Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous can help you throughout recovery!
Alcoholics Anonymous is the founder of 12-step programs and the original group that was first to employ 12-step treatment for the recovery of addiction. It is a fellowship of men and women who share their experiences as well as their strength and hopes to solve the problems that arise during the recovery from addiction to alcohol. The Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step program outlines guiding principles for individuals to live by and to promote a successful spiritual awakening and recovery from alcoholism.
There is no fee to join Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings. The only requirement to become a member is that you must have a desire to stop drinking. Alcoholics Anonymous groups will never charge you any dues or fees for your participation as the groups are self-supporting through their own contributions. The primary purpose of AA is to stay sober and to help other alcoholics to achieve the same sobriety.
Alcoholics Anonymous does not focus an effort on trying to prevent alcoholism because so far nobody really knows why some drinkers turn into alcoholics. What AA places concentration on is helping people who are already alcoholics to stop drinking and learn how to live without alcohol.
What is Alcoholism?
Alcoholism is a serious illness that causes individuals who drink to lose control of their drinking. Alcoholism causes an individual to have difficulty when it comes to not drinking, they can’t stop on their own and they need help. Alcoholics Anonymous focuses on helping individuals who suffer from alcoholism to overcome the condition, learn new ways to cope with stressful situations and ultimately live without alcohol in their life. According to the American Medical Association, Alcoholism is an illness which means that it is treatable.
What is Alcoholics Anonymous?
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a group of men and women who join together to help each other remain sober. It’s a worldwide fellowship that offers the same help to anyone who has a drinking problem and also has a desire to get or to remain sober. There is a special understanding between recovering alcoholics who can share in the same trials and defeats which is part of what has made Alcoholics Anonymous so effective.
All AA members say that they are alcoholics today despite maybe not having a drink for many years. They realize that they are in lifelong recovery from alcoholism regardless of how long they may have already been sober. They never say that they are completely cured from the alcoholism, they are always in recovery. IN AA, sober people are still alcoholics, they are simple sober alcoholics.
Alcoholics Anonymous Meetings
The AA meetings are meant to help individuals relate with one another and find support for their own recovery as well as to provide support to others during the addiction recovery process. There are two primary types of AA meetings, open meetings in which anyone can attend and closed meetings in which only those with a desire to stop drinking can attend. Alcoholics Anonymous meetings are always free for members to join, no monetary fees are required however members can provide donations during the offering which is held at each meeting.
Meetings may have a general discussion focus in which various topics of alcohol addiction and recovery are discussed. At speaker meetings, the primary focus may be for a couple individuals to speak for the duration of the meeting and a question / answer series may take place just after. Some meetings take a literary devotion in which the primary focus is on discussing the various literature related to Alcoholics Anonymous. Regardless of the type of meeting, all meetings are meant to provide structure and support during the alcohol addiction recovery process.
Alcoholics Anonymous 12-Steps
- We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.
- Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
- Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
- Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
- Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
- Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
The 12-steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, as developed in 1939 have since become the guiding principles for many other 12-step programs including Cocaine Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and Gambling Anonymous. Each particular fellowship has altered the 12-steps to accommodate their individual needs.
