Area 40 Alcoholics Anonymous

There are many different types of meetings for different groups of demographics. For example, an intercity group of AA members who are mostly homeless is not likely to help a struggling young mother with an alcohol problem. According to AA traditions, the only qualification for membership is a desire to stop drinking. Join our online community to learn more about addiction and treatment. Many areas have lifted restrictions on in-person gatherings, but virtual meetings are still a great option for those who don’t feel comfortable with in-person groups.

Membership is open to anyone who wants to do something about their drinking problem. In 1983, a review stated that the AA program’s focus on admission of having a problem increases deviant stigma and strips members of their previous cultural identity, replacing it with the deviant identity. A 1985 study based on observations of AA meetings warned of detrimental iatrogenic effects of the twelve-step philosophy and concluded that AA uses many methods that are also used by cults. A later review disagreed, stating that AA’s program bore little resemblance to religious cult practices. In 2014, Vaillant published a paper making the case that Alcoholics Anonymous is not a cult. One review called Dodes’ reasoning against AA success a “pseudostatistical polemic.”

Origin of Alcoholics Anonymous

Alcoholics are now free and find that a new dimension has been added to their lives. By working towards their main goal of sobriety, alcoholics begin to feel that they have really begun to live for the first time. Ebby Thacher, a drinking buddy of Wilson’s, got sober in that same Oxford Group and reached out to help his friend. Thacher approached Wilson saying that he had “got religion”, was sober, and that Wilson could do the same if he set aside objections and instead formed a personal idea of God, “another power” or “higher power”. Feeling a “kinship of common suffering”, Wilson attended his first group gathering, although he was drunk. Within days, Wilson admitted himself to the Charles B. Towns Hospital after drinking four beers on the way—the last alcohol he ever drank.

• Several other 12-step programs use models similar to that of AA, including Narcotics Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous, and Al-Anon.
• We work through the offer of help and suggestion only.
• It offers help and support to affected family members.
• Members enter AA through multiple routes, and membership is diverse.
• As such, they are able to show others how they stayed sober through the process of the steps and act as a recovery mentor.
• Before coming to AA, 63% of members received some type of treatment or counseling, such as medical, psychological, or spiritual.

The authors suggest that both men and women must be prepared for this behavior or find male or female-only groups. Women-only meetings are a very prevalent part of AA culture, and AA has become more welcoming for women. AA’s pamphlet on sponsorship suggests that men be sponsored by men and women be sponsored by women. “Open” meetings welcome anyone—nonalcoholics can attend as observers.

AA in media

Despite four decades of AA research, no clear picture has emerged as to which patient characteristics can predict a positive outcome with AA and, therefore, can be used as criteria for matching patients to AA. This is due in part to the limitations and variability of methodological approaches used in the studies. Most investigators recruit their samples from patients in inpatient or outpatient treatment settings. Some studies retrospectively analyze patients with previous AA experience to identify personal characteristics that predicted AA involvement.

Their programme is designed to complement other traditional alcohol addiction treatments. At a meeting of AA you are likely to hear a mention of a sponsor. A sponsor is another member who has been through the programme of recovery and who applies it to their daily life. As such, they are able to show others how they stayed sober through the process of the steps and act as a recovery mentor. It is significant to note that patients in alcohol and drug treatment programs who become involved with a religious community after treatment have lower relapse rates than those who do not. It should be emphasized that AA is rooted in spirituality, not religion.

Alcohol Dependence

Following the helper therapy principle, sponsors in AA may benefit from their relationship with their charges, as “helping behaviors” correlate with increased abstinence and lower probabilities of binge drinking. The term alcoholism indicates an addiction, or dependency, to the substance alcohol. Over time, regular ingestion of alcohol can cause tolerance, requiring the person to drink more to achieve the same effect. Many people who struggle with alcoholism seek help through the Alcoholics Anonymous program, which provides a step system and meetings to help individuals overcome their struggles to achieve sobriety. While maintaining a sober lifestyle is a challenge for alcoholics, establishment of a sponsor to mentor and counsel an individual can help make the AA program more successful. 12-Step Model aimed to motivate patients to accept substance dependence as an illness, abstinence as the only viable solution, and AA or other TSOs as the vehicle to achieve the solution.

The program was designed for a 28-day stay, which became the standard duration of 12-step–based treatment programs. It was distinguished by a philosophy of genuine respect toward patients. Treatment was administered in a voluntary and noncoercive manner, with patients housed generally in unlocked units and not prevented or what is alcoholics anonymous unduly pressured from discharging themselves against medical advice. Moreover, the 12-Step Model bolstered the status and potential usefulness of alcoholics by maintaining that they were uniquely qualified to help others to recover from alcoholism. Is a self-help organization for persons with a desire to stop drinking.

They discovered great value in working with alcoholics who are still suffering, and that even if the alcoholic they were working with did not stay sober, they did. Bill Wilson wrote, “Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics”. Bill Wilson visited Towns Hospital in New York City in an attempt to help the alcoholics who were patients there in 1934.