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If someone you care about has a drinking problem, AA may be the solution for them.
For 80-plus years, AA has helped millions of alcoholics stop drinking. The AA Recovery Program works best when one alcoholic shares their recovery experience with another.
Alcoholics Anonymous is a recovery program for alcoholism. By helping the public better understand alcoholism, we can better help the still-suffering alcoholic. When the public better understands the problem we can help remove some of the stigmas around the disease of alcoholism and better help those afflicted.
Alcoholism is an illness that affects people of all ages, socioeconomic backgrounds, genders, abilities, orientations, nationalities, cultures, ethnicities, and beliefs. Loss of control for the alcoholic is not measured by how long one drinks or how much one drinks. It is up to the individual to determine if they have a drinking problem or if they want help as well as recovery.
AA members share their experience, strength, and hope with anyone seeking help with a drinking problem; they give person-to-person assistance and/or sponsorship to the alcoholic regardless of how they get to AA.
Members sharing the AA recovery program with other alcoholics is vital to recovery. Many newcomers best relate to those who have found recovery regardless of how hopeless they may feel as times.
Alcoholism frequently affects the loved ones of alcoholics. Al-Anon uses the shared experience of its members to help newcomers better understand alcoholism, and find support from others who have faced similar experiences.
Al-Anon Family Groups is a Twelve Step Program of recovery. Members are made up of people concerned with someone’s drinking problem.
Starting with the first gatherings of alcoholics in 1935, before the group or organization had a name, the families of alcoholics were meeting and sharing their experiences with their loved ones. Loved ones joined their alcoholic family members in their gatherings and together, they sought out ways to support sobriety for the entire family.