The twelve steps
Alcoholics
AA book(bible) and year chips
A twelve step scholar has suggested
that referral agencies refer people to
AA groups rather than treatment
centers. Rudy Moos believes that
there is a higher success rate of
staying sober if people start with AA
programs vs treatment centers. The
reason for this being that in his
observational studies he witnessed
that people that started with AA
programs were more likely to
continue attending these meetings,
whereas people that attended
treatment centers only participated
in AA for a short time.
1. We admitted we were powerless over
Anonymous
AA was co-founded in 1935 in Akron,
Ohio. AA was founded by two men, a
doctor and a traveling salesman. AA’s
“Bible” was written by a man named
Bill W. and was published in 1939. IT
lists out the popular 12 steps to
recovery. The twelve steps reflect the
religious beliefs of the oxford group, a
fundamentalist Christian movement.
AA is an international fellowship,
which means it can be found all over
the world. It is non-professional, self-
supporting, and multicultural. AA is
open to whomever that wants to
address their drinking problems.
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
other human beings the exact nature of
our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove
all these defects of Character.
7. Humbly asked to have God remove all
these defects of character.
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 it 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. (Bill W., 2001)

Alcohol abstinence and aa meetings
(Kaskutas, 2009)
Those who worked the steps
consistently applied them in their lives
have shown the steps to be effective.
However, statistics have shown that only
about 5% of members are effective for
longer than 12 months. Despite what the
graph above depicts, the effectiveness of
AA is subject to a wide variety of
interpretations and controversy.
(alcohol problems and solutions, 2019)
The graph on the left depicts how
effective AA is 1 year after joining vs
18 months after joining. It also shows
these stats for people not attending
AA at all. (alcohol problems and
solutions, 2019)
“God grant me the serenity, to
accept the things I can not
change, the courage to change
the things I can, and the
wisdom to know the
difference.” Meeting place for alcoholics anonymous
Meeting places are set up all over the
world so that men and woman can
Works cited:
meet in anonymity and find the help
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. (2001). that they need to concur the disease
Alcoholics Anonymous: the big book --4th ed.--. that has come to rule their lives.
New York City, NY.
Effectiveness of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA):
Important to Know. (2019, October 4). Retrieved
from
https://www.alcoholproblemsandsolutions.org/e
ffectiveness-of-alcoholics-anonymous/.
Kaskutas, L. A. (2009). Alcoholics anonymous
effectiveness: faith meets science. Retrieved
November 4, 2019, from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PM
C2746426/.
What Is A.A.? (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/what-is-aa.