What is A A ? Greater Seattle Intergroup of AA

The whole point of going to meetings is to form connections with others and form relationships, and you’re missing out on a huge part of the program if you don’t. Open Discussion – Group members select a topic and share their recovery experience relating to that topic. Topics include the first step, gratitude in recovery or helping others. Fun and friendship are a huge Sober House part of Alcoholics Anonymous. AA meetings are a great place to meet and socialize with others who are on the same journey. Together, fellow alcoholics hold each other accountable without being judgmental. Anyone who has a desire to stop drinking is welcome to join, no matter their age, race, orientation, or religious beliefs. There are also online AA meetings.

They had been involved in a non-alcoholic fellowship group that focused on spiritual values which helped Bill achieve sobriety. He maintained his sobriety by working with other alcoholics to help them get sober. Bill began to work with Dr. Bob to help him become sober too. He described alcoholism as a disease and emphasized the mental health, emotions, and malady behind it. In a 2015 article for The Atlantic, Gabrielle Glaser criticized the dominance of AA in the treatment of addiction in the United States. Her article uses Lance Dodes’s figures and an outdated Cochrane report to state that AA has a low success rate, but those figures have been criticized by experts in the addiction treatment field. The Glaser article says that “nothing about the 12-step approach draws on modern science”, but a large amount of scientific research has been done with AA, showing that AA increases abstinence rates. The Glaser article criticizes 12-step programs for being “faith-based”, but 12-step programs allow for a very wide diversity of spiritual beliefs, and there are a growing number of secular 12-step meetings.

United States treatment industry

It also maintains service centers, which coordinate activities such as printing literature, responding to public inquiries, and organizing conferences. Other International General Service Offices (Australia, Costa Rica, Russia, etc.) are independent of AA World Services in New York. AA sprang what is aa? from the Oxford Group, a non-denominational, altruistic movement modeled after first-century Christianity. Some members founded the group to help in maintaining sobriety. With nearly 20 years of experience, Dr. Wind is a recognized leader in clinical psychology and addiction science.

The film cuts back and forth between his eventual relapse and the other meeting attendees. Days of Wine and Roses – a 1962 film about a married couple struggling with alcoholism. Jack Lemmon’s character attends an AA meeting in the film. One review called Dodes’ reasoning against AA success a “pseudostatistical polemic.” Project MATCH was a 1990s 8-year, multi-site, $27-million investigation that studied which types of alcoholics respond best to which forms of treatment.

What are AA meetings?

The Big Book says “moderate drinkers” and “a certain type of hard drinker” can 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.” Alcoholics Anonymous is an international fellowship of men and women who have a drinking problem. It is nonprofessional, self-supporting, nondenominational, multiracial, apolitical, and available almost everywhere.

Call our offices for more information. Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. At the most basic level, Alcoholics Anonymous is a large network of small groups who use the 12 steps as a guide to overcome alcoholism and live sober, happy lives. When choosing a treatment center, we hope you choose us and recognize that the experience at Experience Recovery is one like no other. Under the direction of our Medical Director, Dr. Mario San Bartolome and our Clinical Director, Michael Mazzarino our program is scientifically based, medically driven, and therapeutically sound.