Attending a 12 Step Meeting: Breaking Myths

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Attending a 12 Step MeetingBreaking Myths

• Dr. Michael OMalley
• MB BCh BAO CCFP FCFP
• ASAM member since 1995

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Alcoholics Anonymous

• Open and Closed meetings
• Brief History
• Preamble
• Present Worldwide Status

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Tale in Photographs
1935 Akron Ohio

• Ann Smith

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Tale in Photographs
Ann Smith
Dr. Bob Smith
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Tale in Photographs

• Henrietta Sieberling

The Oxford Group
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Tale in Photographs

• Bill Wilson

Im a rum hound from New York and Im looking
to talk to an alcoholic
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Tale in Photographs
Big Book 1939
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Tale in Photographs
Big Book 1939
Big Book 2008
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Tale in Photographs
1950 The 12 Traditions
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Preamble

• Fellowship of men and women
• Common problem of alcoholism
• Only requirement for membership is a desire to
  stop drinking
• Self supporting
• Not allied with anything else
• Neither endorses or opposes and causes

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AAs Primary Purpose

• To stay sober
• To help other alcoholics achieve sobriety

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AAs views on Alcoholism

• Sees alcoholism as a disease
• American Medical Association and British Medical
  Association also believe this
• Abstinence is all importantwithout abstinence
  the disease progresses
• The disease involves the body and the mind
  manifesting as loss of control of drinking
• The solution is a Spiritual Awakening

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How AA helps an Alcoholic

• Fellowship
• One Day at a Time rather than swearing Never
  to drink again
• 12 Steps 12 Traditions that suggest ideas and
  actions that can guide an alcoholic toward a
  happy and useful life

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AA Fact File

• 4,874 AA groups in Canada
• 95,000 members in Canada
• 2,000,000 members world wide
• 180 countries worldwide

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AA Fact File
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Importance of Anonymity

• Members maintain their anonymity at the level of
  press, radio and television
• Early days the stigma of being alcoholic was
  especially difficult for newcomers
• No spokesman for AAeach individual is free to
  his or her own interpretation
• Who you see here and what is said here, let it
  stay here