Alcoholics Anonymous

Sobriety token or chip, given for specied lengths of sobriety,

on the back is Serenity Prayer. Here green is for six months of
sobriety; purple is for nine months.

other organization. The Traditions also recommend that

those representing AA avoid dogma and coercive hierarchies. Subsequent fellowships such as Narcotics
Anonymous have adopted and adapted the Twelve Steps
and the Twelve Traditions to their respective primary
purposes.[5][6]

Alcoholics Anonymous logo

According to AAs 2014 membership survey, 27% of

members have been sober less than one year, 24% have
15 years sober, 13% have 510 years, 14% have 1020
years, and 22% have more than 20 years sober.[7]
The rst female member, Florence Rankin, joined AA in
March 1937,[8][9] and the rst non-Protestant member, a
Roman Catholic, joined in 1939.[10] AA membership has
since spread across diverse cultures holding dierent beliefs and values, including geopolitical areas resistant to
grassroots movements.[11] In the fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous (November 2001), it states Since the
third edition was published in 1976, worldwide membership of AA has just about doubled, to an estimated two
million or more...[12]

AA meeting sign

AAs name is derived from its rst book, informally called

The Big Book, originally titled Alcoholics Anonymous:
The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have
Recovered From Alcoholism.

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an international mutual

aid fellowship[1] founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr.
Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio. AAs stated primary purpose is to help alcoholics stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety".[2][3][4] With other early members
Bill Wilson and Bob Smith developed AAs Twelve Step
program of spiritual and character development. AAs
initial Twelve Traditions were introduced in 1946 to help
the fellowship be stable and unied while disengaged
from outside issues and inuences.

1 Oxford Group origins

Main article: History of Alcoholics Anonymous

The Traditions recommend that members and groups AA sprang from The Oxford Group, a nonremain anonymous in public media, altruistically help- denominational movement modeled after rst-century
ing other alcoholics and avoiding ocial aliations with Christianity,.[13] Some members found the Group to
1

3 ORGANIZATION AND FINANCES

help in maintaining sobriety. One such Grouper

Ebby Thacher was Wilsons former drinking buddy who
approached Wilson saying that he had got religion, was
sober, and that Wilson could do the same if he set aside
objections to religion and instead formed a personal idea
of God, another power or higher power.[14][15]

a reaction to the publicity-seeking practices of the Oxford

Group, as well as AAs wish to not promote, Wilson said,
erratic public characters who through broken anonymity
might get drunk and destroy condence in us.[20]

Wilson felt with Thacher a kinship of common suering andwhile drunkattended his rst Group gathering. Within days, Wilson admitted himself to the Charles
B. Towns Hospital, but not before drinking four beers
on the waythe last time Wilson drank alcohol. Under the care of Dr. William Duncan Silkworth (an early
benefactor of AA), Wilsons detox included the deliriant
belladonna.[16] At the hospital in a state of despair, Wilson experienced a bright ash of light, which he felt to be
God revealing himself.[17]

2 The Big Book, the Twelve Steps

and the Twelve Traditions

Following his hospital discharge Wilson joined the Oxford Group and recruited other alcoholics to the Group.
Wilsons early eorts to help others become sober were
ineective, prompting Dr. Silkworth to suggest that Wilson place less stress on religion and more on the science of treating alcoholism. Wilsons rst success came
during a business trip to Akron, Ohio, where he was introduced to Dr. Robert Smith, a surgeon and Oxford
Group member who was unable to stay sober. After
thirty days of working with Wilson, Smith drank his last
drink on June 10, 1935, the date marked by AA for its
anniversaries.[17][18]
While Wilson and Smith credited their sobriety to working with alcoholics under the auspices of the Oxford
Group, a Group associate pastor sermonized against Wilson and his alcoholic Groupers for forming a secret,
ashamed sub-group engaged in divergent works.[18] By
1937, Wilson separated from the Oxford Group. AA Historian Ernest Kurtz described the split:[19]
...more and more, Bill discovered that new
adherents could get sober by believing in each
other and in the strength of this group. Men
[no women were members yet] who had proven
over and over again, by extremely painful experience, that they could not get sober on their
own had somehow become more powerful when
two or three of them worked on their common
problem. This, thenwhatever it was that occurred among themwas what they could accept as a power greater than themselves. They
did not need the Oxford Group.
In 1955, Wilson acknowledged AAs debt, saying The
Oxford Groupers had clearly shown us what to do. And
just as importantly, we learned from them what not to
do." Among the Oxford Group practices that AA retained were informal gatherings, a changed-life developed through stages, and working with others for no
material gain, AAs analogs for these are meetings, the
steps, and sponsorship. AAs tradition of anonymity was

To share their method, Wilson and other members wrote

the initially-titled book, Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story
of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered
from Alcoholism,[21] from which AA drew its name. Informally known as The Big Book (with its rst 164
pages virtually unchanged since the 1939 edition), it suggests a twelve-step program in which members admit that
they are powerless over alcohol and need help from a
higher power. They seek guidance and strength through
prayer and meditation from God or a Higher Power of
their own understanding; take a moral inventory with care
to include resentments; list and become ready to remove
character defects; list and make amends to those harmed;
continue to take a moral inventory, pray, meditate, and
try to help other alcoholics recover. The second half
of the book, Personal Stories (subject to additions, removal and retitling in subsequent editions), is made of
AA members redemptive autobiographical sketches.
In 1941, interviews on American radio and favorable articles in US magazines, including a piece by Jack Alexander in The Saturday Evening Post, led to increased book
sales and membership.[22] By 1946, as the growing fellowship quarreled over structure, purpose, and authority, as well as nances and publicity, Wilson began to
form and promote what became known as AAs Twelve
Traditions, which are guidelines for an altruistic, unaliated, non-coercive, and non-hierarchical structure
that limited AAs purpose to only helping alcoholics on
a non-professional level while shunning publicity. Eventually he gained formal adoption and inclusion of the
Twelve Traditions in all future editions of the Big Book.[5]
At the 1955 conference in St. Louis, Missouri, Wilson relinquished stewardship of AA to the General Service Conference,[23] as AA grew to millions of members
internationally.[24]

3 Organization and nances

Main article: Twelve Traditions
AA says it is not organized in the formal or political sense,[24] and Bill Wilson called it a benign
anarchy.[25] In Ireland, Shane Butler said that AA looks
like it couldnt survive as theres no leadership or toplevel telling local cumanns what to do, but it has worked
and proved itself extremely robust. Butler explained that
AAs 'inverted pyramid' style of governance has helped

4 Program
See also: Twelve-step program: The Twelve Steps

A regional service center for Alcoholics Anonymous

The scope of AAs program is much broader than just

abstinence from drinking alcohol.[31] Its goal is to eect
enough change in the alcoholics thinking to bring about
recovery from alcoholism[32] through a spiritual awakening. A spiritual awakening is meant to be achieved
by taking the Twelve Steps,[33] and sobriety is furthered
by volunteering for AA[34] and regular AA meeting
attendance[35] or contact with AA members.[33] Members
are encouraged to nd an experienced fellow alcoholic,
called a sponsor, to help them understand and follow the
AA program. The sponsor should preferably have experience of all twelve of the steps, be the same sex as the sponsored person, and refrain from imposing personal views
on the sponsored person.[36] Following the helper therapy
principle, sponsors in AA may benet from their relationship with their charges, as helping behaviors correlate with increased abstinence and lower probabilities of
binge drinking.[37]

it to avoid many of the pitfalls that political and religious AAs program is an inheritor of Counter-Enlightenment
institutions have encountered since it was established here philosophy. AA shares the view that acceptance of ones
in 1946.[26]
inherent limitations is critical to nding ones proper
In 2006, AA counted 1,867,212 members and 106,202 place among other humans and God. Such ideas are
AA groups worldwide.[24] The Twelve Traditions infor- described as Counter-Enlightenment because they are
mally guide how individual AA groups function, and the contrary to the Enlightenment's ideal that humans have
Twelve Concepts for World Service guide how the orga- the capacity to make their lives and societies a heaven on
earth using their own power and reason.[31] After evalunization is structured globally.[27]
ating AAs literature and observing AA meetings for sixA member who accepts a service position or an orgateen months, sociologists David R. Rudy and Arthur L.
nizing role is a trusted servant with terms rotating and
Greil found that for an AA member to remain sober a
limited, typically lasting three months to two years and
high level of commitment is necessary. This commitment
determined by group vote and the nature of the posiis facilitated by a change in the members worldview. To
tion. Each group is a self-governing entity with AA
help members stay sober AA must, they argue, provide an
World Services acting only in an advisory capacity. AA
all-encompassing worldview while creating and sustainis served entirely by alcoholics, except for seven nonaling an atmosphere of transcendence in the organization.
coholic friends of the fellowship of the 21-member AA
To be all-encompassing AAs ideology places an emphaBoard of Trustees.[24]
sis on tolerance rather than on a narrow religious worldAA groups are self-supporting, relying on voluntary do- view that could make the organization unpalatable to ponations from members to cover expenses.[24] The AA tential members and thereby limit its eectiveness. AAs
General Service Oce (GSO) limits contributions to emphasis on the spiritual nature of its program, however,
US$3,000 a year.[28] Above the group level, AA may hire is necessary to institutionalize a feeling of transcendence.
outside professionals for services that require specialized A tension results from the risk that the necessity of tranexpertise or full-time responsibilities.[5]
scendence, if taken too literally, would compromise AAs
AA receives proceeds from books and literature that con- eorts to maintain a broad appeal. As this tension is an
AA is best
stitute more than 50% of the income for its General Ser- integral part of AA, Rudy and Greil argue that
[38]
described
as
a
quasi-religious
organization.
[29]
vice Oce. Unlike individual groups, the GSO is not
self-supporting and maintains a small salaried sta. It
also maintains service centers, which coordinate activities such as printing literature, responding to public inquiries, and organizing conferences. They are funded by
local members and are responsible to the AA groups they
represent. Other International General Service Oces
(Australia, Costa Rica, Russia, etc.) are independent of
AA World Services in New York.[30]

4.1 Meetings
AA meetings are quasi-ritualized therapeutic sessions
run by and for, alcoholics.[39] They are usually informal
and often feature discussions. Local AA directories list a
variety of weekly meetings. Those listed as closed are

7 CANADIAN AND UNITED STATES DEMOGRAPHICS

only for those with a desire to stop drinking,[5] while

open meetings are available to anyone (nonalcoholics
can attend as observers).[40] At speaker meetings, one or
two members tell their stories, while discussion meetings
allocate the most time for general discussion. Some meetings are devoted to studying and discussing the AA literature.
Except for mens and womens meetings, and meetings
targeting specic demographics (including newcomers,
gay people, and young people), AA meetings do not exclude other alcoholics. While AA has pamphlets that suggest meeting formats,[41][42] groups have the autonomy to
hold and conduct meetings as they wish except in matters aecting other groups or AA as a whole.[5] Dierent cultures aect ritual aspects of meetings, but around
the world many particularities of the AA meeting format
can be observed at almost any AA gathering.[43]

4.2

Condentiality

US courts have not extended the status of privileged communication, such as that enjoyed by clergy and lawyers,
to AA related communications between members.[44][45]

Spirituality

A study found an association between an increase in attendance to AA meetings with increased spirituality and
a decrease in the frequency and intensity of alcohol use.
The research also found that AA was eective at helping
agnostics and atheists become sober. The authors concluded that though spirituality was an important mechanism of behavioral change for some alcoholics, it was not
the only eective mechanism.[46] Since the mid-1970s,
a number of 'agnostic' or 'no-prayer' AA groups have
begun across the U.S., Canada, and other parts of the
world, which hold meetings that adhere to a tradition allowing alcoholics to freely express their doubts or disbelief that spirituality will help their recovery, and forgo use
of opening or closing prayers.[47][48] There are online resources listing AA meetings for atheists and agnostics.[49]

AAs inception most members have believed alcoholism

to be a disease.[52]
Though cautious regarding the medical nature of alcoholism, AA has let others voice opinions. The Big Book
states that alcoholism is an illness which only a spiritual
experience will conquer. Ernest Kurtz says this is The
closest the book Alcoholics Anonymous comes to a denition of alcoholism.[52] In his introduction to The Big
Book, non-member Dr. William Silkworth said those
unable to moderate their drinking have an allergy. Addressing the allergy concept, AA said The doctors theory that we have an allergy to alcohol interests us. As laymen, our opinion as to its soundness may, of course, mean
little. But as ex-problem drinkers, we can say that his
explanation makes good sense. It explains many things
for which we cannot otherwise account.[53] AA later acknowledged that alcoholism is not a true allergy, the experts now inform us.[54] Wilson explained in 1960 why
AA had refrained from using the term disease":
We AAs 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 did not wish to get in wrong with
the medical profession by pronouncing alcoholism a disease entity. Hence, we have always
called it an illness or a maladya far safer term
for us to use. [55]

7 Canadian and United States demographics

AAs New York General Service Oce regularly surveys AA members in North America. Its 2014 survey
of over 6,000 members in Canada and the United States
concluded that, in North America, AA members who responded to the survey were 62% male and 38% female.[7]

Average member sobriety is slightly under 10 years with

36% sober more than ten years, 13% sober from ve to
ten years, 24% sober from one to ve years, and 27%
6 Disease concept of alcoholism
sober less than one year.[7] Before coming to AA, 63% of
members received some type of treatment or counseling,
Main article: Disease theory of alcoholism
such as medical, psychological, or spiritual. After coming to AA, 59% received outside treatment or counseling.
outside help played an
More informally than not, AAs membership has helped Of those members, 84% said that
[7]
important
part
in
their
recovery.
popularize the disease concept of alcoholism, though
AA ocially has had no part in the development of The same survey showed that AA received 32% of its
such postulates which had appeared as early as the membership from other members, another 32% from
late eighteenth century.[50] Though AA initially avoided treatment facilities, 30% were self-motivated to attend
the term disease, in 1973 conference-approved liter- AA, 12% of its membership from courtordered attenature categorically stated that we had the disease of dance, and only 1% of AA members decided to join
alcoholism.[51] Regardless of ocial positions, from based on information obtained from the Internet. People

8.3

The Sober Truth

taking the survey were allowed to select multiple answers the MRI scans of their brains conrmed that there was a
for what motivated them to join AA.[7]
dierent reaction.

Eectiveness

Main article: Eectiveness of Alcoholics Anonymous

8.1

Research limitations

AA tends to polarize observers into believers and nonbelievers,[56] and discussion of AA often creates controversy rather than objective reection.[57] Moreover, a
randomized study of AA is dicult: AA members are
not randomly selected from the population of chronic alcoholics; they are instead self-selected or mandated by
courts to attend AA meetings.[58] There are two opposing types of self-selection bias: (1) drinkers may be motivated to stop drinking before they participate in AA; (2)
AA may attract the more severe and dicult cases.[59]

8.2

Studies

Studies of AAs ecacy have produced inconsistent results. While some studies have suggested an association between AA attendance and increased abstinence
or other positive outcomes,[60][61][62][63][64] other studies
have not.[65][66]
The 2006 Cochrane Review of eight studies (the studies
reviewed were done between 1967 and 2005) measuring
the eectiveness of AA found no signicant dierence
between the results of AA and twelve-step participation
compared to other treatments, stating that experimental
studies have on the whole failed to demonstrate their effectiveness in reducing alcohol dependence or drinking
problems when compared to other interventions.[67]

8.3

The Sober Truth

Dodes, in The Sober Truth, argues that most people

who have experienced AA have not achieved long-term
sobriety, making the case that research indicates that only
5 to 8 percent of the people who go to one or more AA
meetings achieve sobriety for longer than one year.[70]
Gabrielle Glaser used Dodes gures to argue that AA has
a low success rate in a 2015 article for The Atlantic.[71]
The 5 to 8 percent gure put forward by Dodes is controversial; Thomas Beresford, MD., writing for the National
Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, says that
the book uses three separate, questionable, calculations
that arrive at the 5-8% gure.[72] This is not the only criticism the book has received; The New York Times calls
The Sober Truth a "polemical and deeply awed book
[73]
and John F. Kelly, an associate professor at Harvard,
as well as Gene Beresin, a professor at Harvard, feel that
the books conclusion that "[12-step] approaches are almost completely ineective and even harmful in treating
substance use disorders is wrong (Dodes responded by
pointing out that I have never said that AA is harmful in general), noting that studies published in prestigious peer-reviewed scientic journals have found that
12-step treatments that facilitate engagement with AA
post-discharge [...] produce about one third higher continuous abstinence rates [74][75]

8.4 Health-care costs

As a volunteer-supported program, AA is free of charge.

This contrasts with treatments for alcoholism such as
inpatient treatment, drug therapy, psychotherapy, and
cognitive-based therapy. One study found that the institutional use of twelve-step-facilitation therapy to encourage
participation in AA reduced healthcare expenditures by
A 2014 study by Keith Humphreys, Janet Blodgett and
45% when compared to another group that was not enTodd Wagner concluded that increasing AA attendance
couraged to participate in AA.[75]
leads to short and long term decreases in alcohol consumption that cannot be attributed to self-selection.[60]
Austin Frakt, writing for The New York Times, discusses
how the studys methodology minimizes outside factors, 9 Relationship with institutions
such as how motivated the people who succeed at becoming abstinent are.[68]
9.1 Hospitals
A study published in 2016 shows that prayer helps people
who have achieved sobriety in Alcoholics Anonymous reduce cravings for alcohol.[69] The study used a MRI machine to scan how subjects reacted to images of people
drinking. The study randomly assigned the subjects, so
that some subjects saw the images after saying prayers
in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous; others after
reading newspaper articles. The people who had just seen
the prayers reported feeling fewer cravings for alcohol;

Many AA meetings take place in treatment facilities.

Carrying the message of AA into hospitals was how the
co-founders of AA rst remained sober. They discovered
great value of working with alcoholics who are still suffering, and that even if the alcoholic they were working
with did not stay sober, they did.[76][77][78] Bill Wilson
wrote, Practical experience shows that nothing will so
much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work

10 CRITICISM

with other alcoholics.[79] Bill Wilson visited Towns Hospital in New York City in an attempt to help the alcoholics
who were patients there in 1934. At St. Thomas Hospital
in Akron, Ohio, Smith worked with still more alcoholics.
In 1939, a New York mental institution, Rockland State
Hospital, was one of the rst institutions to allow AA hospital groups. Service to corrections and treatment facilities used to be combined until the General Service Conference, in 1977, voted to dissolve its Institutions Committee and form two separate committees, one for treatment facilities, and one for correctional facilities.[80]

9.2

their clients. Providers with nursing qualications were

more likely to make such referrals than those without
them. A statistically signicant correlation was found
between providers self-reported level of spirituality and
their likelihood of recommending AA or NA.[89]

10 Criticism
See also: Twelve-step program

Prisons

In the United States and Canada, AA meetings are held in

hundreds of correctional facilities. The AA General Service Oce has published a workbook with detailed recommendations for methods of approaching correctionalfacility ocials with the intent of developing an in-prison
AA program.[81] In addition, AA publishes a variety of
pamphlets specically for the incarcerated alcoholic.[82]
Additionally, the AA General Service Oce provides a
pamphlet with guidelines for members working with incarcerated alcoholics.[83]

10.1 Thirteenth Stepping

Thirteenth-stepping is a pejorative term for AA members approaching new members for dates or sex. The
Journal of Addiction Nursing reported that 50% of the
women that participated in a survey (55 in all) experienced 13-stepping behavior from others.[90] AAs pamphlet on sponsorship suggests that men be sponsored by
men and women be sponsored by women.[91]

10.2 Moderation or abstinence

9.3

United States Court rulings

See also: Alcoholism: Management

United States courts have ruled that inmates, parolees,

and probationers cannot be ordered to attend AA. Though
AA itself was not deemed a religion, it was ruled that
it contained enough religious components (variously described in Grin v. Coughlin below as, inter alia, religion, religious activity, religious exercise) to make
coerced attendance at AA meetings a violation of the
Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the
constitution.[84][85] In 2007, the Ninth Circuit of the U.S.
Court of Appeals stated that a parolee who was ordered
to attend AA had standing to sue his parole oce.[86][87]

9.4

American treatment industry

In 1949, the Hazelden treatment center was founded and

staed by AA members, and since then many alcoholic
rehabilitation clinics have incorporated AAs precepts
into their treatment programs.[88] 32% of AAs membership was introduced to it through a treatment facility.[7]

9.5

Stanton Peele argued that some AA groups apply the

disease model to all problem drinkers, whether or not
they are full-blown alcoholics.[92] Along with Nancy
Shute, Peele has advocated that besides AA, other options should be readily available to those problem drinkers
who are able to manage their drinking with the right
treatment.[93] The Big Book says moderate drinkers and
a certain type of hard drinker are able to stop or moderate their drinking. The Big Book suggests no program for
these drinkers, but instead seeks to help drinkers without
power of choice in drink.[94]

United Kingdom treatment industry

A cross-sectional survey of substance-misuse treatment

providers in the West Midlands found fewer than 10%
integrated twelve-step methods in their practice and only
a third felt their consumers were suited for Alcoholics
Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous membership. Less
than half were likely to recommend self-help groups to

10.3 Cultural identity

One review of AA warned of detrimental iatrogenic effects of twelve-step philosophy and concluded that AA
uses many methods that are also used by cults.[95] A subsequent study concluded, however, that AAs program
bore little resemblance to religious cults because the techniques used appeared benecial.[96] Another study found
that the AA programs focus on admission of having a
problem increases deviant stigma and strips members of
their previous cultural identity, replacing it with the deviant identity.[97] A survey of group members, however,
found they had a bicultural identity and saw AAs program as a complement to their other national, ethnic, and
religious cultures.[98]

13.2

10.4

Films where primary plot line includes AA

Other criticisms

7
When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story
a 2010 lm about the wife of founder Bill Wilson,
and the beginnings of Alcoholics Anonymous and
Al-Anon.

In 1964, Arthur H. Cain by his own count had

attended over 500 AA meetings since 1947. Cain
insisted that I do not suggest for a moment that a
single A.A. quit the fellowship. On the contrary,
Bill W. a 2011 biographical documentary lm that
I strongly urge sticking with it. To anyone who is
tells the story of Bill Wilson using interviews, recrehaving trouble with alcohol I say: try A.A. rst; its
ations, and rare archival material.[102][103]
the answer for most people. Even so, Cain thought
that AA had become the domain of irreligious mists Dogmatic and opinionated in their nonbeliefs, 13.2 Films where primary plot line inwho scorned other societies such as the Kiwanis
cludes AA
Club. Cain said AA had come to rely heavily on dogmatic slogans and the group. Without referencing
The Basketball Diaries - a 1995 lm, starring
or fashioning a denition of the term, Cain called
Leonardo DiCaprio as a young high-school basketAA a cult and a hindrance to research, psychiball star who gives into the pressures of life and nds
atry, and to many alcoholics who need a dierent
a new interest; heroin.
kind of help.[99][100]

11

Literature

Alcoholics Anonymous publishes several books, reports,

pamphlets, and other media, including a periodical
known as the AA Grapevine.[101] Two books are used
primarily: Alcoholics Anonymous (the Big Book) and
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, the latter explaining
AAs fundamental principles in depth.
Alcoholics Anonymous (June 1, 1976). Alcoholics
Anonymous. Alcoholics Anonymous World Services. ISBN 0-916856-59-3. OCLC 2353981.
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. Alcoholics
Anonymous World Services. February 10, 2002.
ISBN 0-916856-01-1. OCLC 13572433.
Index. The AA Grapevine. Alcoholics Anonymous. ISSN 0362-2584. OCLC 50379271.
Alcoholics Anonymous (November 2011).
Alcoholics Anonymous. Alcoholics Anonymous
World Services. ISBN 1-893007-16-2. OCLC
49743393.

12

AA in music

Psychedelic folk musician Red Label Catharsis refers to

AA in the song We, Agnostics

13
13.1

AA in lm
Films about Alcoholic Anonymous

My Name Is Bill W. dramatized biography of cofounder Bill Wilson.

When a Man Loves a Woman an airline pilots wife

attends AA meetings in a residential treatment facility
Clean and Sober a cocaine addict visits an AA
meeting to get a sponsor
Days of Wine and Roses a 1962 lm about a married couple struggling with alcoholism. Jack Lemmon's character attends an AA meeting in the lm.
Drunks a 1995 lm starring Richard Lewis as an
alcoholic who leaves an AA meeting and relapses.
The lm cuts back and forth between his eventual
relapse and the other meeting attendants.
Come Back, Little Sheba A 1952 lm based on
a play of the same title about a loveless marriage
where the husband played by Burt Lancaster is an
alcoholic who gets help from 2 members of the local AA chapter. A 1977 TV drama was also based
on the play.
I'll Cry Tomorrow A 1955 lm about singer Lillian
Roth played by Susan Hayward who goes to AA to
help her stop drinking. The lm was based on Roths
autobiography of the same name detailing her alcoholism and sobriety through AA
Rachel Getting Married - a 2008 family drama starring Anne Hathaway as a drug-addict interrupting
her rehab treatment for the wedding of her sister.
AA meetings, making amends, guilt related to addiction is an essential part of the plot.
You Kill Me a 2007 crime-comedy lm starring
Ben Kingsley as a mob hit man with a drinking problem who is forced to accept a job at a mortuary and
go to AA meetings, where he explains he wants to be
free of his drinking problem because it is aecting
his ability to kill eectively.

15 NOTES
Smashed a 2012 drama lm starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead. An elementary school teachers
drinking begins to interfere with her job, so she attempts to get sober. Despite stumbling, she manages
to use the tools of sponsorship and AA meetings to
stay sober one year.

14

See also

Addiction recovery groups

Al-Anon/Alateen
Calix Society
Community Reinforcement Approach and Family
Training (CRAFT)
Drug rehabilitation
Group psychotherapy
Intervention Counseling
List of twelve-step groups

[9] Bamuhigire, Oscar Bamwebaze (2009). Healing power

of self love : enhance your chances of recovery from addiction through the.. [S.l.]: Iuniverse Inc. p. x. ISBN
978-1-44010-137-3.
[10] Kurtz 1991. pp. 52
[11] Tonigan, Scott J; Connors, Gerard J; Miller, William R
(December 2000). Special Populations in Alcoholics
Anonymous (PDF). Alcohol Health and Research World.
22 (4): 281285. PMID 15706756.
[12] Alcoholics Anonymous (2001). Alcoholics Anonymous
(4th ed.). Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Retrieved June 8, 2013.
[13] Cheever, Susan (2004). My name is Bill: Bill Wilson: his
life and the creation of Alcoholics Anonymous. New York:
Simon & Schuster. p. 129. ISBN 0-7432-0154-X.
[14] Pass It On, p 117.
[15] Kurtz, Ernest (1980). Not-God: a history of Alcoholics
Anonymous. Center City, Minn: Hazelden Educational
Services. ISBN 0-89486-065-8.
[16] Pittman, Bill AA the Way it Began 1988, Glenn Abbey
Books

Recovery model

[17] Kurtz 1991. pp. 1820

Self-help groups for mental health

[18] Kurtz 1991. pp. 1617

Stepping Stones (home)

[19] Kurtz 1991. pp. 4546

Substance abuse
Washingtonian movement

15

Notes

[20] Kurtz 1991. pp. 468

[21] GSOwatch.aamo.info
[22] Jack Alexander (1 March 1941). Alcoholics Anonymous. Saturday Eventing Post (Reprinted in booklet form
ed.). Alcoholics Anonymous World Services. ISBN 089638-199-4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 200912-12. Retrieved 2009-12-12.

[1] http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/smf-92_en.pdf
[23] Pass It On 1984, p. 359
[2] Michael Gross (2010). American Journal of Public Health
(December 1, 2010).
[3] AA.org
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[32] Bill W. 2002, Appendix II

[49] http://www.agnosticaanyc.org/worldwide.html for example is a directory of agnostic AA meetings

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4285560 . PMID 25421504. Lay summary.
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in Treatment and Alcoholics Anonymous: A 16Year Follow-Up of Initially Untreated Individuals.
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PMC 2220012 .
PMID
16538654.

10

[64] Moos, Rudolf H.; Moos, BS (February 2006). Rates

and predictors of relapse after natural and treated remission from alcohol use disorders. Addiction. 101
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[65] Sthlbrandt, Henriett; Johnsson, Kent O.; Berglund,
Mats (2007). Two-Year Outcome of Alcohol Interventions in Swedish University Halls of Residence: A Cluster
Randomized Trial of a Brief Skills Training Program,
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17295731.
[66] Terra, Mauro Barbosa; Barros, Helena Maria Tannhauser;
Stein, Airton Tetelbom; Figueira, Ivan; Palermo, Luiz
Henrique; Athayde, Luciana Dias; Gonalves, Marcelo de
Souza; Da Silveira, Dartiu Xavier (2008). Do Alcoholics
Anonymous Groups Really Work? Factors of Adherence
in a Brazilian Sample of Hospitalized Alcohol Dependents. American Journal on Addictions. 17 (1): 4853.
doi:10.1080/10550490701756393. PMID 18214722.
[67] Ferri, MMF; Amato, Laura; Davoli, Marina; Ferri, Marica (2006). Ferri, Marica, ed. Alcoholics Anonymous
and other 12-step programmes for alcohol dependence.
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2006 (3):
CD005032.
doi:10.1002/14651858.CD005032.pub2.
PMID 16856072.
[68] Frakt, Austin (2015-04-06). Alcoholics Anonymous and
the Challenge of Evidence-Based Medicine. The New
York Times. Retrieved 2015-06-21.
[69] Marc Galanter, Zoran Josipovic, Helen Dermatis, Jochen
Weber, and Mary Alice Millard (2016-03-25). An
initial fMRI study on neural correlates of prayer in
members of Alcoholics Anonymous.
The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse: 111.
doi:10.3109/00952990.2016.1141912. Lay summary.
[70] Lance Dodes, M.D.; Zachary Dodes (2014). The Sober
Truth: Debunking the Bad Science Behind 12-Step Programs and the Rehab Industry. ISBN 978-0807033159.
Even though AA does not conduct scientic studies on its
success rates, a number of clinicians have tried to audit
the gures. The National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey, a 1992 review by the US Census Bureau
and National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
(NIAAA), included a survey of AA members. It found
that only 31 percent of them were still attending after one
year. AA itself has published a comparable gure in a
set of comments on its own thirteen-year internal survey,
stating that only 26 percent of people who attend AA stay
for longer than one year.33 A third study found that after
eighteen months, between 14 and 18 percent of people
still attended AA. So let us assume that between 14 percent and 31 percent of people stay with AA for more than
one year. Now we must ask: out of this remaining population, how many stay sober? .... These totals all fall within
a close range. Together, they support the fact that roughly
5 to 8 percent of the total population of people who enter
AA are able to achieve and maintain sobriety for longer
than one year.

15 NOTES

[71] Glaser, Gabrielle. The Irrationality of Alcoholics

Anonymous. The Atlantic. Retrieved 2016-04-15.
[72] Beresford, Thomas (2016), Alcoholics Anonymous and
The Atlantic: A Call For Better Science, National Council
on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, retrieved 2016-0415
[73] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/06/health/
the-sober-truth-seeing-bad-science-in-rehab.html?_r=3
[74] In Defense Of 12 Steps: What Science Really Tells Us
About Addiction | CommonHealth
[75] Humphreys, Keith; Moos, R (May 2001). Can encouraging substance abuse patients to participate in selfhelp groups reduce demand for health care? A quasiexperimental study. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 25 (5): 711716. doi:10.1111/j.15300277.2001.tb02271.x.
ISSN 1530-0277.
PMID
11371720.
[76] Cheever, Susan (June 14, 1999). Bill W.: The Healer.
Time Magazine. p. 201. Retrieved 12 June 2013. by
helping another alcoholic, he could save himself
[77] B., Dick (1997). Turning point. Turning Point: A History of Early A.A.'s Spiritual Roots and Successes (Volume
10 ed.). Good Book Publishing Company. p. 110. ISBN
9781885803078. Retrieved 12 June 2013. Bill went back
to Towns constantly to work on alcoholics there, simply
trying to help others had kept him from even thinking of
drinking
[78] Lois (1979). Lois remembers: memoirs of the co-founder
of Al-Anon and wife of the co-founder of Alcoholics
Anonymous (illustrated, reprint ed.). Al-Anon Family
Group Headquarters. p. 95. ISBN 9780910034234. Retrieved 12 June 2013. simply trying to help other had kept
him from even thinking of drinking
[79] Alcoholics Anonymous (3rd ed.). Alcoholics Anonymous
World Services, Inc. 1976. p. 89.
[80] Treatment Committee. http://area62.org/. Area 62.
Retrieved 9 June 2013. External link in |work= (help)
[81] Corrections Workbook. New York, NY: Alcoholics
Anonymous Word Services, Inc. 1995. Archived from
the original (PDF) on 2009-12-12. Retrieved 2009-1212.
[82] Corrections Catalog. Archived from the original on
2009-12-12. Retrieved 2009-12-12. The titles include:
Carrying the Message into Correctional Facilities, Where
Do I Go From Here?, A.A. in Prison: Inmate to Inmate,
A.A. in Correctional Facilities, It Sure Beats Sitting in a Cell,
Memo to an Inmate Who May be an Alcoholic, A Message
to Corrections Administrators
[83] AA Guidelines from GSO: Cooperating with Court,
DWI and Similar Programs. Archived from the original
(PDF) on 2009-12-12. Retrieved 2009-12-12.
[84] LII Editorial Board (June 11, 1996). IN THE MATTER
OF DAVID GRIFFIN, APPELLANT, v. THOMAS A.
COUGHLIN III, AS COMMISSIONER OF THE NEW

11

YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONAL

SERVICES, ET AL., RESPONDENTS.. http://www.
law.cornell.edu. Retrieved 8 June 2013. External link in
|work= (help)

[98] Wilcox 1998, p. 109124

[99] Harpers.org

[100]
[85] Honeymar (1997). Alcoholics Anonymous As a Condition of Drunk Driving Probation: When Does It Amount
to Establishment of Religion. Columbia Law Review. 97
[101]
(2): 437472. doi:10.2307/1123367. JSTOR 1123367.
[86] Egelko, Bob (8 September 2007). Appeals court says
requirement to attend AA unconstitutional. San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on 2009-1212. Retrieved 2007-10-08.

Cainwork=harpers.org, Arthur H. (2014). Alcoholics

Anonymous | Harpers Magazine. Retrieved May 4,
2014.
A Worldcat search for materials authored by Alcoholics
Anonymous and more specic divisions of the organization (AA Grapevine, World Services, General Service
Conference, World Service Meeting) yields well over 500
results.

[102] Urycki, Mark (27 March 2012). Bill W. documentary at

CIFF. Kent, Ohio: WKSU. Retrieved 21 May 2012.
[87] Inouye v. Kemna, 504 F.3d 705, 714 n.9 (9th Cir. 2007)
([T]he AA/NA program involved here has such substantial religious components that governmentally compelled [103] Linden, Sheri (18 May 2012). "'Bill W.' cuts through the
anonymity. Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles: Los Angeparticipation in it violated the Establishment Clause.).
les Times. Retrieved 22 May 2012. Laudatory but never
[88] Robertson, Nan (1988). Getting Better: Inside Alcoholics
simplistic, Bill W. is a thoroughly engrossing portrait of
Anonymous. New York: Morrow. p. 220. ISBN 978-0Wilson, his times and the visionary fellowship that is his
688-06869-1. LCCN 87031153. OCLC 17260252. OL
legacy.
4127115W.
[89] Day, E; Gaston, RL; Furlong, E; Murali, V; Copello,
A (December 2005). United Kingdom substance misuse treatment workers attitudes toward 12-step self-help
groups. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment. 29
(4): 321327. doi:10.1016/j.jsat.2005.08.009. PMID
16311185.
[90] Bogart, Cathy J.; Bogart, Cathy J. (2003). "'13thStepping:' Why Alcoholics Anonymous Is Not Always
a Safe Place for Women. Journal of Addictions Nursing: A Journal for the Prevention and Management of Addictions. 14 (1): 4347. doi:10.1080/10884600305373.
ISSN 1548-7148. OCLC 34618968.
[91] Questions and Answers on Sponsorship, page 10. 2005.
[92] Peele 1989
[93] Shute, Nancy (September 1997). The drinking dilemma:
by calling abstinence the only cure, we ensure that the nations $100 billion alcohol problem won't be solved. U.S.
News & World Report. 123 (9): 5464.
[94] Alcoholics Anonymous page 20-1,24
[95] Alexander, Francesa;
Rollins, Michele (1985).
Alcoholics Anonymous: the unseen cult. California Sociologist. Los Angeles: California State University.
17 (1): 3348. ISSN 0162-8712. OCLC 4025459.
Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-12-12.
Retrieved 2009-12-12.
[96] Right, Kevin B. W (1997). Shared Ideology in Alcoholics Anonymous: A Grounded Theory Approach.
Journal of Health Communication. 2 (2): 8399.
doi:10.1080/108107397127806. PMID 10977242.
[97] Levinson, D. (1983). Galanter, Marc, ed. Current status of the eld: An anthropological perspective on the
behavior modication treatment of alcoholism. Recent
Developments in Alcoholism. New York: Plenum Press.
1: 255261. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-3617-4_14. ISSN
0738-422X. PMID 6680227.

16 References
Bill W. (1955). Alcoholics Anonymous: the story
of how many thousands of men and women have
recovered from alcoholism (2nd ed.). New York,
New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services.
OCLC 269381
Bill W. (2002). Alcoholics Anonymous: the story
of how many thousands of men and women have
recovered from alcoholism (4th ed.). New York,
New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services.
ISBN 1-893007-16-2. OCLC 408888189.
Edwards, Grith (April 2002). Alcohol: The
Worlds Favorite Drug (1st ed.). Thomas Dunne
Books. ISBN 0-312-28387-3. OCLC 48176740.
Klaus Mkel; World Health Organization. Regional Oce for Europe; et al. (1996). Alcoholics Anonymous as a mutual-help movement: a
study in eight societies. Madison, Wis: University
of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0-299-15000-3. OCLC
33242907.
Mitchel, Dale (2002). Silkworth: the little doctor
who loved drunks. Center City, Minn: Hazelden.
ISBN 1-56838-794-6. OCLC 51063745.
Pass It on: The Story of Bill Wilson and how the
A.A. Message Reached the World. New York, NY:
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. December 1984. ISBN 978-0-916856-12-0. OCLC
12308065.
Peele, Stanton (1999). The Diseasing of America: how we allowed recovery zealots and the treatment industry to convince us we are out of control.

12

17
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. ISBN 0-7879-4643-5.
OCLC 39605271.

Questions & Answers on Sponsorship. Alcoholics

Anonymous World Services, Inc. 2005. Archived
from the original (PDF) on 2009-12-15. Retrieved
2009-12-15.
Robertson, Nan (1988). Getting Better: Inside Alcoholics Anonymous. New York: Morrow. ISBN
978-0-688-06869-1. LCCN 87031153. OCLC
17260252. OL 4127115W.
Vaillant, George E. (1995). The Natural History of
Alcoholism Revisited. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard
University Press. ISBN 0-674-60377-X. OCLC
31605790.
Wilcox, D.M. (1998). Alcoholic thinking: Language, culture, and belief in Alcoholics Anonymous.
Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN
0-275-96049-8.

17

External links

AA ocial website
A History of Agnostic Groups in AA
Alcoholics Anonymous FBI le on the Internet
Archive

EXTERNAL LINKS

13

18
18.1

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

Alcoholics Anonymous Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholics_Anonymous?oldid=734615272 Contributors: Tbc~enwiki,

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TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Bot, Cbpitt01, Rattletrap99, Suneelji, Mark Cell, Jonadin93, BattyBot, Grandfellow, Sarah.x.g, Tattoodwaitress, ChrisGualtieri, TheJJJunk, Dmohr123, FU-AA, Mystyrio, Bigbooklisa, Arrowhead878, Luvoneanother, Cerabot~enwiki, Btnben, ChrisSampson87, Jonnmann, Taylorporter, Ozzie10aaaa, Alphonso newman, Brawny71, DaviidRPalmer, FrigidNinja, Rcouvrette, Rule62, Learningaboutsakia,
Susan 92111, Noaapopo, Jumplike23, RustyIvory99, Balljust, Stamptrader, Iancooperx, Dukuboy100, Monkbot, Wjereyrobins48, JoeHebda, Snapper22, 4chan122, Sundayclose, Astro interest, Soloplaya, Grammarian3.14159265359, Defendingaa, Chris8160, Davekain,
Themikebest, Drdavidwashingmachines, Jack Gordon Morris, Not4credit, Stickyfacts, Jjfredregill, Alexgepstein and Anonymous: 839

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