Alcholics Anonymous Explained

« « The Simplest Way To Beat Vacation Stress? | Many Ways To Relieve Depression » »

Friday, March 12th, 2010 Subscribe To Our Feed

Alcoholics Anonymous is an organization of voluntary which was created in 1935 to help alcoholics to practice to get sobriety. It’s the Mr. Bill Wilson’s idea; a onetime financier that is career in Finance was devastated by alcoholism.

While other patients who suffer from acute alcohol poisoning effects attend a hospital, Bill Wilson experienced what he called a spiritual experience and he could heal himself in his new receipt and belief in God.

After leaving hospital he teamed up with Doctor Bob Smith and together they went about their joint vocation of helping and curing alcoholics. The venture was hugely successful and in 1939 Bill Wilson wrote a book entitled Alcoholics Anonymous that started the organization we know today.

Today, there are over 106,000 Alcoholics Anonymous meeting groups and the organization has spread across the world. The only requirements to join AA are that you must be a practicing alcoholic who wants to quit drinking. There are no fees or subscriptions so the foundation gathers its finances from private donations.

The alcoholism treatment concept as a disease was the result of Dr. William Silkworth’s idea, the doctor who has treated Bob Wilson in New York hospital, where here his spiritual experience that put him on the way of creation of Alcoholics Anonymous.

As alcoholic anonymous grew during the late 1930s and early 1940s, it became more structured and the 12 basic principles were developed that are still the backbone of the organization today. The original 12 principles were:

• Admitting alcoholism ruled their lives
• Believing God could cure alcoholism
• Putting themselves in God’s hands
• Honest self-evaluation
• Self confession of wrongs enacted
• Preparedness for God to get rid of the bad characteristics
• Asking that God get rid of these bad characteristics
• Listing the people they had harmed and committing to redress wrongs done
• Actually making any amends possible
• Continuous self-evaluation and admittance of any ongoing imperfections
• Promising to try to recognize God and the plans to recover alcoholics
• Committing to assist other practicing alcoholics

It is clear from these original mission statements or principles that Alcoholics Anonymous had a basic grounding in the belief of God; but as the fellowship has grown, over the passage of a number of years, these principles have become more generalized in order not to alienate, or make themselves untenable to alcoholics who desperately needed and wanted help but saw religion as a barrier to acquiring that help.

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.