Additional Information 7.1

Additional information 7.1

Alcoholics Anonymous

Alcoholics Anonymous was founded by Dr Bob Smith and Bill Wilson in 1935 in Akron, Ohio. They are commonly known as Bill W and Dr Bob to AA members.

Bill W (1895–1971) achieved sobriety in 1934 and maintained it to his death – although he experienced severe periods of depression even after giving up alcohol. He continued to look for cures or alleviations for alcoholics and is known to have experimented with LSD and parapsychology through the 1960s.

In 1933, Wilson was committed to hospital for his alcohol addiction and he came under the care of Dr William D Silkworth in New York. Silkworth came to have a huge influence on Bill W as he stated alcoholism was a product of both mental and physical influences: both an obsession of the mind and a craving of the physical body. This was a revolutionary new paradigm as it posited alcoholism as a medical condition and not a spiritual or moral failing as was previously held. Wilson was told he would either die or have to be committed to hospital permanently and during this period he had a spiritual experience in New York that convinced him he should stop drinking. After this, he was able to maintain sobriety for a significant period.

However, after a business trip to Akron, Ohio Bill W felt tempted to drink and decided one way he could remain sober was to help another alcoholic. During this period he met Dr Bob, who was a member of a Christian movement known as The Oxford Group. The Oxford Group preached personal, moral conversion as the way to spiritual fulfilment; it can be seen as in philosophical opposition to other Christian groups of the time that focused on wider societal causes of problems and solutions. The Oxford Group preached personal responsibility and personal discipline through spiritual awakening and these ideas fed into what was to become Alcoholics Anonymous. After helping many alcoholics, Bill W and Dr Bob published a book of which Bill W was the primary author. The book was called Alcoholics Anonymous and the title eventually became the name of the group they founded.

Despite winning his battle against alcoholism, Bill W was a heavy smoker and died of smoking-related illness in 1971. Dr Bob stayed sober from 1935 until 1950 when he died of cancer.

Alcoholics Anonymous was built around the notion of ‘the twelve traditions’.

The twelve traditions

Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon AA unity.
For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority – a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
The only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking.
Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or AA as a whole.
Each group has but one primary purpose – to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
An AA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the AA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
Every AA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
AA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.
Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.