Alcoholics Anonymous: History, Organization, and Meetings

Running head: ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
Experiential Paper - Alcoholics Anonymous
Gloria J. Lyons
Liberty University

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS1
Name and History of the Organization
Alcoholics Anonymous, commonly referred to as AA, is a global organization that
aids those individuals who have a drinking problem (Alcoholics Anonymous, 2019). This
organization may also be identified as a non-professional, multiracial and apolitical group
created to help those in need. In order to enroll in this group, there are no specific age
requirements. Alcoholics Anonymous was established in the year 1935 and was founded in
the state of Ohio. The idea of this program was chalked out when two alcoholics, named Dr.
Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, conversed about the approaches to remain sober.
Furthermore, AA was derived from The Oxford Group through the help of some members,
who struggled and strived to remain sober. This Group was organized and operated under the
spiritual influence of Dr. Samuel Shoemaker. After identifying that alcoholism was a serious
disease of the mind and body, Dr. Bob and Dr. Wilson began to counsel the alcoholic patients
in a hospital (Cheever, 2015). The programs of Alcoholics anonymous extend beyond just
abstinence from alcohol but rather, to bring about alcoholism recovery for the victims by
changing the way they think about alcohol (Karriker-Jaffe et al., 2018). In doing this both
spiritual awakening and sobriety must be achieved on the part of the victim. The victim will
achieve sobriety by attending the AA meetings voluntarily or make contact with any AA
members and the spiritual awakening is achieved by taking the twelve steps. Normally, the
members are asked to find an alcoholic with AA experience to guide them on the proceedings
of the AA program.
By the year 1950, more than 100,000 alcoholics were identified on a global scale. In
this year, AA successfully conducted its first meeting. In the following year, the office at
New York had exponentially advanced all of their activities. They were now lending services
to numerous hospitals and collaborating with international agencies. The headquarters of the

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program also began to publish books to aid those in need. Through the various publications
and seminars, AA started spreading awareness on an international level. However, the most
important milestone of Alcoholics Anonymous is the utilization of the potent 12 step program
that attempts to proactively annihilate an individual’s dependence on alcohol (Dermatis &
Galanter, 2016). In addition to AA, there are a few other organizations that are of importance.
Al-Anon is also an organization that aims to assist the families and friends of an alcoholic
(Young & Timko, 2015). A similar organization that may be identified is Narcotics
Anonymous (NA). This group provides support and counseling for those who are battling
drug addiction.
Organization and Procedure of the Meetings
The meetings of AA are organized in a cohesive manner. Moreover, this counseling
organization follows Egan’s Helping Model. Under this model, communication is
extensively stressed upon to bring about healing and rehabilitation (Fatout, 2017). Moreover,
there are three stages that are upheld in this model. Firstly, the leader of AA works to
establish trust through the exploration of the member’s problems. In stage 2, the problems
related to alcohol abuse are fully explored and in the final stage, problem solving strategies
are chalked out on the basis of all the challenges that were identified. By journeying through
these stages, the meetings of AA uphold Egan’s Helping Model. Furthermore, the role of the
leader is the most important aspect in these meetings (Galanter, 2016). It is a pivotal
responsibility of the leader to identify the weaknesses of each individual. In identifying the
weakness of each individual, the leader must ensure that he does demoralize the addicts or
make them feel ashamed of their situations. This is so because by making the members