Alcoholics Anonymous
West Sussex

A Message for Professionals

(This document is also available as a colour booklet in Adobe Reader format by clicking A Message for Professionals.pdf.)

Our founder members were influenced and helped by people who were not alcoholics: most famous of these were Carl Jung and William James, but there were and are many others, not least the family members, friends and professionals who often rescue and befriend alcoholics.

Obviously it is not true that only an alcoholic can help an alcoholic. Our individual histories clearly show us that non-alcoholics do many things for alcoholics that AA does not do.

Our aim

AA as a service

Who runs Alcoholics Anonymous?

The principal operating unit of AA is the local group. Each group is autonomous, and instead of a promotion ladder of authority, groups rotate leadership and jobs that need to be done to make the meetings friendly and run as smoothly as possible.

Interesting statistics

• 60% of employers say they experience problems due to employees drinking.
  
  
• 45% of remand prisoners have significant problems with alcohol.
  
  
• Between 60-70% of men who assault their partners do so under the influence of alcohol.
  
  
• Some 920,000 children in the UK are living in a home where one or both parents misuse alcohol.
  
  
• Child Care and Social Work teams estimate that at least 50% ( and some teams up to 90% ) of parents on their caseload have either alcohol or drug and mental health problems.
  
  
• There is double the risk of divorce in marriages where one or both of the partners drink heavily.

Many of you will regularly see the consequences of alcoholism and alcohol abuse in your work. If you work in the Health Service or Criminal Justice system you will probably see familiar faces returning time after time - seemingly hopeless cases. Many current sober members of AA were thought to be just as hopeless at one time. Today, however, many are sober, responsible members of society through attending AA meetings and practising our 12-Step programme of recovery and, helping others to recover from alcoholism.

How can we help the professionals?

Health - AA works with GPs, hospitals, and treatment centre staff. We offer a variety of services from talks with medical staff to individual contact for patients with a drinking problem.

Prison - arranges for AA members to visit prisons and hold AA meetings for inmates.

Probation / Social Services has a team of AA members who are willing to meet with people on probation and introduce them to AA meetings.

Employers - AA offers a variety of services from talks with employers to individual contact. This could be to a group of managers, human resource teams, or any other group that may benefit from a better understanding of alcoholism.

Public Information co-operates with national and local media and meets with a wide range of organisations to explain how AA works.

Telephone Helplines - This service is available to anyone requiring help or information, and provides initial contact between the problem drinker and Alcoholics Anonymous.

What does AA cost?

AA does not accept contributions from any outside sources.

After the cost of running meetings and AA's three service offices, surplus money is used to inform the general public about AA and to carry our message to the active alcoholic directly and indirectly through people and organisations such as yourselves.

What is a typical alcoholic?

Patterns of drinking differ from person to person. Alcoholism can include all types of problem drinking and affects people from all sorts of backgrounds. Alcoholics are adept at denying they have a problem. In the beginning almost all think they do not belong and are unsuitable for membership of AA. It is not until they find themselves attending meetings and hearing other people sharing their experience that they realise how similar they are to their own.

Recovering alcoholics regularly share that their drinking was, to some extent, abnormal and alcohol was used to boost confidence, change feelings and expel fears. Some people drank for years before the problem became obvious and others for a much shorter time while putting considerable effort into disguising their drink problem.

AA availability

Professionals who regularly make use of AA often first do so by getting to know local AA members personally and then possibly by attending open meetings, where visitors are welcome.

Is AA 100% successful?

40% of the members who responded had not had a drink for between two and ten years and

73% had not had a drink for at least a year.

In AA the belief, based on experience, is that it is never safe for an alcoholic to drink again. However, rather than make a life pledge, it is suggested that a newcomer stops drinking "one day at a time". This makes the prospect of stopping, and staying stopped, easier.

Many recovering alcoholics who tried all sorts of ways to stop drinking eventually found a contented solution in AA.

What happens at an AA meeting?

A chairperson or secretary who asks for a moment's silence usually opens the meeting. Then the AA preamble is read out. A reading often follows from the book "Alcoholics Anonymous".

The chairperson will then introduce a speaker for the evening, someone who is a member of the group or a visitor from another group. The speaker will share his or her own experiences, as both an active and a recovering alcoholic, or talk about a specific topic related to recovery, or maybe one of AA's 12 Steps.

After the speaker has finished sharing, which might last for anything between 15 and 30 minutes, the chairperson responds, picking out similarities in his or her own story and then opens the meeting for anybody to share. People may relate to the speaker or share a specific problem they need to get off their chest. No one diagnoses anyone else as an alcoholic in AA. Self-diagnosis is left to the individual after he or she has heard others sharing their experiences. Before the meeting closes the collection pot is passed - contributions are optional, and are limited to AA members only.

Meetings take place in church halls, schools, hospitals, village halls, prisons, treatment centres and any other place where rooms are available for rent on a regular basis. At the present time there are more than 3,500 AA meetings taking place each week in the UK.

Is AA a religious organisation?

The 12 Steps of recovery suggest belief in a "Higher Power", something more than the individual. The form that this Higher Power takes is entirely up to the individual concerned.

"God as we understand Him" replaces the power alcohol had on their lives. Some members have religious beliefs and many never had any form of religious belief. Members find the AA programme works whether they are agnostic or atheist.

AA began in the USA and the founding members recognised that not every alcoholic would necessarily identify with, or even wish to associate with, a Christian belief system. Hence the phrase "Higher Power". Today AA's membership includes people of all religious beliefs, atheists and agnostics.

The 12 Steps are a spiritual programme and spirituality in AA is not necessarily religious, more a process of awakening to an inner source of guidance, strength and wisdom which, when drawn upon, can help recovering alcoholics' lives take on new meaning.

Is AA a professional organisation?

Some people come to AA with more problems than alcoholism. AA does not claim to have the skills or knowledge to deal with these problems but would always advise the individual concerned to seek professional help from an appropriate source, and to continue going to AA for his or her alcoholism.

How to find out more about AA

Nationally, the General Service Office in York, the Northern Service Office in Glasgow or the Southern Service Office in London will be able to provide details of open meetings or put you in touch with the relevant local Liaison Officer who can give you more details on other facilities available in the area, e.g. visiting speakers or availability of AA literature.

Our web site, www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk, is another way of establishing answers to any questions you may have.