Alcoholics Anonymous

Alcoholics Anonymous (known commonly as "A.A." or "AA") is a world-wide fellowship of alcoholics whose primary purpose is to stay sober and carry the message of recovery from alcoholism through the Twelve Steps. A.A. is the original twelve-step program and has been the source and model for all subsequent and separate ones, such as Gamblers Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Sexaholics Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, and Al-Anon/Alateen.

Related Topics:
Alcoholic - Twelve-step program - Gamblers Anonymous - Narcotics Anonymous - Sexaholics Anonymous - Overeaters Anonymous - Al-Anon/Alateen

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An earlier group for alcoholics, known as the Washingtonians, fell apart when it tried to branch out to different goals, which A.A. has tried to avoid.

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There is some controversy over the A.A. approach of abstinence as a goal as opposed to other programs which aim for moderation. http://www.habitsmart.com/cntrldnk.html A.A. draws a line between a "real alcoholic" and a "hard drinker", claiming that unlike a hard drinker, who may have the habit badly enough to cause gradual physical and mental impairment but retain the ability to stop or moderate drinking (given sufficiently strong reason (Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 20-21)), a real alcoholic has a disease and no amount of logic or persuasion or desire can bring a real alcoholic to lasting sobriety. A.A. considers alcoholism to be a diagnosis which can only be made by oneself, and has no opinion on abstinence for others.

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There also exist a number of purely secular non-12 step programs which promote abstinence as a recovery goal, as well as programs which promote a goal of moderation for "problem drinkers" as opposed to "alcoholics." A listing can be found in the external links section of this article.

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