Alcoholics Anonymous 

Alcoholics Anonymous 

Introduction

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a mutual-aid recovery support group for people having problems with alcohol. AA is a nonprofit, anonymous, nonprofessional, and self-supporting fellowship that stresses the importance of total abstinence. AA defines alcoholism as a physical compulsion and a psychological obsession, as well as a spiritual disease. Members identify themselves as alcoholics regardless of how long they have been sober. Alcoholism is considered a lifelong disease. Members can recover and become sober alcoholics, but never former alcoholics. Meetings are led by group members and can either be open to the public or limited to members only (Alcoholics World Service, 2001). Meetings include group discussions, sharing of personal problems, and feedback from other members.

Prior to the formation and dissemination of AA, Americans with late-stage alcoholism had essentially three likely outcomes, none of them good. There were occasional exceptions, but the majority was doomed to repeated incarcerations or hospitalizations until they died of complications from alcoholism.

12 Steps

The 12 steps were developed by the earliest AA members as they worked to maintain sobriety. Bill W., a New York stockbroker and a chronic alcoholic, underwent a profound spiritual experience in 1934 while hospitalized for his alcoholism. He and his wife joined a nondenominational Protestant movement called the Oxford Group, which provided a source of spiritual support and opportunities to help others.

In the book Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill describes being in Akron, Ohio, and having a business venture fall through, and how much he wanted to lose himself in the alcohol and camaraderie of the bar. Instead, he called local churches, and was put in touch with Dr. Bob S., a surgeon and chronic alcoholic (Rothrauff & Roman, 2011). In May 1935, Bill began to share the message of sobriety with Bob. By the end of 1937, Bill and Bob had worked with many alcoholics, and about 40 of them had two years of sobriety.

Discussion

The purpose of writing this is that the author explained the experience of Alcoholics Anonymous, a group belonged from Australia. However, according to the author, AA found all around the especially in US, UK, Common Wealth countries and in some part of Europe. The author started the discussion by explaining the work of AA.

Innovative Organization

AA was also an organizational innovation. AA is organized around the 12 Traditions that outline the means by which AA maintains its unity and relates itself to the world around it. Among these traditions is the requirement for membership (only the desire to stop drinking), the assertion that each AA group should be autonomous and self-supporting, that AA should never “endorse, finance or lend the AA name to any related facility or outside enterprise (Hanson, 2011),” that AA should remain nonprofessional, and that AA has no opinion on outside issues.

History and Scope

AA was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Robert Smith, who are referred to as Bill W. and Dr. Bob by AA members. Bill W. and Dr. Bob began their recoveries from alcoholism through the Oxford Group, a nondenominational Christian evangelical organization prominent in the 1920s and 1930s. The two men found that sharing about their ...