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The Program of Alcoholics Anonymous
In 1935, two men met for the first time in Akron, Ohio. Bill, a stock broker from New York, had been miraculously sober for six months after decades of destructive alcoholism. But on that day, he was dangerously close to throwing it all away. Dr. Bob, a surgeon, was still drinking,
in spite of repeated trips for treatment and deteriorating health. These two hopeless alcoholics discovered that together, they could stay sober for the day. Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, were able to string their days of sobriety together for the rest of their lives, and became the co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. They soon began to work with other alcoholics.
Their ideas were simple. Alcoholism was taken to be an untreatable, often fatal, disease. Once the alcoholic takes a drink, there is an overwhelming craving and the drinking continues to excess. The alcoholic appears powerless in the face of alcohol to everyone around him, but continues to assert that he can stop. The notion of "controlled drinking" is a wish, not a real possibility. It's part of an alcoholic insanity in which the alcoholic overestimates his personal power in a number of ways.
The only solution is to never start drinking in the first place. How can an alcoholic practice abstinence if he is powerless over alcohol? That's where the A.A. program began. Two alcoholics talking together about their problem had a power that neither had on his own. By 1939, there were one hundred members who published their experience in a book written by Bill Wilson,
Alcoholics Anonymous, to share their ideas about recovery with the world.
A.A. members call it the program. It involves abstinence, and admitting the powerless over alcohol. It involves using other alcoholics and spiritual growth to find a personal higher power to overcome the obsession that leads us to drink when it's clear that we cannot drink successfully. It is suggested that alcoholics follow the
twelve steps to discover personal character problems and get honest about their impact on other people. At all stages of this lifelong "program", alcoholics are encouraged to stay involved with other recovering alcoholics - the solution that put our two founders on a path to sobriety.
Alcoholics Anonymous, "a simple program for complex people", has helped millions The center of the recovery program is the A.A. Meeting. There are more than a thousand weekly A.A. meetings in the Atlanta Metropolitan area. In these meetings, alcoholics come together to discuss their common problems. A.A. groups are autonomous and self-governing, using the
twelve traditions of A.A. for guidance. There is no outside financial support. The only formal structures, such as this Atlanta Central Office or our World Service Organization, serve to disseminate meeting schedules and literature, man our help lines, and conduct intergroup meetings. A.A. substitutes principles for organizational structure. A.A. does not advertise or promote itself. We rely on reputation and word of mouth to make our program known to the outside world.
If you think you might have a problem with alcoholism, the best way to see if A.A. will help is to attend a meeting. [See the Meetings page for times and locations]. You will be welcome. Every one of us walked into our first A.A. meeting feeling the same fear and confusion.
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What A.A. does not do].
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