A self-help group for alcoholics trying to stop drinking. Founded in the USA in 1935 by Bill W (William Griffith Wilson, 18951971) and Dr Bob S (Robert Holbrook Smith, 18791950), it consists of local groups where members (identified by first names only) meet to give each other support. There are more than 2 million members in over 150 countries. In the early 1990s it influenced the development of several similar programmes for various types of dependencies.
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an international community of people who identify as alcoholics who meet in groups. The stated "primary purpose" of A.A. members is to stay sober and help other alcoholics do the same. A.A. was the first twelve-step program and was the source and has been the model for all similar recovery groups such as Gamblers Anonymous, Emotions Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Sexaholics Anonymous, Sex Addicts Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, and Al-Anon/Alateen, among others.
A.A. teaches that to recover an alcoholic should abstain completely from alcohol.
Alcoholics Anonymous is exclusively run by people who identify as alcoholics (aside from 7 out of 21 members of the A.A. It meets in small groups around the world, and although it has a central communication office, each group is essentially autonomous of the others.
History and development
Until the mid-1930s, alcoholics who did not have the financial means to hire a psychiatrist or admit themselves to a private sanitarium could find help only at state hospitals, in jails, or through street ministries. The founding of Alcoholics Anonymous marked the first approach to supporting the sustained recovery of the alcoholics, regardless of their financial standing.
A.A. was started by two alcoholics who first met on May 12, 1935. In A.A.
Wilson had been sober for six months when he met Smith, although he had struggled with sobriety for years.
First, he had learned from a New York doctor, William Duncan Silkworth, that alcoholism was not simply a moral weakness. Silkworth told Wilson that, in his view, alcoholism was akin to an allergy, in the sense that it produced abnormal reactions to alcohol that were not observed in non-alcoholic drinkers. In addition, Dr. Silkworth theorized that alcoholics had a mental obsession that gave them reasons to return to alcohol after periods of sobriety, even knowing that they would then develop overwhelming cravings. This explained the enormous recidivism rate of alcoholics.
Wilson also discovered that some alcoholics were able to recover on a spiritual basis. In one of their many discussions during Wilson's hospitalization at Towns, Silkworth had also informed Wilson that he could be healed by the Great Physician. This approach had been used by one of Wilson's old drinking buddies, Ebby Thatcher, to stop drinking. After a prolonged and unsuccessful period of therapy, Jung told Rowland that his case, like that of most alcoholics, was nearly hopeless. History, he said, had recorded isolated examples of recovery from alcoholism that appeared solely attributable to the spiritual conversion of the alcoholic.
Rowland H. It appeared, from the successes of several alcoholics in the Oxford Group that a conversion experience (which they chose to call a spiritual experience) would relieve alcoholics of the mental obsession that kept sending them back to alcoholism after periods of sobriety. Wilson later credited A.A.'s ideas of self examination, acknowledgement of character defects, restitution for harm done, and working with others, to the teachings of Wilson's friend, Rev.
Rowland had passed along to Ebby Thacher, one of Bill Wilson's old school friends and drinking companion, the Carl Jung solution of conversion as well as the Oxford Group life-changing principles. Rescuing Ebby from incarceration for inebriety, Rowland and a couple of Oxford Group friends lodged Ebby at Rev.
Ebby visited his old friend Bill who was still drinking heavily. Following one of Wilson's relapses and after his conversion at the Mission, Bill returned to the hospital, announced that he had "found something," and decided he had better call on the Great Physician which Silkworth had told him about.
Wilson questioned whether he had a genuine conversion or was on the verge of madness. Dr. Silkworth advised him that "hopeless alcoholics" sometimes report conversion experiences before being "turned around" toward recovery. Ebby Thacher brought Bill a copy of William James' http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/621 Varieties of Religious Experience] Silkworth had also read this book which contained many conversion accounts. In A.A. Comes of Age, Wilson states that Dr. Silkworth "reminded me of Professor William James's observation that truly transforming spiritual experiences are nearly always founded on calamity and collapse."
Wilson could hardly have escaped reading the dramatic tales of other alcoholics' conversions at the altar of rescue missions. Wilson was no stranger to such conversion experiences since his grandfather Willie Wilson had gone through such an experience on Mount Aeolus in East Dorset, Vermont;
In keeping with practices in the Salvation Army, the Missions, and the Oxford Group itself, Wilson bought into the slogan: "You have to give it away to keep it." Importantly, Wilson found that his own sobriety seemed to grow stronger when he shared his personal alcoholic experience with other alcoholics. In a hotel lobby, he decided to phone local ministers and ask if they knew of alcoholics he could talk to. Dr. Smith's little group of Oxford Group people and alcoholic families had been praying for Smith's healing. Had it not been for Wilson's decision to reach out to a fellow sufferer, AA would not exist today.
These were the ideas that he presented to Smith, who had been struggling with his own chronic drinking addiction. Smith's last drink is said to have been June 10, 1935, and that is considered within A.A. to be the date of the founding of A.A. The fellowship began to be called "Alcoholics Anonymous" after the publication of this book. Given this start, it is no surprise that A.A. groups and members are frequently called "Friends of Bill W."
The AA Grapevine is the international journal of Alcoholics Anonymous. It is written, edited, illustrated, and read by A.A. members and others interested in the A.A.
In 2002, the General Service Office of Alcoholics Anonymous reported more than 100,000 A.A. groups in 150 countries, with a total membership of approximately two million alcoholics.
How the A.A. program works
Some members believe that A.A provides a sense of support for members attending regular meetings. Far more members, as well as A.A's literature, hold that the essence of the program is having a "spiritual awakening" [originally called a spiritual experience] through the application of the Twelve Steps. Each edition of A.A.'s Big Book makes it clear that the end result of following the suggested steps in finding God and establishing a relationship with Him. Bauer who spoke for the American Medical Association in 1946 when he stated " Alcoholics Anonymous are no crusaders: not a temperance society. Learning to depend upon a higher power and absorb himself in his work with other alcoholics, he remains sober day by day. The days add up into weeks, the weeks into months and years (Alcoholics Anonymous, Appendix III p 570)."A.A. (A sponsor is a more experienced member who has worked the Steps before.) The Steps are designed to help the alcoholic achieve a spiritual, emotional and mental state conducive to lasting sobriety. Many A.A. members believe finding God through the application of the Steps has freed them entirely from the urge to drink alcohol. Both A.A.'s founders Dr. Bob and Bill stated they had been cured of alcoholism, as did A.A.
Some members regard attendance at A.A. meetings as important to their sobriety (although there are groups in A.A. Many members who achieved initial sobriety through AA have completed their return to life and no longer participate in meetings, however most studies done show that regular meeting attendance significantly improves the chances of continued sobriety. Some people coming into A.A. While this recommendation is found nowhere in A.A. graduating patients were advised to attend many A.A. Contact with one's sponsor daily in order to work the Steps and to discuss whatever problems one may be having in one's life, problems which may, if not addressed, lead the alcoholic to take the first drink: "One [drink] is too many and a thousand [drinks] never enough."
It will be noted that the program is to be worked daily. Dr. Bob cited the Sermon on the Mount for the phrase 'one day at a time.' Members of AA frequently say, "I'm a winner today, no matter what happens, as long as I don't pick up that first drink."
A common feature of A.A. meetings is that members are asked to speak to the group about their experience with alcoholism and recovery.
A.A. At the local level, A.A. At the national level, A.A. sources: literature sales to non-AA entities as well as cash from AA convention sites.
A.A. receives proceeds from sale of its book Alcoholics Anonymous along with other A.A.
Beliefs about alcoholism
In the article Alcoholics Anonymous and the Disease Concept of Alcoholism, noted A.A. historian Ernest Kurtz, PhD., wrote, "The closest the book Alcoholics Anonymous comes to a definition of alcoholism appears on p.44, at the conclusion of the first paragraph of the 'We Agnostics' chapter, where we are told that alcoholism 'is an illness which only a spiritual experience will conquer'." In 1960 Bill Wilson gave a speech to the National Catholic Clergy Conference on Alcoholism. He replied,
"We AA's have never called alcoholism a disease because, technically speaking it is not a disease entity.
Although A.A. contributed the chapter in the A.A. basic text of Alcoholics Anonymous entitled "The Doctor's Opinion". That chapter would become one of the more influential pieces in A.A. (Alcoholics Anonymous 4th ed. These allergic types can never safely use alcohol in any form at all; and once having formed the habit and found they cannot break it...(AA xxviii)" Alcoholics Anonymous offers a solution that will create a "spiritual experience" or complete change in the persons outlook on life and alcoholism (aa apendixII p.
Structure
The affairs of A.A. A.A. Individual A.A. members and groups cannot be compelled to do anything by "higher" A.A. Each A.A. A.A. These offices are funded by local A.A. members and are directly responsible to the A.A. (For more information, see A.A.'s Twelve Traditions as set out in the A.A. "Big Book" Alcoholics Anonymous and discussed in detail in the A.A. book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.)
Court Mandated A.A. Attendance and the Establishment Clause
U.S. judges sometimes require attendance at AA meetings as a condition of probation or parole or as an element of a sentence for defendants convicted of a crime. A federal appeals court ruled in 1999 that doing so compromises the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment right not to have religion dictated to them by government - because A.A. In that ruling it was also noted "adherence to the A.A.
Grandberg v. Ashland County is another example concerning judicially-mandated A.A. In that case the Federal 7th Circuit Court ruled, "Alcoholics Anonymous materials and the testimony of the witness established beyond a doubt that religious activities, as defined in constitutional law, were a part of the treatment program. Orange County Department of Probation a man convicted of drunk driving was sentenced to A.A. The court found that the county was guilty of “coercing the plaintiff into participating in religious exercises, an act which tends toward the establishment of a state religious faith.”
Discussion of the merits of A.A.
In this section, BB refers to The Big Book, aka Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, by the first 100 members of Alcoholics Anonymous, and 12x12 refers to Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, by William G. In 2001 the 4th edition of Alcoholics Anonymous, was released. In every edition the stories have been reviewed to try and give the best representation of the current population of AA.
AA's supporters
Supporters claim that AA is an indispensable support group for people seeking to free themselves of an addiction to alcohol. Some of their arguments include:
A large amount of anecdotal evidence in which people assert that joining AA saved their livesAA's critics
Specific criticisms of AA include:
There have been at least three randomized clinical trials that studied the effectiveness of AA. Ditman found that participation in A.A. increased the alcoholics' rate of multiple arrests for public drunkenness Brandsma found that A.A. After several months of indoctrination with A.A. 12-Step dogma, the alcoholics in A.A. were doing five times as much binge drinking as a control group that got no treatment at all, and nine times as much binge drinking as another group that got Rational Behavior Therapy. Brandsma alleges that teaching people that they are alcoholics who are powerless over alcohol yields very bad results and that it becomes a self-fulfilling prediction -- they relapse and binge drink as if they really were powerless over alcohol.Dramatic portrayals
My Name is Bill W. Story of the founders of AA (1989). Starring James Woods as Bill W, James Garner as Dr. Bob, JoBeth Williams as Bill's wife, Lois. Also released as Anonymous Hero Days of Wine and Roses An early portrayal of AA (1962) South Park Parodied AA in the December 7, 2005 episode ("Bloody Mary") The Simpsons Homer Simpson is sentenced to attend AA meetings in the episode Duffless. In the episode 'Round Springfield, Barney Gumble is trying AA, but quickly falls back to drinking. Minus One: A Twelve-Step Journey (Haworth Press: 2004)-- a novel portraying a lesbian woman's first year of recovery in AA, by Bridget Bufford.AA Literature
Alcoholics Anonymous: The story of how Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered From Alcoholism Fourth Ed., New York, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. A Brief History of A.A., New York: Alcoholics Anonymous, 1990, ISBN 0-916856-02-X. "Alcoholics Anonymous" by Jack Alexander, Saturday Evening Post, March 1, 1941 The Drunkard's Best Friend by Jack Alexander, Saturday Evening Post, April 1, 1950 Dick B., Turning Point: A History of Early A.A. 1997 Dick B., The James Club and The Original A.A. "The Ideology of a Therapeutic Social Movement: Alcoholics Anonymous".Official A.A. links
Alcoholics Anonymous official website Alcoholics Anonymous (aka the "Big Book"), 4th edition (online) The A.A. Grapevine: The International Journal Of Alcoholics AnonymousUnofficial A.A. sites on the internet
http://www.dickb.com/index.shtml (Early A.A. History) http://www.dickb-blog.com (articles, audio, resources) PlugInTheJug.com: An online 24/7 AA Meeting Place The Unofficial Website for AA Related Information Description of AA from the Religious Movements Page at UVA Example of Regional Unofficial Site Staying Cyber: An AA Meeting for the WWW AA Big Book The Washing Machine AA History and Trivia Online Intergroup of AA Online group in French: Alcooliques Anonymes AA-FRANCITE GlennS's AA blog & Friends of Bill W blogring About.com Guide to Alcoholism / Substance Abuse Recovery How to find AA in England, Scotland and Wales, UK AA Primary Purpose Website - "That Ain't in the Book"Testimonials (Stories of Recovery via AA)
Recovery Stories--from MemoryWikiCritical links
More Revealed: A Critical Analysis of Alcoholics Anonymous The Orange Papers Allegations of "Mind Control" in A.A. Is A.A. Alcoholics Anonymous: Cult Or Cure? Stanton Peele PhD, national AA and 12-Step treatment critic Religious Movements (U Virginia)Links to AA alternatives
Abstinence based programs
Rational Recovery SMART Recovery SOS - Secular Organizations for Sobriety Lifering WFS - Women For SobrietyModeration/harm reduction based programs
MM - Moderation Management My Way Out
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