Alcoholics Anonymous

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Logo for AA
Logo for AA

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an informal society of more than two million recovered and recovering alcoholics in the United States, Canada, and other countries.[1] AA members meet in local groups that range in size from a handful to many hundreds in larger communities. Although AA has a central communication office, each group is essentially autonomous. The stated primary purpose of an AA group is to "carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers". AA was the first twelve-step program and has been the model for similar recovery groups such as Al-Anon/Alateen, Gamblers Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Sexaholics Anonymous, and Overeaters Anonymous. Al-Anon and Alateen are companion programs designed to provide support for relatives and friends of alcoholics.

AA teaches that an alcoholic, in order to recover, should abstain completely from alcohol on a daily basis;[2][3] the society in turn offers a community of recovering people who help each other and work the twelve steps together.

Contents

[edit] AA History

Dr Bob Smith (left) and Bill Wilson (right), the co-founders of AA
Dr Bob Smith (left) and Bill Wilson (right), the co-founders of AA

[edit] Pre-AA understanding of alcoholism

Until the mid-1930s, alcoholics who did not have the financial means to hire a psychiatrist or admit themselves to a private sanitarium could find help only at state hospitals, in jails, rescue missions, the Salvation Army, religious evangelists, or through street ministries. The founding of Alcoholics Anonymous marked the first approach to supporting the sustained recovery of the alcoholics, regardless of their financial standing. It also marked the first approach to combine the faith of religious people, the knowledge of medical people, and the experience-sharing capabilities of alcoholics who knew how to get well.

AA was started by two alcoholics who first met on May 12, 1935. One was Bill Wilson, a New York Wall Street stock speculator; the other was Dr. Bob Smith, a medical doctor and surgeon from Akron, Ohio. In AA circles, the former is known as "Bill W." and the latter, "Dr. Bob." Wilson had been sober for six 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.

Wilson had been influenced by the opinion of psychiatrist Dr. Carl G. Jung that alcoholism could be cured by a genuine conversion, and of the Harvard philosophy and psychology Professor William James that recovery by conversion had been sporadically taking place for centuries in the churches, in the rescue missions, and in the Salvation Army.[4] A New York doctor, William Duncan Silkworth, told Bill that alcoholism was not a moral weakness. Dr. Silkworth told Wilson that, in his view, 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. In addition, Dr. Silkworth theorized that alcoholism was akin to an allergy, in the sense that it produced abnormal reactions to alcohol that were not observed in non-alcoholic drinkers. It was a "phenomenon of craving," he said -- with the first drink the alcoholic finds it virtually impossible to stop. The "obsession" was the desire to start drinking, and the "allergy" was the compulsion to continue. His theory explained the enormous recidivism rate of alcoholics. Silkworth was also familiar with the writing and theories of Dr. Carl Jung and Professor William James.[5]

[edit] The possibility of spiritual healing

Wilson also heard that some alcoholics were able to recover on a spiritual basis. In one of their many discussions during Wilson's hospitalization at Towns Hospital, Silkworth had also informed Wilson that he could be healed by the Great Physician. By this, Silkworth meant Jesus Christ--advice Silkworth had also given to other patients, as Dr. Norman Vincent Peale recounts in his story about Charles in The Positive Power of Jesus Christ. This approach had been used by one of Wilson's old drinking buddies, Ebby Thacher, to stop drinking. Thacher had learned about the spiritual approach from Rowland Hazard, 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 nearly 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.[6] History, he said, had recorded examples of recovery from alcoholism that appeared solely attributable to the spiritual conversion of the alcoholic. He told Rowland to seek out a conversion in a religious atmosphere.[7]


[edit] AA's origins: The Oxford Group

Rowland H. returned to America and became a member of the Oxford Group.[8] Rowland mastered their life-changing techniques and overcame alcoholism. The group was a self-styled first-Century Christian movement founded by Frank Buchman, a Protestant evangelist, in about 1919. It advocated finding God through a surrender to Him, moral inventory, confession of defects, elimination of sin, restitution, reliance upon God, and helping others. It appeared from the successes of several alcoholics in the Oxford Group that a conversion experience (which they chose to call a spiritual experience, and later a "change") would relieve alcoholics of the mental obsession that kept sending them back to alcoholism after periods of sobriety. Wilson later credited AA's ideas of self-examination, acknowledgement of character defects, restitution for harm done, and working with others, to the teachings of Wilson's friend, Rev. Samuel Moor Shoemaker and the Oxford Group.[9] Later in an article published in AA's Grapevine, Wilson said that every idea in Steps Three through Twelve came directly from Shoemaker's teaching.[10]

[edit] The conversions of Ebby and Bill

Rowland had passed along to Ebby Thacher, an old school friend and drinking companion of Bill Wilson, the Carl Jung solution of conversion as well as the Oxford Group's life-changing principles. Rescuing Ebby from incarceration for inebriation, Rowland and a couple of Oxford Group friends lodged Ebby at Rev. Sam Shoemaker's Calvary Rescue Mission. It was there that Ebby went to the altar, made a decision for Christ, and proclaimed "I've got religion" and that God had done for him what he could not do for himself.[11]

Ebby visited his old friend Bill Wilson who was still drinking heavily. Ebby told Bill about his experience at the Rescue Mission. In Bill's own words:

"But my friend sat before me, and he made the point-blank declaration that God had done for him what he could not do for himself."[12]

Bill could see that his friend, who was once as hopelessly alcoholic as he was now, had found something. Yet, as much as Bill wanted to stop drinking, he still found it hard to accept his friend's attestation:

"Despite the living example of my friend there remained in me the vestiges of my old prejudice. The word God still aroused a certain antipathy. When the thought was expressed that there might be a God personal to me this feeling was intensified. I didn't like the idea. I could go for such conceptions as Creative Intelligence, Universal Mind or Spirit of Nature but I resisted the thought of a Czar of the Heavens, however loving His sway might be. I have since talked with scores of men who felt the same way.

"My friend suggested what then seemed a novel idea. He said, 'Why don't you choose your own conception of God?'

"That statement hit me hard. It melted the icy intellectual mountain in whose shadow I had lived and shivered many years. I stood in the sunlight at last."[13]

Thus Bill was persuaded to go there and find what Ebby had found--a conversion. And it was there that Bill went to the altar, made a decision for Christ, wrote his brother-in-law that he had "got religion." [4]Bill twice wrote in his autobiography, "For sure I was born again."[14] Still drinking, and a few days after his conversion at the Mission, Bill returned to the hospital, announced that he had "found something," and decided he had better call on the Great Physician which Silkworth had told him about.[5]

Wilson questioned whether he had a genuine conversion or was on the verge of madness. Dr. Silkworth advised him that "hopeless alcoholics" sometimes report conversion experiences before being "turned around" toward recovery. Ebby Thacher brought Bill a copy of William James' Varieties of Religious Experience. Silkworth had also read this book which contained many conversion accounts. Bill spent the better part of the day poring through its contents and concluded that his experience was like those reported by James.[5] Silkworth advised Bill that he had undergone a genuine conversion. In AA Comes of Age, Wilson states that Dr. Silkworth "reminded me of Professor William James's observation that truly transforming spiritual experiences are nearly always founded on calamity and collapse."

Wilson could hardly have escaped reading in James's book the dramatic tales of other alcoholics' conversions at the altar of rescue missions. And, in fact, it was Bill's friend Ebby who had first gone to Calvary Rescue Mission and knelt at the altar, concluding: "I've got religion." Wilson in turn went to Calvary Rescue Mission, listened to the hymns, Bible reading, and testimonials and then went to the altar himself. Wilson himself twice wrote in his autobiographical manuscripts: "For sure, I'd been born again;" and wrote a letter stating he too had "got religion." Wilson was no stranger to such conversion experiences since his grandfather Willie Wilson had gone through such an experience on Mount Aeolus in East Dorset, Vermont; reported details almost identical to those Bill reported; rushed to the altar of the local Congregational Church; announced that he had been saved; and never drank again for the rest of his life.[15]

[edit] A new program for recovery

In keeping with practices in the Salvation Army, the Missions, and the Oxford Group itself, Wilson bought into the slogan: "You have to give it away to keep it." Importantly, Wilson found that his own sobriety seemed to grow stronger when he shared his personal alcoholic experience with other alcoholics. Wilson was on the verge of a relapse on a business trip to Akron. In a hotel lobby, he decided to phone local ministers and ask if they knew of alcoholics he could talk to. Dr. Bob Smith's little group of Oxford Group people and alcoholic families had been praying for him for healing from his alcoholism, and Dr. Bob was eventually converted.[16] When Wilson called Henrietta Seiberling she exclaimed, "You are manna from heaven," and introduced Wilson to Smith. Wilson presented his ideas on spiritual healing to Smith and the two struck up a solid friendship. For three months, they studied the Bible, held long discussions, and reviewed Oxford Group ideas. Together they fashioned Akron's pioneer recovery program.[17] Smith's last drink is said to have been on June 10, 1935, and that is considered within AA to be the date of the founding of AA.

[edit] The "Big Book"

First Edition of The Big Book
First Edition of The Big Book

The first AA book, Alcoholics Anonymous,[3] was published in 1939 and has been a perennial best-seller ever since. When work began on the manuscript, there were about 40 alcoholics who had maintained sobriety; by the time it was published in the Spring of 1939, there were seventy-plus. While several titles for the book were proposed (including "The Way Out", which was already in use), Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob finally settled on Alcoholics Anonymous. The fellowship itself eventually took its name from the book. The first edition had a "circus cover" of red and yellow, and it was printed in heavy paper and large size, which was thought to make it more saleable—hence the nickname "Big Book", a name that sticks today even though AA has published it in a more conventional size. In 2001, the 4th edition was released. The first 164 pages of the first edition (including the Doctor's Opinion) have been left largely intact, with minor statistics and edits. In each successive edition the personal stories have been reviewed to represent the current population of AA, with the result that the stories of the original members of the 1930s have gradually been displaced.

[edit] How the AA program works

Some members believe that AA provides a sense of support for members attending regular meetings.[citation needed] Far more members, as well as AA's literature, hold that the essence of the program is having a "spiritual awakening" through working the Twelve Steps. The Steps are sometimes summarised as "Trust God, clean house, and help others." Each edition of AA's Big Book makes it clear that the end result of following the suggested steps is finding God "as we understood Him" and establishing a relationship with Him. One description of meetings comes from Dr. W.W. Bauer, who spoke for the American Medical Association in 1946 when he stated "Alcoholics Anonymous are no crusaders: not a temperance society. They know that they must never drink. They help others with similar problems...In this atmosphere the alcoholic often overcomes his excessive concentration upon himself. Learning to depend upon a higher power and absorb himself in his work with other alcoholics, he remains sober day by day. The days add up into weeks, the weeks into months and years."[18]

AA 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.) The Steps are designed to help the alcoholic achieve a spiritual, emotional and mental state conducive to lasting sobriety. Many AA members believe finding God through the application of the Steps has freed them entirely from the urge to drink alcohol. Both AA's founders Dr. Bob and Bill stated they had been cured of alcoholism, as did "AA Number Three" Bill Dotston.[19] Whereas staying sober was once difficult and uncertain, these members reported that sobriety was now much easier, provided they keep enlarging their spiritual life.

Some members regard attendance at AA meetings as important to their sobriety[citation needed] (although there are groups in AA made up of loners and members living in remote locations who communicate by mail and internet). Many members who achieved initial sobriety through AA have completed their return to life and no longer participate in meetings, however most studies done show that regular meeting attendance significantly improves the chances of continued sobriety. With the above in mind, a typical individual program of recovery for a newcomer may include:

  • Above all, avoiding the first drink. "One [drink] is too many and a thousand [drinks] never enough."
  • Attendance at one or more meetings per day for 90 days or longer. Some people coming into AA have attended meetings daily for the first year. While this recommendation is found nowhere in AA literature, it is often heard in meetings and many sponsors, having attended "90-in-90" themselves as newcomers, strongly advise sponsees to do the same. Some suggest that this recommendation may have originally come out of treatment centres; graduating patients were advised to attend many AA meetings, presumably in an effort to acquire a new peer group of abstinent friends to reinforce the effects of treatment. Within AA, this is referred to as "staying away from slippery people and slippery places" or "changing playgrounds and playmates".
  • Asking a power greater than themselves for strength and guidance.
  • Contact with one's sponsor daily in order to work the Steps and to discuss life problems which may, if not addressed, lead the alcoholic to take the first drink.
  • Daily prayer and 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 simple as making coffee at meetings or helping to set up and break down tables and chairs. These are known as commitments.

It will be noted that the program is to be worked daily. Dr. Bob cited the Sermon on the Mount for the phrase 'one day at a time.' Members of AA frequently say, "I'm a winner today, no matter what happens, as long as I don't pick up that first drink."

A common feature of AA 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 at every meeting; others simply sit and listen in meetings for years before they say anything; some may choose never to speak.

[edit] AA organisation

AA does not charge membership fees to attend meetings, but instead relies on whatever donations members choose to give to cover basic costs such as room rental and coffee. Contributions from members are limited to a maximum annual amount ($2000 per year, though most only donate $1-$2 per meeting). At the local and national level, AA groups are self-supporting and not a charity. About half of its sustenance comes from sales of the literature, mostly written by Wilson, and for which he received royalties. Local groups contribute to the national level. It accepts subsidies, as well, from two non-AA sources: literature sales to non-AA entities as well as cash from AA convention sites.

AA receives proceeds from sale of its book Alcoholics Anonymous along with other AA published books and literature, which are periodically revised. Revenues from literature sales constitute more than 50% of the income for the General Service Office. Unlike individual groups, GSO is not self-supporting through contributions.

Alcoholics Anonymous is exclusively run by people who identify as alcoholics (aside from seven out of 21 members of the AA Board of trustees who are listed as “nonalcoholic friends of the fellowship”[20]).

[edit] AA's definition of alcoholism

In the article Alcoholics Anonymous and the Disease Concept of Alcoholism, AA historian Ernest Kurtz wrote, "The closest the book Alcoholics Anonymous comes to a definition of alcoholism appears on p. 44, at the conclusion of the first paragraph of the 'We Agnostics' chapter, where we are told that alcoholism 'is an illness which only a spiritual experience will conquer'."[21] In 1960 Bill Wilson gave a speech to the National Catholic Clergy Conference on Alcoholism. During the ensuing question and answer discussion Wilson was asked why he did not use the term disease when he spoke of alcoholism in that speech. He replied,

"We AA's have never called alcoholism a disease because, technically speaking it is not a disease entity. For example there is no such thing as heart disease. Instead there are many separate heart ailments, or combinations of them. It is something like that with alcoholism. Therefore we do not wish to get in wrong with the medical profession by pronouncing alcoholism a disease entity. Therefore we always call it an illness, or a malady, -- a far safer term for us to use."[22]

Although AA lacks an official, singular definition of alcoholism, William Duncan Silkworth, M.D. contributed the chapter in the AA basic text of Alcoholics Anonymous entitled "The Doctor's Opinion". That chapter would become one of the more influential pieces in AA thought. He wrote they "have one symptom in common: they cannot start drinking without developing the phenomenon of craving. This phenomenon, as we have suggested, may be the manifestation of an allergy which differentiates these people, and sets them apart as a distinct entity."[23] That allergy takes the form of a craving which is explained earlier in the chapter when he states "the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class [alcoholics] and never occurs in the average temperate drinker. These allergic types can never safely use alcohol in any form at all; and once having formed the habit ... they cannot break it..."[24] Alcoholics Anonymous offers a solution that will create a "spiritual experience" or complete change in the persons outlook on life and alcoholism.[25]

[edit] Twelve Traditions

Main article: Twelve traditions

The affairs of AA are governed broadly by AA's Twelve Traditions. AA has a minimal amount of organized structure. There is no hierarchy of leaders and no formal control structure. These traditions were set out because of the experience of the groups in the first 13 years of organization. Twelve Traditions where set into place as suggestions for organizing the fellowship (see Bill Wilson's book Twelve Steps/Twelve Traditions for more information). People who accept service positions within the Fellowship are known only as "trusted servants," not leaders. Individual AA members and groups cannot be compelled to do anything by "higher" AA authorities. Each AA group, small or large, is considered a self-supporting and self-governing entity. AA does maintain offices and service centres which have the task of co-ordinating activities like printing literature, responding to public enquiries and organizing state or national conferences. These offices are funded by local AA members and are directly responsible to the AA groups in the region or country they represent. Over the years, one of the many criticisms of AA is that it is a cult. The AA organization was in serious danger of becoming just that in the early years. It was through experience that AA arrived at these 12 Traditions.

The AA program is completely by suggestion only. Members and visitors are free to pick and choose the program activities/exercises as they wish. (Court ordered attendees have to answer to the judge, not to anyone in AA). Any ideations anyone might have to form a cult (see Jonestown) within AA can be quickly snuffed by application of these 12 Traditions.

[edit] Debate on AA effectiveness

[edit] AA's supporters

Research that supports AA's effectiveness includes:

Participation in treatment and Alcoholics Anonymous: A 16-year follow-up of initially untreated individuals. Authors:Moos, Rudolf H.1 rmoos@stanford.edu, Moos, Bernice S. Source: Journal of Clinical Psychology; Jun2006, Vol. 62 Issue 6, p735-750; Excerpt: “… individuals who participated in AA for 27 weeks or more had better 16-year outcomes. Subsequent AA involvement was also associated with better 16-year outcomes”

Does Diagnosis Matter? Differential Effects of 12-Step Participation and Social Networks on Abstinence. Authors:Witbrodt, Jane jwitbrodt@arg.org, Kaskutas, Lee Ann. Source:American Journal of Drug & Alcohol Abuse; Nov2005, Vol. 31 Issue 4, p685-707. Excerpt: “Results showed that the number of 12-step meetings attended and number of prescribed 12-step activities engaged in ... predicted abstinence for alcoholics, drug addicts, and those dependent on both alcohol and drugs.”

Cirrhosis mortality in Ontario: effects of alcohol consumption and Alcoholics Anonymous participation. Authors: Mann, Robert E. et al robert_mann@camh.net. Source: Addiction; Nov2005, Vol. 100 Issue 11, p1669-1679. Excerpt: “In general, cirrhosis mortality rates were positively associated with alcohol consumption and negatively associated with AA membership [meaning that the higher the mortality, the lower the AA attendance] … these findings are consistent with previous research demonstrating that per capita consumption is a strong determinant of cirrhosis mortality rates, and also that higher levels of AA membership can reduce cirrhosis mortality rates.”

Recently the Russian Orthodox Church started implementing some of the AA techniques and methods in fighting alcoholism in Russia.[citation needed]

Supporters claim that AA is an indispensable support group for people seeking to free themselves of an addiction to alcohol. Some of their arguments include:

  • A large amount of anecdotal evidence in which people assert that joining AA saved their lives. In the language of their basic text, each individual, in the personal stories, tells how, from his personal point of view, he established his relationship with God. For a decade, early AAs stated emphatically that they had been cured by God.[26][27]
  • AA's Big Book assures its readers "Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path." (p. 83) That path suggests that the person "find God now" and suggests the Steps by which active members may establish their relationship with God and a new way of life based on the guides in the Steps.[28]

[edit] AA's critics

Specific criticisms of AA include:

  • Ditman found a correlation between participation in AA and an increase in the alcoholics' rate of multiple arrests for public drunkenness.[29]
  • Brandsma found a correlation between AA and an increased rate of binge drinking. After several months of participating in AA, the alcoholics in AA were doing five times as much binge drinking as a control group that got no treatment at all, and nine times as much binge drinking as another group that got Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. Brandsma alleges that teaching people that they are alcoholics who are powerless over alcohol yields very bad results and that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy -- they relapse and binge drink as if they really were powerless over alcohol.[30]
  • Dr. George Vaillant is a board member of Alcoholics Anonymous World Service. In 1983 he undertook a study to research the effectiveness of AA treatment. He compiled 40 years of clinical studies. He also conducted an eight-year longitudinal study of his own in which he followed 100 patients who had undergone Twelve-Step treatment. Vaillant compared those people to a group of several hundred other untreated alcohol abusers. The treated patients did no better than the untreated alcoholics. He concluded that 95% of alcoholics who reach AA fail to stay sober.[1]
  • A meta-analysis by Marica Ferri and her co-workers at the Italian Agency for Public Health found that "The available experimental studies did not demonstrate the effectiveness of AA or other 12-step approaches in reducing alcohol use and achieving abstinence compared with other treatments, but there were some limitations with these studies."[31]
  • Eric Berne: see wikapedia: Transanctional analysis on Alcoholics Anonymous, the Role Alcoholic or Addict.


[edit] Court Mandated AA Attendance

U.S. judges sometimes require attendance at AA meetings as a condition of probation or parole or as an element of a sentence for defendants convicted of a crime. "Open" AA meetings are open to anyone who wishes to attend, including those mandated by a court.

A federal appeals court ruled in 1999 that mandating attendance at AA meetings compromises the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment right of those sentenced not to have religion dictated to them by government - because AA practices and doctrine are (in the words of the district court judge who wrote Griffin v. Coughlin[32]) "unequivocally religious". In that ruling it was also noted "adherence to the AA fellowship entails engagement in religious activity and religious proselytization." In "working" the 12 steps, participants become actively involved in seeking God through prayer, confessing wrongs and asking for "removal of shortcomings." The United States Supreme Court denied certiorari and let this decision stand.

Grandberg v. Ashland County is another example concerning judicially-mandated AA attendance and the Establishment Clause. In that case the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled, "Alcoholics Anonymous materials and the testimony of the witness established beyond a doubt that religious activities, as defined in constitutional law, were a part of the treatment program. The distinction between religion and spirituality is meaningless, and serves merely to confuse the issue." In Warner v. Orange County Department of Probation a man convicted of drunk driving was sentenced to AA The court found that the county was guilty of “coercing the plaintiff into participating in religious exercises, an act which tends toward the establishment of a state religious faith.”

[edit] AA in popular culture

  • My Name is Bill W. Story of the founders of AA (1989). Starring James Woods as Bill W, James Garner as Dr. Bob, JoBeth Williams as Bill's wife, Lois. Also released as Anonymous Hero
  • Drunks (1995). Tells the story of an alcoholic named Jim (Richard Lewis), who is torn between AA and his addiction.
  • Days of Wine and Roses An early portrayal of AA (1962)
  • South Park Parodied AA in the December 7, 2005 episode ("Bloody Mary"). In particular, the episode attacked the way in which AA makes members believe they are powerless against a disease.
  • The Simpsons Homer Simpson is sentenced to attend AA meetings in the episode Duffless. In the episode 'Round Springfield, Barney Gumble is trying AA, but quickly falls back to drinking.
  • Courage To Change The Things We Can (New York: 1960) a novel by James Audain.
  • The West Wing, as relates to Leo McGarry.
  • ER (TV series). Dr. John Carter is attending AA meetings after recovering from his drug addiction, which he developed after being brutally attacked by a mental patient. He finds co-worker Abby Lockhart also attends the meetings, and asks her to be his sponsor.
  • Minus One: A Twelve-Step Journey (Haworth Press: 2004)-- a novel portraying a lesbian woman's first year of recovery in AA, by Bridget Bufford.
  • Mike Portnoy's (drummer for Dream Theater) songs The Mirror and Lie, and the well known 12-step saga, including The Glass Prison, This Dying Soul, and the Root of All Evil.
  • Adam Sandler in the movie Anger Management have bumped into a friend who was attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting that took place in the centre where Sandler was seeking therapy for his anger management issue.
  • The Michael Keaton film Clean and Sober depicts a recovering alcoholic and the meetings he eventually attends.
  • Bobcat Goldthwait in Shakes the Clown attends meetings at the climax of the film.
  • Matthew Scudder is a fictional character appearing in sixteen Lawrence Block novels. He starts to attend AA meetings in the fifth Scudder novel, published in 1982. While he does not pick up a drink since then, meetings are an essential focus point in all subsequent novels until the latest one, published in 2005.
  • In the television series Hill Street Blues, Daniel J. Travanti's character Frank Furillo attends AA meetings.
  • On the HBO series The Sopranos, Michael Imperioli's character, Christopher Moltisanti, begins attending AA and NA meetings after being forced to go through inpatient rehab because of his heroin addiction.
  • David Foster Wallace's novel Infinite Jest deals extensively with AA.
  • Desparate Housewives Bree Van De Kamp attends AA meetings during second season.

[edit] See also

[edit] AA Literature

[edit] Further reading

  • "A Randomized Trial of Treatment Options for Alcohol-abusing Workers". The New England Journal of Medicine 325: 775–782. 
  • Blumberg, Leonard. "The Ideology of a Therapeutic Social Movement: Alcoholics Anonymous". Journal of Studies on Alcohol 38: pp. 2122–42. 
  • Leuba, J.H. (1896). "A Study in the Psychology of Religious Phenomenon". American Journal of Psychology 7: 309-385. 
  • Starbuck, E.D. (1899). The Psychology of Religion. New York: Scribner's. 
  • Starbuck, E.D. (1897). "A Study of Conversion". American Journal of Psychology 8: 268-308. 

[edit] External links

[edit] Official AA links

[edit] Unofficial AA sites on the internet

[edit] Testimonials (Stories of Recovery via AA)

[edit] External links

[edit] AA alternatives

Abstinence based programs

Moderation/harm reduction based programs

[edit] References

  1. ^ What is AA? Defining "Alcoholics Anonymous". The General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous (Great Britain). Retrieved on 2006-11-27.
  2. ^ The AA Fact File, 'The Recovery Program'
  3. ^ a b Alcoholics Anonymous : the story of how many thousands of men and women have recovered from alcoholism. 4th ed. New York : Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 2001. ISBN 1893007162. Available online at www.AA.org and www.BigBook.org
  4. ^ a b Dick B., The Conversion of Bill W., Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2006.
  5. ^ a b c Dale Mitchel, Silkworth: The Little Doctor Who Loved Drunks. Hazelden, 2002.
  6. ^ Dale Mitchel. Pass It On:: The Story of Bill Wilson and How the A. A. Message Reached the World Hazelden. 1984, p 381-385.
  7. ^ Finlay, Steven W (2006-3-11). "Influence of Carl Jung and William James on the Origin of Alcoholics Anonymous". Review of General Psychology V4: 3-12. Retrieved on 2006-10-20. 
  8. ^ Dick B. (1998). The Oxford Group and Alcoholics Anonymous, 2nd ed.. Kihei, Maui, Hawaii: Paradise Research Publications, Inc.. 
  9. ^ Bill W. (1957). Alcoholics Anonymous comes of age. New York: Alcoholics Anonymous. ISBN 0-916856-02-X. 
  10. ^ Dick B. (1998). New Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and AA, 2nd. ed.. Kihei, Maui, Hawaii: Paradise Research Publications, Inc.. 
  11. ^ Dick B. (2006). Real 12 Step Fellowship History. Kihei, Hawaii: Paradise Research Publications. 
  12. ^ Alcoholics Anonymous p 11
  13. ^ Alcoholics Anonymous p 12
  14. ^ Wilson, My First Forty Years, Hazelden.
  15. ^ Susan Cheever. My Name Is Bill: Bill Wilson--His Life and the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous. Washington Square Press; Reprint edition, 2005.
  16. ^ Dick B., Henrietta B. Seiberling: Ohio's Lady with a Cause. Paradise Research Publications. 2004.
  17. ^ Dick B. (1997). The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous, 2d ed.. Kihei, Maui, Hawaii: Paradise Research Publications, Inc. 
  18. ^ Alcoholics Anonymous, Appendix III, p 570.
  19. ^ Alcoholics Anonymous p 191.
  20. ^ The AA Fact File, 'The Structure of AA'
  21. ^ Kurtz, Ernest. "Alcoholics Anonymous and the Disease Concept of Alcoholism". Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly. Retrieved on 2006-10-20. 
  22. ^ A Conversation with Bill W. (2003). Retrieved on 2006-10-20.
  23. ^ Alcoholics Anonymous page xxx.
  24. ^ Alcoholics Anonymous page xxviii.
  25. ^ Alcoholics Anonymous p 567
  26. ^ Denise Winterman (2005-05-12). "A lot of bottle". Anonymous Reviews Alcoholics Anonymous Reviews. (Google Groups). Retrieved on 2006-10-20.
  27. ^ Gulf Daily News (2005-05-07). "I was taught to take my life one day at a time.". Anonymous Reviews Alcoholics Anonymous Reviews. (Google Groups).
  28. ^ Alcoholics Anonymous p 407-553.
  29. ^ Keith S. Ditman, M.D., George G. Crawford, LL.B., Edward W. Forgy, Ph.D., Herbert Moskowitz, Ph.D., and Craig MacAndrew, Ph.D. (August 1967). "A Controlled Experiment on the Use of Court Probation for Drunk Arrests". American Journal of Psychiatry 124 (2): pp. 160-163.
  30. ^ Brandsma, Jeffrey, Maxie Maultsby, and Richard J. Welsh. Outpatient Treatment of Alcoholism. Baltimore, MD.: University Park Press, 1979. p 105.
  31. ^ Ferri M, Amato L, Davoli M. "Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step programmes for alcohol dependence." Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2006, Issue 3. The Cochrane Library
  32. ^ Griffin v. Coughlin (1996-6-11). Retrieved on 2006-10-20.
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