Special Populations Visit - Alcoholics Anonymous

Forsyth County Chapter

Alcoholics Anonymous is an international fellowship of men and women who have had a drinking problem. It is nonprofessional, self-supporting, multiracial, apolitical, and available almost everywhere. There are no age or education requirements. Membership is open to anyone who wants to do something about his or her drinking problem.1 Alcoholics Anonymous holds meetings in over 150 countries. There is an estimated 2 million members. The meeting I attended was in Winston-Salem, NC. Having been married to an alcoholic for 12 years, I was very interested in how the meetings take place. I was not too surprised to learn that it was a very casual setting. There were no frills involved. Everyone in attendance was a recovering alcoholic. Everyone is encouraged to attend the meetings. The members support each other with their drinking problems. They give each other advice and support. They are called ‘sponsors’. The members talk about their addiction to alcohol and ways to live their life without alcohol. They also talk about how much better their life is without alcohol. And how bad it was with the use of alcohol. I’m sure that everyone, including myself, has always heard about Alcoholics Anonymous and “the twelve step” program. Until now I never knew what those steps were. I thought it would be nice to include them in this entry. The program was based on twelve-step road to recovery. Those twelve steps are as follows:1

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become
unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of
our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to
them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure
them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly
admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we
understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that
out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message
to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Members are not required to follow the twelve steps. They are, however, asked to be open-minded about them.


Reference:

1Prepared by General Service Office of Alcoholics Anonymous(2007)Welcome to Alcoholics Anonymous. Retrieved November 15, 2007 from http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org/en_information_aa.cfm?PageID=2