Alcoholics Anonymous AA: Support Through 12 Steps

Find strength and solace in meetingsthat understand your unique challenges and are dedicated to helping you navigate the road to sobriety. Connect Locally, Heal Collectively Find local AA meetings near you, a cornerstone for building a supportive community. These meetings areessential in your journey, offering a safe space for sharing experiences and gaining strength fromothers who understand your struggle. Embrace the camaraderie and find solace in the collective pursuitof sobriety. Meetings aren’t based on a specific religion, they do include spiritual aspects. For some, these aspects of the program can be a stumbling block.

1. In other cases, a person might simply disagree with the group’s goal of total abstinence.
2. Because the meetings are widely available, most people find them easily accessible.
3. Because he is a member of a support group that stresses the importance of anonymity at the public level, he does not use his photograph or his real name on this website.

What are central offices or intergroups?

The authors also reported that these programs appear to be as effective as other alcohol treatment methods. Meetings are often held in treatment centers, community centers, churches, and other public facilities because these places tend to be affordable, welcoming to 12-step programs, and available. 12-step programs are successful and widely available resources for individuals seeking recovery from addiction. Like AA, Dual Recovery Anonymous is a 12-step program. However, it caters to people who want to tackle alcohol abuse as well as co-occurring mental health issues.

Critics have questioned its counseling for spouses of alcoholics overall success rate, and others have criticized the religious or cult-like aspects of its program. AA was developed as a method to help people recover from addiction to alcohol and to maintain abstinence, with the only requirement for membership being a desire to stop drinking. Meetings are 60 to 90 minutes long and take place either online or in person. Trained volunteers or professionals lead the sessions, and members may benefit from group discussions and lessons on different kinds of coping tools.

Therapeutic Value Of The 12-Step Program

Still, the results of a 2018 study suggest that SMART might be just as effective as 12-step groups. For beginners, AA can be a useful introduction to support groups. However, if you attend a few sessions and feel like it’s not for you, there are other peer group options for you to explore. Not everyone who joins a mutual help group has the same goal. Perhaps you simply want to reduce your drinking rather than achieve lifelong abstinence.

Registering is a step towards commitment – a commitment to yourrecovery and to the supportive network of AA. Often, the next step is to read a passage from the Big Book and reinforcement about the importance of member privacy and anonymity. Meetings typically close with a prayer, moment of silence, recitation of the Responsibility Statement, or by reading a section of another A.A. Group consisted of only Bill, Dr. Bob, and a patient at an Akron hospital.

Much of the language and philosophy of 12-step recovery can be strange and perplexing to those who are new. The suggestion is to “take what you need and leave the rest,” by embracing what makes sense to you in early recovery and setting the rest aside for the time being. Most 12-step programs (and AA, specifically) have defined principles to follow. While most members accept and appreciate these aspects, it is important to be aware of them when considering membership. These programs are based on behavioral, cognitive, and spiritual principles and practices through which people can learn how to stay clean and sober one day at a time.

While AA emphasizes personal anonymity, many notable individuals have publicly acknowledged their participation in the program for various lengths of time. AA meetings serve as a space duloxetine withdrawal timeline where individuals discuss recovery from alcoholism, with flexibility in how meetings are conducted. AA has faced criticism for various reasons.

The empathy and encouragement you receive from group members can often both comfort and inspire you. Hearing the experiences flakka wikipedia of others may reduce any sense of shame you’re feeling and enhance your self-efficacy or self-belief. Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) is an international program focused on supporting people during alcohol recovery, with a goal of helping them achieve and sustain sobriety.

Peer support for addiction vs. addiction counseling

In addition, co-occurring conditions, like depression, can hinder your motivation to attend meetings and engage with others. While sobriety is the goal, AA meetings welcome anyone with a desire to stop drinking, regardless of theircurrent status. It’s based on one alcoholic helping another. Fortunately, there are many different types of meetings for people from different backgrounds or with similar situations. The only way to know for sure whether A.A. May be a good fit is to attend a meeting.

Meeting via the Alcoholics Anonymous website. Alternatively, it also allows site visitors to select a specific state or region, providing all meeting locations in that area. John C. Umhau, MD, MPH, CPE is board-certified in addiction medicine and preventative medicine.