by Joe Kelly

Created on: July 05, 2009   Last Updated: July 06, 2009

Is Alcoholics Anonymous effective in helping millions of men and women all over the world to stay sober? The answer must obviously be yes. And it has been for more than 60 years. Does it work for everyone with an alcohol problem? No, it doesn't, but then no alcohol recovery programme is 100% effective. AA is the original self-help group, with the first members coming together in the 1930s to help each other stay sober. Its programme works on the belief that the alcoholic cannot recover solely by his or her own efforts - that the support of other alcoholics, and crucially a 'higher power', is required.

The programme of AA takes the alcoholic from the first step of admitting that they are powerless over alcohol, and that their lives have become unmanageable, through self-examination to atoning for past wrongs, to the understanding that with the support of their 'higher power', they can continue to live sober one day at a time.

Much is made of this 'higher power' and it is possibly the hardest part of the AA programme to explain to the sufferer, and to those outside the fellowship. Many who come to AA have lost all belief in any form of spiritual life. Those outside the fellowship mistake the concept for a belief in a religious God of one particular faith or another. But the advice given to new members of AA who struggle with the concept of a higher power is usually to the effect that the higher power can be simply the other members of your group or an individual who inspires you. The AA programme simply demands that the alcoholic 'comes to believe that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity'. For those who have a particular religious affiliation, the answer may be clearer, but when you have initially admitted your powerlessness, anything (or anyone) outside of you that helps you in your struggle is essentially 'power greater than yourself'.

Recovery from any addiction is a purely personal thing. It cannot be prescribed by a doctor. For the millions of individuals all around the world who have used the AA programme to recover from their addiction, the question of whether it works or not, is anwered in their daily lives. Would it work for everyone? No, it won't. But it worked for many long before the 'science' of addiction was remotely understood.

One of the 12 Traditions of AA states that the fellowship does not engage in outside controversy. AA members, collectively, will never seek to defend the fellowship - it works on an individual level, for millions of people, in many countries. AA, in my mind, doesn't need a great deal of defending.

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