’s okay. But I really can’t think of a single other methodology for getting clean/sober that has helped more people living with an unmanageable substance abuse problem to living lives free from active addiction. So I started looking into it…
What Is The Reframe App?
The Reframe app, as per their website, is an “evidence-backed app to help people develop healthier drinking habits. It is NOT designed to treat alcohol use disorder (AUD).” It claims to be developed with hundreds of medical and mental health experts which offers coping tools, rewards, educational lessons, and a supportive community in order to change users’ relationships with alcohol. And they show data from their users to support their claims that the program works.
Since I’ve never used the app myself, I must admit that I’m basing my assessment of what the program is from their website and other sources of information on the app. But basically, it appears to use a combination of cognitive behavioral therapy, support systems, and education in order to accomplish its goals.
So far, so good. No problem here.
My First Issue With The App: Inconsistent Messaging
I want to make it clear that I’m all for using technology and whatever tools we have to help people in need who have substance abuse issues. The more resources out there for people, the better. And, while the website’s homepage seems to make it pretty clear who the program is and isn’t for and does a decent job of explaining how it works, the message they put out with their advertising isn’t consistent.
While they state clearly on their website that the app is not designed to treat people with Alcohol Use Disorder, or more plainly, people who are alcoholics, their ads share success stories and testimonials from people who implicitly fall under that umbrella.
The people they identify typically share that they were: drinking every day, were continuing to do so despite the negative consequences on their lives, and could not manage to cut back on their own. Now this is just my opinion, but this doesn’t sound like someone who was drinking a little more than they’d like to and wanted an effective way to manage their alcohol intake. In fact, they even use testimonials by people who are self-proclaimed alcoholics and are using the app to manage their addiction.
Again, if it works for people who are alcoholics/addicts, that’s great. I have no problem with this. But the fact that they say the app isn’t designed to help people with this specific problem and then show it, both implicitly and explicitly, helping them recover is bad messaging. Does it treat alcoholism or doesn’t it? Pick.
This brings me to the next issue…
My Second Issue. Driving People Away From AA.
As I previously mentioned, the ad I saw talked about how ineffective Alcoholics Anonymous is in helping maintain sobriety long-term. Now, AA was designed to help people with alcoholism. The goal is a total abstinence from alcohol – not drinking less. The app originally claims that it isn’t designed to help people with this problem. This goes back to the inconsistent messaging, but it’s unfair to compare the two if they’re supposed to be solving different problems.
On top of that, they make the claim that AA has been shown to only help around 10% of people maintain sobriety long-term. While I originally questioned this statistic, after doing a little research I found that there is some validity in it. Different studies show wildly different figures, but some addiction specialists cite success rates between 8% and 12%.
The problem comes from them comparing this number to self-reported studies that claim that “91% of Reframe users noted a substantial decrease in alcohol use within 3 months.” This isn’t a fair comparison. They’re comparing a success rate involving long-term abstinence from alcohol in people solely with alcoholism with a self reported and vague “substantial decrease” in alcohol use by people who are supposedly not alcoholics in order to promote their product. That’s infuriating.
The Consequences
The results of this type of mixed messaging and poor marketing tactics are simple. You drive people away from programs like AA, which have stood the test of time and are some of the most proven methods for dealing with substance abuse. The worst part is, you make them believe that AA can’t help them with a problem, alcoholism, that the app supposedly isn’t even designed to treat.
This is extremely dangerous to those who suffer from alcoholism and could have benefitted from a 12-step program like AA or NA. While these programs aren’t for everyone, and hopefully the app does help people reduce their alcohol intake or maintain sobriety, no one benefits from these messages except the owners of the company. They could have just stuck to saying ‘AA isn’t for everyone and we’re an alternative that might be able to help.’ But they didn’t, and it’s wrong.
Bottom Line
This company purports to want to help people but, at this point, it’s easy to question their motives. They send mixed signals over whether or not the app should be used to deal with alcoholism and, at the same time, disparage users from attempting to use a 12-step program in order to do so. Why? Because that puts more money in their pockets.
I hope the app works. I hope that if people aren’t able to get the help they need from a 12-step program, they have alternative options and other resources they can turn to. But we shouldn’t be marketing our products by using unfair comparisons and driving people away from free resources because we think we might benefit from it. We should be better than that.
