The Twelve-step Program
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The Twelve-step Program
A twelve-step program (or programme) is a fellowship which aims at the recovery of its members from the consequences of an addiction, a compulsion, or another harmful influence on their lives, with the help of the Twelve Steps. Also the specific program of recovery that is applied within such a fellowship, is called a twelve-step program. The fellowship, a bond of loosely organized, autonomous groups, functions on the basis of principles, formulated in the Twelve Traditions. Synonyms are anonymous program and A-program; the original twelve-step program is Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.).
Twelve-step programs are famous throughout the West, but in popular literature only the first step is frequently referenced.
Characteristics
All twelve-step programs follow some version of the Twelve Steps. They meet regularly to discuss their problems and share their victories.
One of the most widely-recognized characteristics of twelve-step groups is the requirement that members admit that they “have a problem”. In this spirit, many members open their address to the group along the lines of, “Hi, I’m David, and I’m an alcoholic” — a catchphrase now widely identified with support groups.
Visitors to group meetings share their experiences, challenge successes and failures, and provide peer support for each other. Many people who have joined these groups report they found success that previously eluded them, while others — including some ex-members — criticize their efficacy or universal applicability.
The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous:
Other twelve-step groups have modified these steps slightly to refer to problems other than alcoholism.
History
The first such program was Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), which was begun in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, known to A.A. members as “Bill W.” and “Dr. Bob.” They established the tradition within the “Anonymous” twelve-step programs of using only first names. The Twelve Steps were originally written by Wilson and other early members of AA to codify the process that they felt had worked for them personally. The Twelve Steps were essentially a rewriting of the 6 steps of the Oxford Group with whom Wilson had contact. This “codex” is the book “Alcoholics Anonymous”, often referred to as the “Big Book.”
The Twelve Steps were eventually matched with Twelve Traditions, a set of guidelines for running individual groups and a sort of constitution for the program (eg, AA) as a whole.
Many other programs since have adapted AA’s original steps to their own ends. Related programs exist to help family and friends of those with addictions. These programs also follow modified versions of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.
One organization which is often confused with an “Anonymous” twelve-step program, due to the intentional similarity of its name — but is not one — is Narconon. Narconon is a branch of the Church of Scientology, presenting Scientology doctrine and practices as a therapy for drug abusers. Narconon does not use the Twelve Steps, and is not related to Narcotics Anonymous.
Relation to religion
A primary belief of members is that their success is based on giving up on self-reliance and willpower, and instead relying on God, or a “Higher Power”. Critics of these programs, however, often hold that this reliance is ineffective, and offensive or inapplicable to atheists and others who do not believe in a salvific deity. Proponents of twelve-step programs argue that many atheists have been helped by the program and that one’s higher power may well be the group itself.
The role of religion in twelve-step groups is an argument of significance in some parts of the United States, where the criminal justice system has held out group participation to inmate addicts as a condition of parole or shortened sentences. Governments in the U.S. are disallowed under the First Amendment from granting privilege to religious belief. Thus, if twelve-step groups are religious (which some people believe a facial reading of the Twelve Steps makes plain) then this condition is unconstitutional. Members of twelve-step groups commonly attempt to finesse this conflict by making the semantic distinction that they are “spiritual, but not religious.”
Some critics — again, particularly atheists and humanists — also question directly the idea of giving up on self-reliance, which can be seen as a form of idealized despair. Secular alternatives to twelve-step programs, such as Rational Recovery, are for this reason in many ways opposite to the twelve-step process. Others, such as YES Recovery, acknowledge a debt to the twelve-steps movement but do not have a culture of belief in God.
As with the Bible and other similar texts, there are many different ways of interpreting the intent behind twelve-step programs. And as with the Bible, there are those who argue strongly for a relatively literal adherence to program literature (often referred to as “Big Book Thumpers”), and then there are those who advise “take what you like and leave the rest” and advocate a much more liberal approach. (Note: The phrase “take what you like and leave the rest” cannot be found in the Basic Text of AA or any other A.A. literature.) Two books that look at the twelve-step literature from a more liberal point of view are The Zen of Recovery by Mel Ash and A Skeptic’s Guide To The Twelve Steps by Phillip Z.
A clear distinction needs to be drawn between the original A.A. program fashioned in Akron which was described as a Christian Fellowship, held “old fashioned prayer meetings,” stressed Bible study and prayer and the reading of religious literature, and insisted on bringing people to an acceptance of Jesus Christ as the way to a relationship with God. While meetings were held by drunks and Oxford Group members, the work was said to be that of a “clandestine lodge” of the Oxford Group because its stress was on helping drunks to recovery, abstinence, resistance of temptation, old fashioned revival meetings, and conversion to Christ — which seemed to derive from the ideas, principles and practices of United Christian Endeavor Society of Dr. Bob’s youth.
This program achieved a 75% to 93% success rate. Its adherents said they felt the answer to their problems was in the “Good Book” (as they called the Bible). There were no Steps, no basic text, only one regular meeting. The emphasis was on Bible study, prayer, seeking God’s guidance, conversion, visiting hospitalized drunks, fellowship and witnessing. In a word, it was called “love and service” — the watchwords of United Christian Endeavor.
After the unusual cures were realized by Bob and Bill, the Akron group authorized Wilson to write a book about the program. But Wilson returned to New York and wrote an entirely different program based primarily on what he had learned from the Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in New York, and a leader of the Oxford Group people in America. To Shoemaker’s ideas, which are found almost verbatim in the Twelve Steps, Bill added in his Big Book (the new basic text) ideas about alcoholism from Dr. William D. Silkworth, ideas about the necessity for a conversion from Dr. Carl G. Jung, ideas about a so-called “higher power” primarily from Professor William James and New Thought writers, thoughts from Anne Smith’s (Dr. Bob’s wife) Spiritual Journal, practical techniques from Richard Peabody set forth in his Common Sense of Drinking book, and a smattering of words and phrases with New Thought and New Age origin such as “Universal Mind,” “Czar of the Universe,” “fourth dimension of existence,” and “higher power.” Then Wilson declared there had been a program of recovery which consisted of Twelve Steps the pioneers had taken to find God. Bill asked Shoemaker to write the Steps, but Shoemaker declined. The Steps can be recognized in the Oxford Group teachings Wilson received from Rowland Hazard and Ebby Thacher in late 1934 and early 1935, but neither the Oxford Group nor early A.A. in New York or Akron had any “steps” at all.
A.A. was, at its origins, most assuredly a “religion” and a “religious organization.” The concept of “spiritual, not religious,” seems to have derived from the church’s desire to keep religion separate from A.A. even though the precepts and practices of A.A. were Biblical in roots and nature. Thus early A.A. meetings in New York were those of “A First Century Christian Fellowship” then also known as the “Oxford Group.” The “spirituality” idea was originally defined by Wilson as reliance on the Creator — truly a religious idea. But as time went on, New Thought and New Age substitute words seemed to drive A.A. talk and writing more toward unbelief and substitutionary, secular, universalism than to a relationship with God — the avowed Big Book purpose of the Steps.
Literature
The A.A. Service Manual combined with Twelve Concepts for World Service by Bill W.. 2004-2005 Edition, New York: Alcoholics Anonymous, 2004.
Alcoholics Anonymous. The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism, New York: Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed. new and rev. 2001, ISBN 1893007162 (‘Big Book’).
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, New York: Alcoholics Anonymous, 1953, ISBN 0916856011.
For more literature, see Alcoholics Anonymous, Literature; Bill W., Literature; Dr. Bob, Literature.
“The Steps We Took”, by Joe McQ. (of “Joe & Charlie”) 1990 August House ISBN 0-87483-151-2
Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-step_program”
Categories: Addiction Alcohol abuse Twelve-step program
In other languages
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Alcoholics Anonymous (known commonly as "A.A." or "AA") is a world-wide fellowship of alcoholics whose primary purpose is to stay sober and carry the message of recovery from alcoholism through the Twelve Steps. A.A. is the original twelve-step program and has been the source and model for all subsequent and separate ones, such as Gamblers Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Sexaholics Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, and Al-Anon/Alateen.
An earlier group for alcoholics, known as the Washingtonians, fell apart when it tried to branch out to different goals, which A.A. has tried to avoid.
There is some controversy over the A.A. approach of abstinence as a goal as opposed to other programs which aim for moderation. [1] A.A. draws a line between a "real alcoholic" and a "hard drinker", claiming that unlike a hard drinker, who may have the habit badly enough to cause gradual physical and mental impairment but retain the ability to stop or moderate drinking (given sufficiently strong reason (Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 20-21)), a real alcoholic has a disease and no amount of logic or persuasion or desire can bring a real alcoholic to lasting sobriety. A.A. considers alcoholism to be a diagnosis which can only be made by oneself, and has no opinion on abstinence for others.
There also exist a number of purely secular non-12 step programs which promote abstinence as a recovery goal, as well as programs which promote a goal of moderation for "problem drinkers" as opposed to "alcoholics." A listing can be found in the external links section of this article.
Contents
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 Dr. Bob Smith (Robert Holbrook Smith), a medical doctor and surgeon from Akron, Ohio. In A.A. circles, the former is known as "Bill W." and the latter, "Dr. Bob."
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 Thacher, to get sober. Thacher had learned about the spiritual approach from Rowland 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 Rowland that his case, like that of most alcoholics, was nigh on hopeless. Rowland 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 Rowland to seek out a conversion experience.
Rowland 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. Given this start, it is no surprise that A.A. groups and members are frequently called "Friends of Bill W."
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 the A.A. program works
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. The process of working the Steps is sometimes summed up as "Trust God, clean house, and help others." (See twelve-step_program for a list of the steps themselves.)
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, usually of the same sex as the sponsee, and freely chosen - and just as freely "fired"- by the sponsee.) The Steps are designed to help the alcoholic achieve a spiritual, emotional and mental state conducive to lasting sobriety. There are many long-term A.A. members who claim that working the Steps has freed them entirely from the urge to drink alcohol. Whereas staying sober was once difficult and uncertain, these members report that sobriety is now much easier, provided they keep working the A.A. program.
Most members regard attendance at A.A. meetings as important to their sobriety (although there are groups in A.A. made up of loners and members living in remote locations who communicate by mail and internet). Even members with decades of continuous sobriety still go to 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 like. However, new members are encouraged to go to 90 meetings in 90 days, and a sponsor may set his or her own expectations for a sponsee's attendance. No official membership or attendance records are kept at any level in A.A. However there are annually published estimates which are available through AAs headquaters in New York City, known as "GSO" (General Service Office).
With the above in mind, a typical individual program of recovery for a newcomer may include:
A.A. does not charge membership fees to attend meetings, but instead relies on whatever donations members choose to give to cover basic 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.
The Twelve-step Program
A twelve-step program (or programme) is a fellowship which aims at the recovery of its members from the consequences of an addiction, a compulsion, or another harmful influence on their lives, with the help of the Twelve Steps. Also the specific program of recovery that is applied within such a fellowship, is called a twelve-step program. The fellowship, a bond of loosely organized, autonomous groups, functions on the basis of principles, formulated in the Twelve Traditions. Synonyms are anonymous program and A-program; the original twelve-step program is Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.).
Twelve-step programs are famous throughout the West, but in popular literature only the first step is frequently referenced.
Characteristics
All twelve-step programs follow some version of the Twelve Steps. They meet regularly to discuss their problems and share their victories.
One of the most widely-recognized characteristics of twelve-step groups is the requirement that members admit that they “have a problem”. In this spirit, many members open their address to the group along the lines of, “Hi, I’m David, and I’m an alcoholic” — a catchphrase now widely identified with support groups.
Visitors to group meetings share their experiences, challenge successes and failures, and provide peer support for each other. Many people who have joined these groups report they found success that previously eluded them, while others — including some ex-members — criticize their efficacy or universal applicability.
The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous:
- 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.
- We’re 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.
Other twelve-step groups have modified these steps slightly to refer to problems other than alcoholism.
History
The first such program was Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), which was begun in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, known to A.A. members as “Bill W.” and “Dr. Bob.” They established the tradition within the “Anonymous” twelve-step programs of using only first names. The Twelve Steps were originally written by Wilson and other early members of AA to codify the process that they felt had worked for them personally. The Twelve Steps were essentially a rewriting of the 6 steps of the Oxford Group with whom Wilson had contact. This “codex” is the book “Alcoholics Anonymous”, often referred to as the “Big Book.”
The Twelve Steps were eventually matched with Twelve Traditions, a set of guidelines for running individual groups and a sort of constitution for the program (eg, AA) as a whole.
Many other programs since have adapted AA’s original steps to their own ends. Related programs exist to help family and friends of those with addictions. These programs also follow modified versions of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.
One organization which is often confused with an “Anonymous” twelve-step program, due to the intentional similarity of its name — but is not one — is Narconon. Narconon is a branch of the Church of Scientology, presenting Scientology doctrine and practices as a therapy for drug abusers. Narconon does not use the Twelve Steps, and is not related to Narcotics Anonymous.
Relation to religion
A primary belief of members is that their success is based on giving up on self-reliance and willpower, and instead relying on God, or a “Higher Power”. Critics of these programs, however, often hold that this reliance is ineffective, and offensive or inapplicable to atheists and others who do not believe in a salvific deity. Proponents of twelve-step programs argue that many atheists have been helped by the program and that one’s higher power may well be the group itself.
The role of religion in twelve-step groups is an argument of significance in some parts of the United States, where the criminal justice system has held out group participation to inmate addicts as a condition of parole or shortened sentences. Governments in the U.S. are disallowed under the First Amendment from granting privilege to religious belief. Thus, if twelve-step groups are religious (which some people believe a facial reading of the Twelve Steps makes plain) then this condition is unconstitutional. Members of twelve-step groups commonly attempt to finesse this conflict by making the semantic distinction that they are “spiritual, but not religious.”
Some critics — again, particularly atheists and humanists — also question directly the idea of giving up on self-reliance, which can be seen as a form of idealized despair. Secular alternatives to twelve-step programs, such as Rational Recovery, are for this reason in many ways opposite to the twelve-step process. Others, such as YES Recovery, acknowledge a debt to the twelve-steps movement but do not have a culture of belief in God.
As with the Bible and other similar texts, there are many different ways of interpreting the intent behind twelve-step programs. And as with the Bible, there are those who argue strongly for a relatively literal adherence to program literature (often referred to as “Big Book Thumpers”), and then there are those who advise “take what you like and leave the rest” and advocate a much more liberal approach. (Note: The phrase “take what you like and leave the rest” cannot be found in the Basic Text of AA or any other A.A. literature.) Two books that look at the twelve-step literature from a more liberal point of view are The Zen of Recovery by Mel Ash and A Skeptic’s Guide To The Twelve Steps by Phillip Z.
A clear distinction needs to be drawn between the original A.A. program fashioned in Akron which was described as a Christian Fellowship, held “old fashioned prayer meetings,” stressed Bible study and prayer and the reading of religious literature, and insisted on bringing people to an acceptance of Jesus Christ as the way to a relationship with God. While meetings were held by drunks and Oxford Group members, the work was said to be that of a “clandestine lodge” of the Oxford Group because its stress was on helping drunks to recovery, abstinence, resistance of temptation, old fashioned revival meetings, and conversion to Christ — which seemed to derive from the ideas, principles and practices of United Christian Endeavor Society of Dr. Bob’s youth.
This program achieved a 75% to 93% success rate. Its adherents said they felt the answer to their problems was in the “Good Book” (as they called the Bible). There were no Steps, no basic text, only one regular meeting. The emphasis was on Bible study, prayer, seeking God’s guidance, conversion, visiting hospitalized drunks, fellowship and witnessing. In a word, it was called “love and service” — the watchwords of United Christian Endeavor.
After the unusual cures were realized by Bob and Bill, the Akron group authorized Wilson to write a book about the program. But Wilson returned to New York and wrote an entirely different program based primarily on what he had learned from the Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in New York, and a leader of the Oxford Group people in America. To Shoemaker’s ideas, which are found almost verbatim in the Twelve Steps, Bill added in his Big Book (the new basic text) ideas about alcoholism from Dr. William D. Silkworth, ideas about the necessity for a conversion from Dr. Carl G. Jung, ideas about a so-called “higher power” primarily from Professor William James and New Thought writers, thoughts from Anne Smith’s (Dr. Bob’s wife) Spiritual Journal, practical techniques from Richard Peabody set forth in his Common Sense of Drinking book, and a smattering of words and phrases with New Thought and New Age origin such as “Universal Mind,” “Czar of the Universe,” “fourth dimension of existence,” and “higher power.” Then Wilson declared there had been a program of recovery which consisted of Twelve Steps the pioneers had taken to find God. Bill asked Shoemaker to write the Steps, but Shoemaker declined. The Steps can be recognized in the Oxford Group teachings Wilson received from Rowland Hazard and Ebby Thacher in late 1934 and early 1935, but neither the Oxford Group nor early A.A. in New York or Akron had any “steps” at all.
A.A. was, at its origins, most assuredly a “religion” and a “religious organization.” The concept of “spiritual, not religious,” seems to have derived from the church’s desire to keep religion separate from A.A. even though the precepts and practices of A.A. were Biblical in roots and nature. Thus early A.A. meetings in New York were those of “A First Century Christian Fellowship” then also known as the “Oxford Group.” The “spirituality” idea was originally defined by Wilson as reliance on the Creator — truly a religious idea. But as time went on, New Thought and New Age substitute words seemed to drive A.A. talk and writing more toward unbelief and substitutionary, secular, universalism than to a relationship with God — the avowed Big Book purpose of the Steps.
Literature
The A.A. Service Manual combined with Twelve Concepts for World Service by Bill W.. 2004-2005 Edition, New York: Alcoholics Anonymous, 2004.
Alcoholics Anonymous. The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism, New York: Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed. new and rev. 2001, ISBN 1893007162 (‘Big Book’).
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, New York: Alcoholics Anonymous, 1953, ISBN 0916856011.
For more literature, see Alcoholics Anonymous, Literature; Bill W., Literature; Dr. Bob, Literature.
“The Steps We Took”, by Joe McQ. (of “Joe & Charlie”) 1990 August House ISBN 0-87483-151-2
Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-step_program”
Categories: Addiction Alcohol abuse Twelve-step program
In other languages
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Alcoholics Anonymous (known commonly as "A.A." or "AA") is a world-wide fellowship of alcoholics whose primary purpose is to stay sober and carry the message of recovery from alcoholism through the Twelve Steps. A.A. is the original twelve-step program and has been the source and model for all subsequent and separate ones, such as Gamblers Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Sexaholics Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, and Al-Anon/Alateen.
An earlier group for alcoholics, known as the Washingtonians, fell apart when it tried to branch out to different goals, which A.A. has tried to avoid.
There is some controversy over the A.A. approach of abstinence as a goal as opposed to other programs which aim for moderation. [1] A.A. draws a line between a "real alcoholic" and a "hard drinker", claiming that unlike a hard drinker, who may have the habit badly enough to cause gradual physical and mental impairment but retain the ability to stop or moderate drinking (given sufficiently strong reason (Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 20-21)), a real alcoholic has a disease and no amount of logic or persuasion or desire can bring a real alcoholic to lasting sobriety. A.A. considers alcoholism to be a diagnosis which can only be made by oneself, and has no opinion on abstinence for others.
There also exist a number of purely secular non-12 step programs which promote abstinence as a recovery goal, as well as programs which promote a goal of moderation for "problem drinkers" as opposed to "alcoholics." A listing can be found in the external links section of this article.
Contents
- 1 History and development
- 2 How the A.A. program works
- 3 Beliefs about alcoholism
- 4 Structure
- 5 A.A., religion and the law
- 6 Controversial system
- 6.1 AA's Supporters
- 6.2 AA's Critics
- 6.2.1 Criticisms specific to religious themes
- 6.3 Analysis of the controversy
- 7 Literature
- 8 External links
- 8.1 Critical links
- 8.2 Links to AA alternatives
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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 Dr. Bob Smith (Robert Holbrook Smith), a medical doctor and surgeon from Akron, Ohio. In A.A. circles, the former is known as "Bill W." and the latter, "Dr. Bob."
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 Thacher, to get sober. Thacher had learned about the spiritual approach from Rowland 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 Rowland that his case, like that of most alcoholics, was nigh on hopeless. Rowland 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 Rowland to seek out a conversion experience.
Rowland 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. Given this start, it is no surprise that A.A. groups and members are frequently called "Friends of Bill W."
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 the A.A. program works
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. The process of working the Steps is sometimes summed up as "Trust God, clean house, and help others." (See twelve-step_program for a list of the steps themselves.)
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, usually of the same sex as the sponsee, and freely chosen - and just as freely "fired"- by the sponsee.) The Steps are designed to help the alcoholic achieve a spiritual, emotional and mental state conducive to lasting sobriety. There are many long-term A.A. members who claim that working the Steps has freed them entirely from the urge to drink alcohol. Whereas staying sober was once difficult and uncertain, these members report that sobriety is now much easier, provided they keep working the A.A. program.
Most members regard attendance at A.A. meetings as important to their sobriety (although there are groups in A.A. made up of loners and members living in remote locations who communicate by mail and internet). Even members with decades of continuous sobriety still go to 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 like. However, new members are encouraged to go to 90 meetings in 90 days, and a sponsor may set his or her own expectations for a sponsee's attendance. No official membership or attendance records are kept at any level in A.A. However there are annually published estimates which are available through AAs headquaters in New York City, known as "GSO" (General Service Office).
With the above in mind, a typical individual program of recovery for a newcomer may include:
A common feature of A.A. meetings is that members are asked to speak to the group about their experience with alcoholism and recovery. However, 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; some may choose to never speak.Above all, avoiding the first drink.
Attendance at one or more meetings daily for 90 days or longer. Some people coming into A.A. have attended meetings daily for the first year. (Note: nowhere in A.A. literature is there a reference to frequent attendance at A.A. meetings. Many A.A.s believe this notion started in the treatment center industry; graduating patients were advised to attend many A.A. meetings, presumably in an effort to acquire a new peer group of abstinent friends to reinforce the effects of treatment. Regardless of source, this recommendation is consistent with a suggestion commonly heard in A.A. that one in recovery should "change playgrounds and playmates.")
Contact with one's sponsor daily in order to work the steps and to discuss whatever problems one may be having in one's life, problems which may, if not addressed, lead the alcoholic to take the first drink: "One [drink] is too many and one thousand [drinks] never enough."
Daily prayer and/or meditation, as suggested by Step 11: "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."
Daily attention to Step 10: "Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it."
Service work, which, for the newcomer, can be as uncomplicated as making coffee at meetings, helping to set up and break down tables and chairs, etc.
It will be noted that the program is to be worked daily and done so one day at a time. Frequently heard at meetings: "I'm a winner today, no matter what happens, as long as I don't pick up that first drink."
A.A. does not charge membership fees to attend meetings, but instead relies on whatever donations members choose to give to cover basic 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.
posted by amiCreative at 1/01/2005 11:00:00 PM
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