Self Help Organizations

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an international community of alcoholics bent on sobriety. The dynamics of the community is to help other alcoholics practice the same. A.A. initiated the earliest prototype of the faith-based Twelve Step program. Across time, other recovery groups patterned after the community proliferated, such as Gamblers Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Sexaholics Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, and Al-Anon/Alateen.

Before it was copied and modified by a variety of recovery programs, The Twelve Step Program had been rehabilitating individuals in AA. It is a specific set of recovery principles founded on bowing to a “Higher Power” and regularly bonding with the fellowship.

Alcoholics Anonymous revolutionized the definition of alcoholism. The bond’s pioneers defined it as a progressive disease. However, they subscribe to the notion that alcoholism, as a disease, cannot be cured. The recovering alcoholic could only completely abstain from alcohol.

Until AA commenced in the mid-1930s, alcoholics were not financially capable of supporting a sustained recovery. It was then that Bill Wilson and Bob Smith, two alcoholics, founded this community.

Narcotics Anonymous (NA), modeled after Alcoholics Anonymous Program, is a twelve-step program designed to rehabilitate members suffering from substance abuse. Membership in the fellowship is free. No dues or fees are expected.

Here addiction is described as a progressive disease with no known cure. NA suggests that the disease of addiction can be stunted. Members are spurred to recuperate through the NA twelve-step program. Their version of the Twelve Steps refers only to addiction, to indicate that addicts have a disease of which drug use is one symptom. Other symptoms are allegedly obsession, compulsion and self-centered fear. It is often a "bottom" in life that prods addicts to bond with like-minded companions in NA. This is used to describe that point at which life appears to have degenerated to utter despondence. 

Meanwhile, Al-Anon Family Groups is a recovery group program designed for relatives and friends of alcoholics. Members convene in order to solve their common issue. They believe that alcoholism is a family illness, which can be changed through the aid of the Twelve Step program.

Al-Anon is a support group for family members and friends of alcoholics, be they recuperating or not. By now, The Al-Anon Family Groups has branched out into the Al-Anon and Alateen fellowships, serving adults and teens, respectively.

Lois Wilson founded Al-Anon in the early 1950’s. She is the wife of Bill Wilson, a founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. The group was begun when the need for the alcoholics’ friends and family members to meet separately became apparent.