IN THE EARLY 1900s, there emerged in New York City a phenomenon that has evolved in 2024 as a vital necessary worldwide organization we know as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). So, what is AA?
Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of people who come together to solve their drinking problems. It doesn’t cost anything to attend AA meetings, there’s no age requirement to participate, and there’s no education or income requirements to participate. Membership is open to anyone who wants to do something about their drinking problems. AA’s primary purpose is to help alcoholics achieve sobriety.
So, how does that work?
Members use the 12-Step Program to maintain sobriety, and groups use the 12 Traditions to stay unified. AA’s 12 Steps are a set of spiritual principles. When practiced as a way of life, they can expel the obsession to drink and allow the sufferer to recover from alcoholism. As an example, Step 8 states that you make a list of all persons you have harmed and become willing to make amends to them all. The 12 Traditions apply to AA as a whole. They outline how AA maintains unity and relates itself to the world around us. Tradition 5 states that each group has but one primary purpose: to carry its primary message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
Who are the AA members?
We are people who have discovered and admitted that we cannot control alcohol. We have learned that we must live without it to live normal, happy lives. We are not anti-alcohol and have no wish to reform the world. We are not aligned with any group, cause, or religious denomination. We welcome new members, but we do not recruit them. We do not impose our experience with problem drinking on others, but we do share it when asked to do so. We know that our own sobriety depends on connecting with other alcoholics.
Alcoholics Anonymous began in 1935, and the success of the group has sparked widespread interest. AA members, professionals, and the general public want to learn about AA and how it works to help alcoholics. How did a meeting between a New York stockbroker, Bill W., and an Akron, OH surgeon, Dr Bob S., lead to a global movement? Both men were hopeless alcoholics. Before their meeting, Bill and Dr Bob had been in contact with the Oxford Group, a Christian organization founded by the American Lutheran minister Frank Buchanan in 1921. Under the spiritual guidance of the Oxford Group and the help of a friend, Bill W. had gotten sober. At the same time, Dr Bob’s association with the Oxford Group in Akron had not helped him achieve sobriety. When they finally did meet, Dr Bob found in Bill a fellow sufferer, and he succeeded in achieving and maintaining his own sobriety. Dr Bob emphasized that alcoholism was a malady of mind, body, and emotions. Thus began AA, and today, AA groups can be found in over 180 countries worldwide.
There are currently over 530 weekly AA meetings in NW Ohio and SE Michigan. A comprehensive list of meeting days and locations/times is available online at toledoaameetings. com.
Daniel J Jachimiak, BA, is a writer and speaker. Dan can be reached at djachimiak@bex.net or 419-787-2036. You can have a better life. ✲
