Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) helps people end their alcohol addiction through loosely structured groups that follow the Twelve Step Program. The program includes finding a sponsor and admitting that a problem exists. The emphasis is on a higher power, but it can be defined as anything a person desires. AA has nearly two million members worldwide.
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an organization dedicated to helping people end their alcohol addiction. The organization is loosely structured and although there is one main group that focuses on things like literature printing, there are over 100,000 groups that operate under the guidelines of AA leaders. These groups give about half of their donations to the parent organization and keep the other half to pay for things like room rent and basic necessities for the group. People who attend meetings donate what they can to each meeting, but are under no obligation to donate if they have no funds.
The idea of Alcoholics Anonymous can be traced back to the Oxford Group, an American Christian group founded in the 1920s by Dr. Frank Buchman. One of the attendees of the Oxford group meetings was Bill Wilson, who suffered from alcoholism. He thought the leaders of the Oxford Group, especially the idea that God could do what humans couldn’t, helped him stop drinking. In 1935, Dr. Bob Smith and Wilson established a meeting group specifically for the needs of recovering alcoholics, and a few years later, Wilson wrote Alcoholics Anonymous—The Big Book, a book that helped define steps toward recovery from dependence .
The Big Book introduced the Twelve Step Program, which people wishing to drink would work to gain freedom from continuing to drink. These steps include admitting that a problem exists, turning the problem over to a higher power (not necessarily a Christian god), taking a moral inventory of character flaws, and making amends to the people the person has hurt. The key to staying sober was for people to have a spiritual awakening at the end of these passages that would allow them to help other alcoholics and continue to use the passages in their daily lives. Bill Wilson felt that the reason he was able to resist drinking again was this spiritual awakening as he experienced it in the Oxford Group, and the steps in AA are meant to achieve this awakening.
Despite the emphasis on a higher power, or God in Alcoholics Anonymous literature, there are many groups that outright resist a Christian or Judaic approach. Instead a higher power can be defined as anything a person desires. While many meetings close with prayers such as the Our Father, some groups will simply finish holding hands and skip the prayers. However, there is a lot of attention on the idea of a higher power making changes in people’s lives, and some people may resist this concept if they are specifically anti-religious or atheist.
When people join Alcoholics Anonymous, they need to find a sponsor. In addition to attending meetings regularly, people will meet with their sponsor to discuss and work through steps. These sponsors are people who have successfully worked through the twelve steps. These steps have been applied to other programs such as Narcotics Anonymous and are proving to be helpful in ending addiction.
Alcoholics Anonymous is best able to stop drinking when attending meetings regularly. According to AA surveys, there is a fairly high dropout rate in the first few months. When people stay in the program for more than a year, they are often able to maintain sobriety. The AA currently has nearly two million members and conducts meetings in many locations around the world.
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