Founded in 1935, Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) is a 12-step spiritual program for those who have a desire to stop drinking. It is open to all those who seek help all over the world. Thousands of alcoholics have become victorious because of the spiritual foundation it was built on. In 1939 the first book, Alcoholics Anonymous, was published. It held all of the struggles and hope filled stories of some of the first alcoholics that joined the group. This book, later called “The Big Book”, would lay down all of the suggestions for an alcoholic if he or she wanted to live a sober life. The program focuses on the 12 steps to help newcomers adjust to this way of life. Upon entering the program, it is suggested that the newcomer pick a sponsor to help guide them through the steps. Furthermore, service work within the fellowship is also recommended. The sole purpose of Alcoholics Anonymous is to help someone achieve sobriety. As a non-alcoholic, it is easy to look at a fellowship as big as A.A. and think there may be other motives. There is no other purpose in A.A. In the Big Book, it states, “Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.” To have any other mission would be to destroy the foundation this program was built on. Alcoholic Anonymous is for any sex, race and religious background. The program targets anyone with an alcohol problem. In some of the meetings, I have attended, members were as young as 14 and as old as 90. That is one of
For this assignment, I observed an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting held at The Meeting Place on Wednesday, September 28, 2016. There were 15 members in attendance, 12 men and 3 women not counting myself. The group leaders were both women and sat at the front of the room. For confidentiality of the group member names will not be included. The meeting began with the group leaders reminding the attendees of the rules of AA and the process of the meeting. Several of the attendees read the declaration of AA and the documents associated with the meeting structure. After the introduction, several of the members gave their testimony regarding their own experience with drinking. Following the short declarations, a passage of the big book was
As you read the chapter, you easily feel a sense of acceptance, support and hope through the Alcoholics Anonymous community. It would seem as if this chapter was designed to target the hopeless and the downtrodden in an attempt to say, we are here for you and we recognize this is hard, but there is help out there. Chapter two also talks about how religion has a strong foundation in Alcoholics Anonymous and in the road to recovery. Yet the writers tell the reader even though there is a strong religious background, you do not need to follow one specific background to receive support or assistance. What in found fascinating from the reading, was a comment about how members of Alcoholics Anonymous are comparable to passengers who have been shipwrecked and are now coming to be rescued. This reference truly made me feel how massive and formidable an individual’s feeling of loss and
The third chapter of the Alcoholics Anonymous book develops the idea of what alcoholism involves and how people with alcoholism differ from normal people. This chapter elaborates on the idea that there is no such thing as making a normal drinker out of an alcoholic, meaning an alcoholic will never be able to have a few drinks and then stop. It is also believed within the alcoholics’ anonymous community that at in the early stages of their drinking careers, they could have stopped drinking. The first step in recovery is to acknowledge that there is a problem, the book describes different ways a person can be an alcoholic. Not every alcoholic is going to drink a long time nor take large quantities, but the inability to stop makes the alcoholic. The chapter explains how an alcoholic is still unable to stop on the basis of self-knowledge and will power. In order to protect against taking that first drink again, there must be a higher power. Chapter three outlines that there is more than one option of what
Alcoholics Anonymous are groups for men and women who wish to stop
The 12-step program used by Alcoholics Anonymous is a well-known treatment method that’s used for many types of addiction, not just alcohol. Alcoholics are encouraged to “work” the 12-steps. The first step involves admitting the powerlessness over alcohol. The second step has the alcoholic believe that there is some type of a greater power working that will help aide the alcoholic to reach sobriety, as well as maintain is once reached. This step is an example of the religious influence on the 12-step recovery process.
2. Universality - demonstration that we are not alone in our misery or our "problems". By attending the AA meetings, the members knew that they were not alone and there are others struggling with the same issue.
In 1935, a fellowship by the name of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) originated as an effort to develop a method for understanding the complexities of and recovering from alcohol abuse and addiction (Clinton & Scalise, 2013; Hester &Miller, 2003). AA is a non-professional spiritual organization of men and women who gather to share their experiences with alcohol abuse/addiction, to convey hope and strength to overcome alcohol dependence, and help others in the recovery process (Clinton & Scalise, 2013).
Alcoholic Anonymous is "an international fellowship of men and women who have had a drinking problem. It is nonprofessional, self-supporting, multiracial, apolitical, and available almost everywhere. There are no age or education requirements. Membership is open to anyone who wants to do something about his or her drinking problem." During his AA meetings and throughout the show he shares bits of information about his substance abuse and eventual substance dependency that lead him to rehabilitation.
Group therapy has evolved so much that the participant are learning how to help themselves and others. Self-help groups are one of the most popular forms of group therapy. One of the most known self-help groups is Alcoholics Anonymous also known as A.A. Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an international organization produced to assist alcoholics to recover and live alcohol free lives. It was founded by Bill Wilson and Robert Holbrook Smith in 1935. It is a program, complete with twelve steps and twelve traditions, that was put together to help addicts
Alcoholics Anonymous is a self-help organization made up of men and women, young and old, who come together to share their experiences with alcohol, and to express their hope and strength with one another so that they can overcome the illness of alcoholism and then help others to recover. A.A. was first started by two men in 1935. One man from New York, Bill W., who was a stockbroker and another man from Ohio, Dr. Bob who was a surgeon. At one point Bill had wondered how one of his friends had achieved his abstinence, and his friend told him that he achieved it through religion. His friend explained that it was based on the principles laid down in a movement known as the Oxford Movement.
After the preamble, the Twelve Steps were recited by an AA member. These steps are basically what the members live by to become and remain sober. The first step is: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol-that our lives had become unmanageable. This step is the hardest because we all live in denial when it comes to admitting our wrongdoings to others. It is even harder when it is something that we like to do.
The objective of this study is to write a reaction on a 12-step meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous with the focus of the meeting being attitude modification. The meeting attended was the Stairway Group meeting in Decatur, Alabama. The members who attended this group meeting were of all ages, of both the female and male gender and were white, black, and Hispanic individuals. The majority of the attendees were males.
One commonly known self-help group is Alcoholic Anonymous. Alcoholics Anonymous is also known as AA. Alcoholic Anonymous is formed for the purpose of the treatment of alcoholism. Alcoholics Anonymous generally takes place in a church or school in the community. Alcoholics Anonymous is not the only type of self-help group. Self-help groups can be based on anger, anxiety, depression, marriage improvement, hoarding, shopping addiction, weight loss, sex addiction, self-harm, eating disorder, grief processing, etc.
This field site is ideal because it’s a primary source, with options for interviews, observations, and interaction. There is also the option to simply observe and take notes on what the speakers are saying, the members’ reactions to the speakers, and the side conversations about their lives. This data is better than what can be found by searching on the internet or through books because it is first-hand accounts of real alcoholics’ lives. By experiencing these people’s conversations, this project will be unavoidably accurate with its data, and have a sense of reality involved as well. An example of a conversation from the first field site visit involved a middle-aged woman named Michelle and two other men talking about their families. Michelle, who’s a single mom of two kids, 18 and 20, was comforting one of her AA friends regarding his own family problems. This was the first taste of how AA works. It’s not only a place for alcoholics to get and
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is the largest and most commonly known self-help group in the world. Since the creation of AA in 1935, there have been many programs modeled after it, which are also based on the 12-Step Program. Some of these include Narcotics Anonymous (NA) and Chemically Dependent Anonymous, as well as programs for specific drugs, such as Cocaine Anonymous (CA) and Crystal Meth Anonymous (NIDA, 2012). Attendance and participation for self-help groups are open for anyone to attend and free of cost for all members, with meetings typically held in locations such as churches and public buildings. “Metropolitan areas usually have specialized groups, based on such member characteristics as gender, length of time in recovery,