alcoholics anonymous

Despite recent progress in the medical understanding of addictive disease, the amateur self-help group known as Alcoholics Anonymous, and its affiliate, Narcotics Anonymous, are still regarded by many experts as an essential mode of treatment for recovering addicts. One of the oldest approaches to alcoholism, the movement arose in 1935 when an Ohio alcoholic named Bill Wilson teamed up with a physician to form the amateur self-help program better known as A.A. The groups now accept anyone who is dependent on any addictive drug.

Bill W. created a twelve-step program of mental, physical, and spiritual recovery. A.A. is an association of peers seeking to combat what its founders referred to as “an allergy of the body and an obsession of the mind.” However, coffee and cigarettes  have traditionally been tolerated at meetings. Twelve-Step blogs are numerous and easily found, including These Rooms and the Recovery Blog.

A.A. is not a medical treatment, and it is not a formal psychiatric program. It is based on the concept of “hitting bottom,” which may come in the form of a wrecked car, a wrecked marriage, a jail term, or simply the the burden of drug-seeking behavior and its consequences.

by Dirk Hanson Are you a writer, passionate about this or any other topic? Join Blogcritics!

Latest blogosphere posts tagged “alcoholics anonymous”

• Getting Out Of The Trap Of Addiction and/or Alcoholism

  
  BlogHer - Health & Wellness — Authority: 140
  How you can get out of the trap of addiction, and stop letting drugs and/or alcohol control your life. You have no control of your life when addicted to drugs, and YES, alcohol IS a drug, although you may think that you are totally in control. Get out of the trap? I am not trapped, I am not addicted. “One might ...
  1 day ago

• Winner Takes All

  
  Recovery Is Sexy.com — Authority: 426
  “In working the 12-steps, my life changed. I think differently today; I feel different today. I am new. We have a sign at the A.A. meetings I go to that says, ’Expect a Miracle.’ My sobriety is full of miracles.” © 2001, AAWS, Inc.; Alcoholics Anonymous, page 380 Related Reading: ...
  3 days ago

• What lies beneath?

  
  Chaz' journey back. — Authority: 98
  No matter how thorough and vigilant we are in any recovery efforts, only time will reveal what really lies beneath our conscious awareness. I experienced a shocking reaction to a circumstance in my life this week.  My wife is launching a new phase to her business and I have been very involved.  My income is ...
  3 days ago

• Poll; Is recovery from alcoholism / addiction sexy?

  
  Alcohol Self-Help News — Authority: 121
  What is your experience with people in recovery from alcoholism, addiction, codependency, and ACOA. Were they sexy when practicing their dysfunctional behaviour? Have they become more attractive since being in recovery? Cast your vote in this poll. Is recovery from alcoholism / addiction sexy? ...
  3 days ago

• Surrender to Win

  
  Alcohol Self-Help News — Authority: 121
  Surrender to Win . “Before A.A., I could not, or would not, admit I was wrong. My pride would not let me. And yet I was ashamed of me.
  3 days ago

• Surrender to Win

  
  Recovery Is Sexy.com — Authority: 426
  The Higher Power Is Good “Before A.A., I could not, or would not, admit I was wrong. My pride would not let me. And yet I was ashamed of me. Caught in this conflict, I banished the Higher Power from my life because I felt He asked me to adhere to a behavior pattern too high for a man of my human frailty. Somehow, ...
  4 days ago

• AA and Spirituality

  
  Alcohol Self-Help News — Authority: 121
  AA and Spirituality .   Given its prominence in Alcoholics Anonymous and related Twelve-Step groups, spirituality plays an important role in the rehabilitation of many substance-dependent people.
  4 days ago

• Depression

  
  Alcohol Self-Help News — Authority: 121
  Depression in 12 Step Groups members .   Major depression in patients with substance use disorders: Relationship to 12-Step self-help involvement and substance use outcomes.
  4 days ago

• Unemployment Anonymous

  
  Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines — Authority: 726
  In news that President Obama has described as “sobering,” the U.S. unemployment rate for October has broken into the double digit range, as 10.2 percent of people in the U.S. are without jobs, the highest unemployment has been since April 1983. The BBC: The unemployment rate in the US rose to 10.2% in ...
  5 days ago

• Hottest Articles, Recovery Is Sexy

  
  Recovery Is Sexy.com — Authority: 426
  These are the hottest articles on Recovery Is Sexy in order of popularity. Alcohol and Sexuality Mature Women and Sex Women’s Sexual Fantasies Signs and symptoms of eating disorders Characteristics of Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACOA’s) Sensual Massage Women’s Sexual Arousal ...
  5 days ago

• Recovery from Alcoholism

  
  Alcohol Self-Help News — Authority: 121
  Recovery from Alcoholism .   The number 13 represents bad luck for some people, but for Floyd McCrory of Rockville, Md., it’s a sign of continuing good fortune. This year, he celebrates 13 years of sobriety. “Best thing I ever did,” he said about quitting drinking. “It turned my whole life ...
  6 days ago

• Recovery from Alcoholism

  
  Recovery Is Sexy.com — Authority: 426
  The number 13 represents bad luck for some people, but for Floyd McCrory of Rockville, Md., it’s a sign of continuing good fortune. This year, he celebrates 13 years of sobriety. "Best thing I ever did," he said about quitting drinking. "It turned my whole life around." McCrory, 63, realized he was an ...
  1 week ago

• The Vault of my Heart

  
  feminist blogs — Authority: 160
  My husband and I are going to meet with the AA leader again tomorrow during lunch. I am supposed to email him before then with a list of things I love about my husband and tell him how I would like our marriage to look. My husband is supposed to do the same. I started yesterday, but I have to say that I am still just ...
  1 week ago

• Alcoholic and Codependent Games

  
  Recovery Is Sexy.com — Authority: 426
  Controller – Person who cannot allow anyone to grow or be anything other than what they want them to be Dual Personality – Person who can change “hats” at the drop of a dime, between portraying a rational person and the other one irrational. It’s like living with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Evil ...
  1 week ago

• 23rd Psalm for Recovery

  
  Alcohol Self-Help News — Authority: 121
  23rd Psalm for Recovery .   The Lord is my sponsor, I shall not want. He makes me to go to many meetings.   ============================
  1 week ago

• Bill W. and Buddha: Connections Between Meditation and the Twelve Steps of AA

  
  One City: A Buddhist Blog for Everyone — Authority: 476
  by Rosemary McGinn Ive always wanted to eavesdrop on a conversation between Siddhartha Gautama and Bill Wilson (the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous). I think theyd get along great: Both of these men found paths out of suffering in their own...
  1 week ago

• Seven reasons I drank

  
  Recovery Is Sexy.com — Authority: 426
  Seven reasons I drank For the alcoholic there are only seven reasons to drink: These are; Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Related Reading: Share/Save
  1 week ago

• A certain kind of faith

  
  Recovery Is Sexy.com — Authority: 426
  Just for today – A certain kind of faith "Without knowing it, had we not been brought to where we stood by a certain kind of faith? For did we not believe in our own reasoning? Did we not have confidence in our ability to think? What was that but a sort of faith? Yes, we had been faithful, abjectly faithful to ...
  1 week ago

• …one direction… forward.

  
  Chaz' journey back. — Authority: 98
  My favourite Don Draper quote from TV Series, ‘Mad Men’….     “My life moves in only one direction…  forward”. Don Draper is a man with a past he is leaving behind.  The character has a past secret life that he would just as soon forget.  He has entered a world he finds more ...
  1 week ago

• Cruise Options for Recovering Alcoholics

  
  Cruise Talk Central — Authority: 135
  Many recovering addicts have said that a huge part of their recovery process has been learning to live life to the fullest. Cruising can be a wonderful vacation experience for recovering addicts as long as they are able to stick with their recovery program. Luckily, many cruise lines and tour companies provide a ...
  2 weeks ago

Comments about alcoholics anonymous