Alcoholics Anonymous (known commonly as "A.A.") is a 12-step program designed to support alcoholics in their struggle to recover from their addiction to alcohol. It is the original model for all subsequent and separate 12-step programs such as Gamblers Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Sexaholics Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, and Al-Anon.

The primary purpose of Alcoholics Anonymous is "to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety." An earlier group, the Washingtonians, fell apart when it tried to branch out to different goals, which A.A. has tried to avoid. (See A.A.'s Twelve Traditions as detailed in the A.A. "Big Book" Alcoholics Anonymous (http://www.aa.org/bigbookonline/).)

There is some controversy over the A.A. approach of abstinence as a goal as opposed to other programs which aim for moderation. [1] (http://www.habitsmart.com/cntrldnk.html)

Although phrases and ideas drawn from Protestant Christianity are used in A.A. literature and at A.A. meetings, the organization doesn't promote any particular religion, and it has worked for adherents of many faiths, including Buddhists, Jews and Muslims. Nevertheless, since it suggests that the recovering alcoholic should ask for help from a "Higher Power," some atheists find themselves unable to accept the Twelve Steps and instead seek out secular alternatives. A.A. has been deemed a religious organization by a United States federal court. (see "A.A., Religion and the Law" below.)

History and Development of A.A.

A.A. was started by two alcoholics who first met on May 12, 1935. One was Bill Wilson (William Griffith Wilson), a New York stockbroker; the other was fellow Oxford Group (later, Moral Rearmament) member Dr. Bob Smith (Robert Holbrook Smith), a medical doctor and surgeon from Akron, Ohio.

Wilson had been sober for some months when he met Smith, although he had struggled with sobriety for years. In that time he had made several important discoveries about his own alcoholism.

Firstly he had learned from a New York alcoholism specialist, Dr. William Duncan Silkworth, that alcoholism was not simply a moral weakness. Silkworth told Wilson, during one of Wilson's admissions to his drying-out clinic, that alcoholism had a pathological disease-like character. He 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; he called these reactions a "phenomenon of craving" -- once started drinking, the alcoholic finds it very difficult to stop. In addition, Dr. Silkworth told Wilson 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 "double whammy" (as he called it) meant that the alcoholic could not stop once started, and could not stop from starting again. This explained the enormous recidivism rate of alcoholics.

Wilson also discovered that some alcoholics were able to recover on a spiritual basis. This approach had been used by one of Wilson's old drinking buddies, Ebby Thatcher, to get sober. Thatcher had learned about the spiritual approach from Roland H., an American business executive and alcoholic who had undergone treatment with the famous Swiss analytical psychologist Dr. Carl Jung. After a prolonged and unsuccessful period of therapy, Jung told Roland that his case, like that of most alcoholics, was nigh on hopeless. Roland was horrified and begged Jung to tell him anything that might help. Jung replied there was only one hope: a genuine spiritual conversion experience. History, he said, had recorded isolated examples of recovery from alcoholism that appeared solely attributable to the spiritual conversion of the alcoholic. He told Roland to seek out a conversion experience.

Roland H. returned to America and found a means to a spiritual awakening through the Oxford Group, a self-styled first-Century Christian movement that advocated finding God through moral inventory, confession of defects, restitution, reliance upon God, and helping others. It appeared that a spiritual awakening would relieve alcoholics of the mental obsession that kept sending them back to alcoholism after periods of sobriety.

Finally, Wilson found that by sharing his personal alcoholic experience with other alcoholics, his own sobriety seemed to grow stronger and it helped the other person as well.

These were the ideas that he presented to Smith, who had been struggling with his own chronic drinking addiction. The two struck up a solid friendship and together they put Wilson's discoveries into practice. 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. Their first publication in 1939, Alcoholics Anonymous, the first 164 pages of which have remained virtually unchanged since then, has been a perennial best-seller.

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. program of recovery from the disease of alcoholism.

The growth of A.A., especially in its early years, was striking. 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 Does A.A. Work?

Although some believe that A.A's success lies in the sense of support its members gain from attending regular meetings, many members, as well as A.A's literature, hold that the essence of the program is the Twelve Steps. The Steps incorporate Dr. Silkworth's description of the two-fold problem of physical allergy and mental obsession in Step One, Dr. Jung's description of the spiritual solution in Step Two, the Oxford Groups' method of reaching a spiritual awakening in Steps Three through Eleven, and Wilson's experience in helping others in Step Twelve.

A.A. members are encouraged to "work the Steps", usually with the guidance of a voluntary sponsor. A sponsor is a more experienced member who has worked the Steps before.

Many members regard attendance at A.A. meetings as critical to their sobriety. Even members with twenty or thirty years of continuous sobriety may still attend meetings regularly. There is no compulsion or requirement to attend. Members may attend as few or as many meetings as they wish, as frequently or infrequently as they wish. No official membership records or attendance records are kept at any level in A.A.

A common feature of A.A. meetings is that members are asked to speak to the group about their experience with alcoholism and recovery. There is no requirement to speak. Some members speak every time they are asked; others simply sit and listen in meetings for years before they say anything, or may choose to never speak.

A.A. does not charge membership fees to attend meetings, but instead relies on whatever donations members choose to give to cover basic running costs like room rental, coffee, etc. Contributions from members are limited to a maximum annual amount. A.A. is self-supporting and is not a charity. It accepts no subsidies from any non-A.A. source and donations of money or other items of value from such sources are not accepted.

A.A. receives proceeds from sale of its book Alcoholics Anonymous along with other A.A.-approved books and literature, which are periodically reviewed from a cost standpoint so that printed materials can be priced to be self-sustaining while not actually being a source of profit for the organization.

Many A.A. groups use the famous Serenity Prayer.

Beliefs About Alcoholism

There is no official creed of A.A. belief about alcoholism, since individual members are free to believe whatever they wish based on their own experiences. Even the 12-step program is presented to members as being suggested rather than mandatory. However, many A.A. members share similar views on alcoholism and most would agree with the following statements:

• Alcoholism has no cure. Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic. There is no way to make a "normal" drinker out of an alcoholic. Alcoholics who do not drink can recover and function in normal society, but should they drink again, their active alcoholism will re-emerge quickly and be as debilitating as before. This is true even in cases where alcoholics have remained sober for many years before relapsing.

• Alcoholism is a progressive illness. Over time, alcoholics who continue to drink will get worse. Those who keep drinking will often die from alcohol-related causes or be institutionalized (prison, hospital or aslyum).

• The first drink does the damage. Once an alcoholic takes a drink, a powerful compulsion to keep drinking sets in. This makes moderation or controlled drinking difficult and in most cases impossible for the alcoholic. Thus the A.A. approach of abstinence. Without the first drink, the compulsion is greatly reduced and recovery becomes possible. Much of the A.A. program is intended to help the alcoholic stay stopped, thereby preventing the compulsive drinking cycle from starting.

• The desire to stop drinking needs to come from the alcoholic. This often happens as a result of the alcoholic realizing that his or her life has become unmanageable and that excessive drinking is the cause. A.A. members call this "hitting bottom" - a potentially life-changing moment when the alcoholic perceives an urgent need for major personal change.

A.A. Structure

The affairs of A.A. are governed broadly by A.A.'s Twelve Traditions and the Twelve Concepts. A.A. has a minimal amount of organized structure. There is no hierarchy of leaders and no formal control structure. Individual A.A. members and groups cannot be compelled to do anything by "higher" A.A. authorities. Each A.A. group, small or large, is considered a self-supporting and self-governing entity. A.A. does maintain offices and service centres which have the task of co-ordinating activities like printing literature, responding to public enquiries and organizing state or national conferences. These offices are funded by local A.A. members and are directly responsible to the A.A. groups in the region or country they represent.

A.A., Religion and the Law

United States judges continue to offer defendants the choice of attending A.A. or going to prison. A federal appeals court ruled in 1999 that doing so compromises Americans' constitutional right not to have religion dictated to them by government - because A.A. suggests that a belief in a higher power is necessary to achieve recovery. This case did not create a precedent and the Supreme Court has not ruled.

A.A. itself is not in favor of any person being coerced to attend its meetings. The experience of A.A. has long suggested that the program works best for people who attend of their own free will. The Third Tradition of A.A. says "The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking." Those who are forced to attend may not have any desire to stop drinking. Nevertheless, it is true that some members owe their recovery to the fact they were ordered to go to A.A. by a judge or doctor. A.A. does not stop any person from attending its meetings, even if some are there only because a court or other external authority compelled them.

External links

• A.A. home page (http://www.aa.org/)
• A.A. article (http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/aa.html) at Religious Movements Homepage Project (University of Virginia)
• A.A. Deprogramming (http://www.aadeprogramming.com/) A website covering common criticisms of A.A.

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