The 12 Step Program Alcoholics Anonymous

Alcoholics Anonymous is mutual aid group that supports individuals in their recovery from alcohol dependence. Established in the mid 1930’s, Alcoholics Anonymous was borne from the principals of self-improvement and mutual aid practiced by the Oxford Group. The Oxford Group was a popular religious movement in the United States and Europe at that time. (AA)

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

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.

Self-help groups are formed by a group of individuals who share a common issue or are in a similar situation. Self-help groups are voluntary. A self-help group is not a therapy group. Self-help groups do not always have a professional leading the group and there is no charge involved. Self-help groups are a great source of emotional support. Self-help groups are used for the purpose of offering support, gathering information, and combining resources. Self-help groups generally work as a stepping stone towards attending professional treatment.

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.

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,

I went to a traditional 12 step AA meeting. It was a long timers group, which had individuals who have been attending AA for a while now and those who have been sober for at least 10 years or more. It was at Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church, located in Johnstown, Pa. The meeting was from 7:30pm to 8:30pm. They started off the meeting by reading the preamble. The preamble, which was found and quoted from the District 41- Alcoholics Anonymous, Johnstown, Pa website (2015), “Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees for AA membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions. AA is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy; neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.” After the preamble they had one of the attendees of the group read the 12 steps.

Alcoholics anonymous was founded in 1935 by a stock broker, Bill Wilson, and a surgeon, Robert Smith. Wilson being a recovering alcoholic had originally attended the Oxford Group, which was a Christian fellowship that based their teachings that all people are sinners and all sinners can be changed. While Wilson later credited the Oxford Group for saving his life, he separated from them, and in his desperation to recover from his own alcoholism he decided to form a group where alcoholics could get together and share their stories and help achieve and maintain sobriety with each other. (Branscum & Sharma, 2010) This group became Alcoholics Anonymous. “The book, Alcoholics Anonymous, was written by Bill Wilson, Dr. Robert Smith, and the founders of AA, with contributions from over 100 recovering alcoholics.” (Inaba & Cohen, 2014, p.9.28) Today, there are over 97,000 AA groups with over 1.7 million members that attend yearly. (Knack, 2009, p.86)

This paper will try to explain the different views of how and why Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step programs are accepted and rejected as effective tools in treating alcoholism and other addictions. The articles reviewed contradict the others’ opinion. First, we see that supporting the 12-step programs with a degree of involvement both the doctor and patient will see better results in treating the addiction. The second view will show that 12-step programs can be used as “self-help” treatment and must be used in conjunction with other forms of rehabilitation. When AA and other 12-step programs are not used with other forms of treatment, the patient tends to become codependent on the group.

Last night, I attended a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. This was not quite a new experience for me, be my late father was an alcoholic and narcotics addict that died of cirrhosis later on in my life this is why I identified myself with them. Narcotics Anonymous is a fraternity or association where there a recuperating addicts and their main purpose is stay clean. Consequently, the member of this fraternity were well-groomed, yesterday was ice cream sticks day where they had a keyword written on a little piece of paper, such as “perseverance”. Anyone can be a narcotics or alcohol user.

The first speaker at the Alcoholics Anonymous meeting was a woman who had been sober for more than 15 years. She related that when she was younger, and as the daughter of a preacher, there was a lot of pressure in her hometown to prove she was not a 'goody-two shoes'. She relates that her social drinking became pronounced following her divorce at which time she also began taking nerve pills and specifically Xanax that were not prescribed to her. All of this worsened until she had a car wreck one night causing great amount of disfigurement to her face. This woman suffered greatly for many years going through plastic surgeries in an attempt to correct her facial features. This woman discussed the subject of Attitude Modification during the Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

Once the alcoholic chooses their treatment program or once the program is chosen for them (in some cases), you are starting your journey. There are several options out there for treatment which was specified by, Alcoholics Anonymous. A short-term treatment that helps alcoholics deal with similar issues would be the 28-day in-patient treatment. The 28-day in-patient treatment would make the patient go to a treatment facility for a duration period between three weeks to one month to cleanse their bodies from all of the alcohol they digested over a short to long period of time. Other treatment methods seem to last a longer period of time, typically lasting for about six months according to Alcoholics Anonymous. These treatments include residential

Alcoholics Anonymous began in 1935, on June 10. This date is known as the day that one the co-founders, Bob Smith, of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) reached sobriety (Gross, 2010). As Gross (2010) states, Bill Wilson, who was a newly sober alcoholic, met Smith and used the techniques, the 12-Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, Wilson used on himself to help cure Smith of

“Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism.” AA is managed and run by recovering addicts. This provides an organic nature to the healing process for those struggling with alcoholism. Additionally, their structure promotes a level of openness and honesty which most have never seen. In my time with the Mountain View AA group I witnessed honesty, support, accountability, and celebration. These four elements combined create what I believe to be a powerful tool in the fight against addiction.

Historically in the later part of the 18th century, the teachings and writings of Benjamin Rush actually precipitated the birth of the American disease concept of alcoholism as an addiction (David Capuzzi, 2008, p. 10). Benjamin Rush; a physician, originally from Philadelphia began to write about inebriety (UnKnown, 2011). He referred to this condition as a disease of the will, resulting in loss of control, and that over-drinking behaviour is curable but only through abstinence (David Capuzzi, 2008, p. 10) (UnKnown, 2011).