Meetings listed as “closed” welcome those with a self-professed “desire to stop drinking,” which cannot be challenged by another member on any grounds. The Steps suggest helping other alcoholics through the Steps, which, though not explicitly prescribed, is often done by sponsoring other alcoholics. Following the will of God—”as we understood Him”— is urged by the Steps, but differing spiritual spiritual practices and persuasions, as well as non-theist members, are accepted and accommodated.

In some cases, AlcoholicsAnonymous.com could charge a small cost per call, to a licensed treatment center, a paid advertiser, this allows AlcoholicsAnonymous.com to offer free resources and information to those in need. We do not receive any commission or fee that is dependent upon which treatment provider a caller chooses. We are excited by the launch of our new Alcoholics Anonymous Resource Center website and hope that each of you will share in that excitement. The purpose of this site is to provide information and social networking to support our fellow AA members. We believe that this site will meet a need for those interested in all matters related to AA within the scope of the Traditions. In CBS’ Elementary, Jonny Lee Miller plays an adaptation of Sherlock Holmes who is a recovering drug addict. Several episodes are centered around AA meetings and the process of recovery.

Updating Meeting Listings

The study sample and citation are summarized at the bottom of each figure. Prior efforts to summarize the findings on AA effectiveness have included literature reviews and meta analyses [8–10]. The most recent meta analysis concluded that attending AA led to worse outcomes than no treatment at all.

In 1949, the Hazelden treatment center was founded and staffed by AA members, and since then many alcoholic rehabilitation clinics have incorporated AA’s precepts into their treatment programs. 32% of AA’s membership was introduced to it through a treatment facility. Carrying the message of AA into hospitals was how the co-founders of AA first remained sober. They discovered great value in working with alcoholics who are still suffering, and that even if the alcoholic they were working with did not stay sober, they did. Bill Wilson wrote, “Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics”. Bill Wilson visited Towns Hospital in New York City in an attempt to help the alcoholics who were patients there in 1934. At St. Thomas Hospital in Akron, Ohio, Smith worked with still more alcoholics.

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Your request will be received by members of this committee and answered via email as soon as possible. The OIAA Directory features a variety of online AA meetings, worldwide; featuring various formats such as video, telephone conferences, email or chat and in many languages. Browse our directory for the next available meeting or search to find a meeting that speaks to you. Service entities full control of their local meeting information while collecting it in one place, making it easy for anyone to find a meeting. Local entities provide their meeting information voluntarily. Meeting Guide users can suggest additions or corrections to meeting listings by using links provided within the app to contact the local service entity responsible for the information. Brought to you by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., Meeting Guide is a free of charge meeting finder app for iOS and Android that provides meeting information from A.A.

AA groups are self-supporting, relying on voluntary donations from members to cover expenses. The AA General Service Office limits contributions to US$3,000 a year.

Scientific Support and Success Rates

Electronic searches involved all relevant databases (e.g., Etoh, MedLine, etc.), and were augmented by the author’s paper files on AA. Based on the title and in some what is alcoholics anonymous cases the abstract, articles were considered for inclusion, then read and classified. Representative studies were selected and are presented for each criterion.

For example, the drug neurontin stops seizures because it reduces the electrical activity in the brain. Here, in studying AA effectiveness, biological plausibility is of no help.