What Are Alcoholics Anonymous Meetings?
Table of Contents
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What Is Alcoholics Anonymous?
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a popular support group and treatment option for those suffering from alcohol use disorder (AUD). AUD is a prevalent and serious issue, with recent statistics showing that over 3.3 million deaths worldwide are attributed to alcohol use each year.1
Learn More About Ripple Ranch Recovery Center
Our team is standing by to discuss your situation and options. Your call is fully confidential, and no obligation is required.
Call Us 24/7
Learn More About Ripple Ranch Recovery Center
Our team is standing by to discuss your situation and options. Your call is fully confidential, and no obligation is required.
Overview and Insight to Alcoholics Anonymous
Foundation of Alcoholics Anonymous
Who Can Join Alcoholics Anonymous?
How Does AA Work?
The AA program consists of regular meetings lasting between one and two hours. During the early stages of participation, members may attend meetings several times a week or even daily. Local chapters may meet in a church, community center, college campus, library, or other rented community space.
There are different styles of meetings that a group will utilize throughout the year. Nonetheless, meetings are made up of members sharing their personal narratives with one another and working through the principles of AA, referred to as the 12-Step program.
AA is usually free and available in many communities. As a result, the program is easily accessible and easy to maintain for long periods of time, increasing the probability of achieving sustained sobriety.
Understanding AA
What Are Alcoholics Anonymous Meetings?
Open Meetings
Closed Meetings
What Does Alcoholics Anonymous Do?
What Is a Sponsor?
What Are the Key Aspects of AA?
What Does Alcoholics Anonymous Not Do?
- They do not solicit members. Interested parties are free to join if they feel it would be beneficial, but no direct advertising or marketing is involved.
- They do not follow up with members to see how they are progressing. This is a self-guided journey to sobriety, so each member is responsible for themself.
- They do not engage in education about alcohol. The focus is on the meeting structure and the sponsor’s relationship with the sponsored person.
- They do not provide detox or other medical services. Detox and medical services are left to medical professionals.
- They do not engage in or sponsor scientific research. AA cannot and will not force someone to stop drinking.
- They do not offer religious services. There is prayer involved in most meetings, but they avoid any organized religious gatherings.
Do You Have to be Religious to Join Alcoholics Anonymous?
Spirituality and AA
Rules of AA Programs
1. Unity: Unity between the members gives support and allows them to make more progress.
2. Leadership: Leadership belongs primarily to God.
3. Eligibility: The only requirement for participation in 12-step meetings is a desire to stop the harmful behavior.
4. Autonomy: 12-Step groups should vary their meeting style to best fit their own members.
5. Carrying the Message: the primary purpose is to carry the message to those who still suffer.
6. Outside Enterprises: A 12-Step group will not get involved with other organizations.
7. Self-Supporting: Every group should be self-supporting.
8. Giving it Away: The program will remain non-professional, and is usually free of charge.
9. Organization: Support groups emphasize true fellowship and their primary purpose.
10. Outside Opinions: No opinion on external issues, focused on the task at hand.
11. Public Relations: No promotional actions; maintain personal anonymity to protect others.
12. Anonymity: The spiritual foundation of the traditions reminds us to place principles above personalities.
Different Types of Alcoholics Anonymous Meetings
Speaker Meetings
Step Meetings
Big Book Study Meetings
Gender-Specific Meetings
Effectiveness of Alcoholics Anonymous
Research Supports the Effectiveness of AA
The 12 Steps of AA
1. Admit powerlessness: Be honest and admit you cannot control this issue.
2. Find hope: Before change can happen, you must believe it is possible.
3. Surrender: Surrender to the fact that you need help to change, as it cannot be
on your own.
4. Take inventory: Search your soul and identify how this behavior affected
yourself and others.
5. Share inventory: Admit your wrongs to others.
6. Become ready: Accept your character defects and be ready to let them go.
7. Ask God: Ask God to help you accomplish something that needs more than
mere determination.
8. List amends: Make a list of those you harmed before coming into recovery.
9. Make amends: Make amends with those you have hurt to start healing your
relationships.
10. Continue inventory: Maintain the course you have started.
11. Pray and meditate: Quiet yourself to discover the plan your higher power has
for your life.
12. Help others: Go and serve others with the message and apply the principles
to every area of life.
What Should I Know Before Attending an Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting?
Gather Relevant Information
Gather a Support Network and Keep an Open Mind
After the meeting, there will be a chance to socialize and build relationships with others who have been where you are. It is important to keep an open mind. It takes time to work through these issues and achieve lasting change. You may surprise yourself with what helps. Most importantly, don’t give up. This process has worked for thousands of people before you and is worth your time.
Does Alcoholics Anonymous Help People Get Sober?
Although AA has been around for many years, one of the common criticisms is the lack of medical research supporting its efficacy. However, recent studies have changed all of that.
A study published in 2020 by the Cochrane Database found that the peer-led program not only helps people get sober but is just as effective or possibly even more effective than traditional therapeutic methods alone. This most recent review included twenty-seven studies of more than 10,500 people.2
The studies rated AA’s effectiveness by measuring the length of time participants abstained from alcohol, the amount of drinking that was reduced, the consequences of continued drinking, and their health care costs.
Alcoholics Anonymous Effectiveness Statistics
Alternatives to the 12 Steps of AA
While 12-step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous offer hope and recovery to many who are willing to embrace the higher power of their understanding, faith-based systems of recovery are often a turn-off for agnostics or atheists seeking sobriety. For any recovery program to work, the person seeking sobriety must not feel alienated or uncomfortable with the beliefs or practices it puts forth.
Medical and Therapeutic Treatment
Recovery Support Groups
Self-Management and Recovery Training (SMART)
Secular Organizations for Sobriety (SOS)
SOS has helped thousands of people with substance use disorder reclaim their lives. Secular Organizations for Sobriety welcomes anyone sincerely seeking sobriety from alcohol addiction, drug addiction, and compulsive eating.
Overview of SOS
Alternatives to Alcoholics Anonymous
SMART Recovery
SMART Recovery is also based on four main points:
- Building and maintaining motivation for long-term recove3ry
- Coping with urges to use
- Managing thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
- Living a balanced and fulfilled life
LifeRing Secular Recovery
LifeRing Secular Recovery is a support group that believes everyone’s path to recovery is different and should be unique to that person. LifeRing Recovery operates on the philosophy that you are the best person to create your recovery program.6
It also focuses on the “3-S Philosophy,” which includes
- Sobriety: The only requirement for membership at LifeRing Secular Recovery is that you are abstinent.
- Secularity: LifeRing is inclusive for people of all faiths, but it focuses on recovery of the individual rather than on the impact of religion or spirituality.
Self-help: The purpose of this support group is to reinforce members’ motivation and help them maintain sobriety. LifeRing supports the belief that the key to sobriety is found through a person’s motivation and effort.
Women for Sobriety
For More Information on Recovery, Reach out to Ripple Ranch Today
If you or a loved one are ready to regain autonomy over your life, know that you don’t have to walk to road to recovery alone. Peer support groups such as AA are a great resource for community, accountability, and learning.
Additionally, our Ripple Ranch Recovery Center team is here to help guide you and help you build a foundation for sustainable sobriety. Contact us today for the resources and personalized treatment you need and deserve.
Resources
- 1https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8060988/
- 2https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/03/11/alcoholics-anonymous-aa-helps-people-stay-sober-longer-study-finds/5008835002/
- 3https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2020/03/alcoholics-anonymous-most-effective-path-to-alcohol-abstinence.html
- 4https://www.verywellmind.com/secular-alcohol-and-drug-rehab-programs-67702
- 5https://www.smartrecovery.org/#
- 6https://lifering.org/
- 7https://womenforsobriety.org/