“Hi, I’m Jane, and I am an alcoholic.” You usually hear those words coming out from the mouth of recovering alcoholics supported by Alcoholics Anonymous. What is Alcoholics Anonymous? Alcoholics Anonymous is a group that attends to the needs of recovering alcoholics. It has an official website and is a centralized organization with over one hundred thousand sub-groups in over 150 countries. Each sub-group is fundamentally autonomous. Groups are made from a few to several hundreds of patients and meetings are held in different venues.
Dr. Bob Smith and Bill Wilson founded Alcoholics Anonymous in 1934. It was also the same year when the organization started organizing meetings, making it a bigger circle each day. Patients have two choices. They can either hire a psychiatrist or be admitted in a private mental hospital. People who hire psychiatrists are usually the rich ones, because a psychiatrist’s fee is very expensive. Patients who lack budget ask help from prisons, public hospitals, churches and rescue missions.
Alcoholics Anonymous holds its name as the first organization to strictly help alcoholics in North America. Among all the other organizations in America, Alcoholics Anonymous is one of the firsts to incorporate a religious approach in treatment. In public forums, religious ideas and concepts are also discussed. Patients are taught to support each other while they are handled by the organization.
Today, the groups under this organization is not connected to any political or religious organization. Its goal is mainly to help people stay sober. You get an instant membership to this group by an alcoholic, mixed with the desire to quit the habit. You don’t need to pay any fee. All you need is the right goal - avoiding alcohol one drink at a time, and getting the needed support from people.
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