How effective is A.A.?

hey. i’ve never commented before but this post kinda got me going.
Being sober isn’t something that anyone can do for anyone else. You can not expect AA to rid even one alcoholic of their addiction on its own. When you’re addicted to a substance, as i have been in my life, you are the only person that can make you sober. AA offers merely a twelve step program of support…they are the real life version of a self help book. they require only dedication for their support. Going to a therapist, medication, and AA can not change a persons habits. Its an uphill battle that each individual must fight one day at a time.
Many clinical anti depressants only show about a 3% effectiveness rate but they are often relied on in the psychiatric community. When you are struggling to get out of darkness you are the only person that can make it happen….but you can still choose the tools you may need to help you succeed.
AA is a tool.

For those who are looking for addiction help its important to have resources such as AA to turn to. For a lot of people AA is the first place they would know to turn to because it’s been around so long. Even if the person needs more help than can be offered through AA it’s a good first step.

Since A.A stands for Alcoholics Anonymous I don’t see how it would be possible to track any metric on its members. Also, it would not be perceived as a safe place by Alcoholics if the organization would have such practices.

Having an alcohol addiction is a very difficult condition to deal with. If someone has the signs and symptoms of alcoholism, it is important to get them into effective treatment as soon as possible. The sooner an alcoholic gets into an effective alcohol treatment programme, the less likely they are to suffer from the more serious long term effects of alcohol abuse.

Love your blog! I just started writing my own sober blog and enjoy seeing what others are writing on the subject. I am a member of AA and part of the small percentage of those staying sober. I have a group of sober friends who are serious about their recovery and we have all had great success with the 12 Steps, I feel that AA is an important institution because it is widely known and offers anyone the opportunity to get sober anonymously. I agree with Marc’s comment that it would be a problem for AA to keep statistics like that. However, I am also of the belief based on my own experience that more is required to live a happy life in long term sobriety. AA and the 12 Steps are an essential foundation for my program of recovery and always will be, but I find I need to go further today to really dig deeper into my core issues. Other modalities are presenting themselves in my life and AA has helped me to be open-minded to try them out.

Hi Lee

Appreciate the article.

First, Alcoholics Anonymous adheres to a strict set of 12 Traditions that, I believe, are divinely-inspired. One Tradition states that AA is based upon attraction rather than promotion; which suggests that the alcoholic will only come to AA when he is ready, not because some slick marketer has sold him on the programme.

In addition, anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all the Traditions; thus, marketeers will likely never be able to measure AA’s recovery success rates as the anonymity of its members are a central tenet to the success of the programme.

So, marketing practitioners: hands off! The only marketing necessary is the literal truth imparted from AA’s recovering alcoholics to those problem drinkers who still suffer. That, my friend will sell AA to those who truly want it.

My name is Dwight Twala i am 25yrs of age , i really need help my main problem is that whenever i tell myself that i wont drink alcohol on a weekend i end up doing it . what is so sad about it is that i end up letting down my parents my girl friend and my three year old child i really do want to quit but its just that it becomes very difficulf to do a way the habit one of my friend told me that all habits die hard i dont think thats true , i think i can do this i know i can quit drinking i just need good advise i dont think i will be able to let my parents, my child and my girlfriend down anymore cause i have noticed one think there is really no achievement in drinkink the only problem is to kill this habit but i find very difficult to do so, Please Help

Well stated about AA! I have a lecture on addiction last night and as usually happens, there is always someone in the audience who objects to my comments about 12-step programs. Even when I preface my comments with a general statement that mutual support in groups is good, as soon as I begin to discuss some of the down sides of self-help groups it always get ugly. Check out my comments on addiction treatment: http://www.addictionmanagement.org

Hey, thanks for the post.

the only promises that I know of in AA are the ones that will happen if you remain sober, attend AA Meetings, and communicate openly and honestly. AA doesn’t guarantee anyone will STAY sober, they are offering a chance for those who have an honest desire to stop. So, asking or requiring an “Anonymous” program to open up its ‘books’ to show it sucess rates is, in my opinion, impossible. Asking someone to identify themselves for ‘tracking’ purposes is setting that person up for failure. The pressure for some can be too much if they know they are being tracked like that. God willing, I am coming up on my 17th year of sobriety in the immediate future. I don’t take it for granted and honestly if you ask me what has kept me sober I could not give you a definitive answer except to say that when I needed the AA program to be there for me it has ALWAYS come through.

Not much more can be said about other people, places or things.

You’ll get as much out of AA as you put into AA.