Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous is a worldwide fellowship of alcoholics
who help each other to get sober and to stay that way.
A.A. was founded in the 1920s and 1930s by two alcoholics in
the United States who came up with a program that worked, even
in cases where conventional medical treatment failed time and
again. Today we call it their system the 12 Steps of Alcoholics
Anonymous.
One of those founding alcoholics was himself a medical doctor,
he is referred to in the Big Book as just "Doctor Bob". The
second AA founder was a successful salesman on Wall Street, and
he is lovingly referred to as "Bill W". These two alcoholics
saw many of their friends drink themselves to death or end
their days in insane asylums. Nothing seemed to help these
severe cases of alcohol addiction at that time.
Then these two founders of Alcoholics Anonymous found out about
a really sick alcoholic they both knew who had been
'miraculously' cured. The man had gotten off the booze through
a deep religious experience, Doctor Bob and Bill W. found they
could replicate this success by using religious faith to help
other alcoholics who were still believers, even the so-called
'incurable' ones.
But they still had no way back then to help alcoholics who
didn't believe in a god in any shape or form.
The breakthrough came when Alcoholics Anonymous found they
could help problem drinkers, as long as they could accept a
'Higher Power'. The idea of a "God" was very optional, and it
still is.
As long as you can believe in something more powerful than
you are, for example your A.A. group or anything at all, then
you can work the Twelve Steps; you can get sober and you can
stay that way.
The 12 Steps are described in the Articles section of this web
site.
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