Getting support via fellowship or your peers is different than getting support from a licensed addiction treatment professional. Each approach has its advantages and they aren’t mutually exclusive. Many people struggling with alcoholism – now known as Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) – participate in inpatient and/or outpatient treatment and also get support from 12-step groups and other fellowships.
One of the most popular fellowships is Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), an 80+ year old 12-step program. AA has more than 2 million members worldwide who share their experience, strength and hope with others in over 100,000 local community groups.
AA emphasizes spirituality, which may not interest everyone, but the program urges members to turn their lives over to a higher power as they define it. AA also expects its members to remain abstinent from alcohol and drugs completely; not everyone is ready to commit to that. The 12 Steps of AA are as follows:
- We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.
- Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
- Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
- Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
- 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.
- 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.
The 12 Traditions of AA detail how the program operates, including the notion that the only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking, that every A.A. group should be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions and that anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding participants to place principles before personalities.
AA Meetings are typically listed as “open” or “closed” meetings.
- Open meetings are available to anyone interested in Alcoholics Anonymous’s program of recovery from alcoholism. Nonalcoholics may attend open meetings as observers
- Closed meetings are for A.A. members only or for those who have a drinking problem and “have a desire to stop drinking.”
At both types of meetings, participants generally confine their discussion to matters pertaining to recovery from alcoholism.
Whether open or closed, A.A. group meetings are conducted by A.A. members who determine the format of their meetings. Meetings vary from place to place, and you may have to try a few meetings before finding one that feels right.
Online meetings – which were exceptionally popular during COVID – operate around the clock and you can find an online AA meeting here.
Use this AA meeting finder to locate an AA meeting near your home at a time and place that works for you.
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference”
Reinhold Niebuhr
SMART Recovery is a popular alternative to 12-step groups like Alcoholics Anonymous, especially for those who are turned off by AA’s emphasis on god and spirituality. The program uses