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submitted: Aug 25th 2008 | by: Hispanic | Total views: 1 | Word Count: 489 | |

Alcoholics Anonymous is an organization that supports recovering alcoholics. Although Alcoholics Anonymous is a centralized organization with a main office and official website, there are over one hundred thousand sub-groups worldwide in over 150 countries, and each one is fundamentally autonomous. Groups meet in various venues and get together in a wide variety of numbers, from only a few to several hundred individuals. Alcoholics Anonymous started organizing meetings in 1934, when it was founded by Dr Bob Smith and Bill Wilson. Until that point, alcoholics either had to hire an expensive psychiatrist or be admitted into a private mental hospital. Those without much money sought help in rescue missions, churches, public hospitals, or even in prisons. Alcoholics Anonymous was the first North American approach to strictly helping alcoholics. It was also one of the first American organizations to integrate religious principles with medical knowledge into public forums where people discussed their everyday experiences and supported each other mutually. The founders of Alcoholics Anonymous credited their ideas as coming from the Oxford Group (a Christian group promoting a belief in divine guidance), which worked to create a conversion experience that could be used to convert alcoholics from alcohol to sobriety.

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.

Today Alcoholics Anonymous groups typically have no affiliation with religions sects or political organizations. However, most Alcoholics Anonymous groups will have a firm spiritual foundation in how they attempt to convert addicts to sobriety. Alcoholics Anonymous has the central goal of helping people stay sober and learning to help others achieve the same goal. The only requirement for membership to Alcoholics Anonymous is a desire to quit drinking. There are no dues or fees to pay. The goal of abstinence from alcohol is sought after by avoiding one drink at a time, while sharing experiences and support, as it is needed.

Being anonymous is important in the organization because a lot of people are not ready to expose their real identities to other people. After all, individual personalities do not govern the patients while they are staying with the organization. What they need to focus on are principles like honesty, detemination, willingness to move on and truthfulness. Because of anonymity, Alcoholics Anonymous does not keep case files or records because the people here are brought together and are treated as a group, not as individuals.You may not be an alcoholic, but your brother or your father can be. Now that you know where to ask help from, the organization is just a phone call away.

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Alcoholics Anonymous is an organization that supports recovering alcoholics. Find out more about the program of Alcoholics Anonymous

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