And how does it work?
Within the field of addiction recovery, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a highly influential and well-known support network. It has provided individuals battling alcohol use disorders with a ray of hope.
Scientists were unaware of the advantages of Alcoholics Anonymous for many years. An in-depth analysis of AA research demonstrates why it works better than other popular treatments for alcohol misuse.
This blog article examines Alcoholics Anonymous’s history, tenets, and efficacy. It highlights how the organisation’s peer-support model and emphasis on anonymity offer a distinctive and effective method of overcoming alcoholism. The article also analyses AA’s success rates to see why it continues to be a pillar in many people’s recovery journeys.
AA: What Does It Mean?
People with an addiction to alcohol use disorders frequently hear that AA is the best support group. Across 180 countries and with over 123,000 groups, the AA model is free and available to everyone.
When was AA founded?
Since its founding in 1935, AA has assisted individuals in overcoming addiction. Furthermore, a growing corpus of research from the past few decades has demonstrated that it can be very successful.
Harvard Medical School psychiatrist John Kelly states, “I think it is the power of peers.” Kelly oversaw an analysis conducted in 2020 that examined 35 studies’ worth of data on the efficacy of AA, encompassing the work of 145 scientists and 10,080 participants’ outcomes.
How does AA work?
Alcoholics Anonymous uses a peer-support approach to assist people in fighting their alcohol abuse. An essential tenet of AA is anonymity, which guarantees a private, secure setting where participants can freely share their challenges without worrying about criticism from others. Here’s a quick rundown of how it functions:
What are AA meetings?
AA meetings are get-togethers where people talk about their experiences and encourage one another to recover. These gatherings frequently feature the sharing of personal experiences, talking about difficulties, and providing support to one another.
What Is an AA Sponsor?
In AA, a sponsor is a member who has advanced significantly in their recovery and provides newer members, also known as sponsees, with one-on-one counselling and support. A sponsor plays a critical role in the AA framework by mentoring and helping sponsees comprehend and apply the program’s 12 Steps.
What are AA’s Twelve Steps?
A 12-step program is a collection of tenets that describe a process for overcoming addiction, compulsive behaviours, or other behavioural issues. Many self-help groups have since modified the 12-step program to address various dependencies and compulsions. The main elements of the program are:
1. Admitting powerlessness
2. Belief in a higher power
3. Decision to turn over will
4. Moral inventory
5. Admitting wrongs
6. Readiness for God to remove flaws
7. Humbly asking God to remove shortcomings
8. List of persons harmed
9. Making amends
10. Continued personal inventory
11. Seeking through prayer and meditation
12. Spiritual awakening and message-carrying
What Is the AA success rate?
Alcoholics Anonymous studied its success rate, with more than 6,000 members in 2014. Twenty-two per cent of the members polled said they had been clean for at least 20 years. Additionally, according to the results, 27% of the participants had maintained sobriety for less than a year.
Moreover, roughly 24% of them had stayed sober for one to five years. Thirteen per cent of the participants reported being sober for five to ten years. A slightly higher percentage, 14 percent, had been sober for 10 to 20 years.
The science behind Alcoholics Anonymous
Although AA has been around for more than 85 years, Kelly claims that scientific evidence regarding its efficacy accumulated in the 1990s.
He continues, “We knew anecdotally that AA was huge, powerful, and attended by millions.” However, from the perspective of science and public health, we were unaware of its actual clinical utility.
Kelly and his colleagues reviewed studies from the last few decades in which medical professionals randomly assigned participants to 12-step programs such as AA or others.
The results of these programs were comparable to those of other treatments. Still, Kelly notes that they performed “dramatically better when you’re talking about remission, sustained remission, and complete abstinence over many years.”
Long-term effects of alcohol
AA frequently works better than alternative therapies or interventions. Kelly continues, “The long-term undulating course of addiction recovery is a good fit for organisations like AA.” “What stood out was AA’s ability to sustain remission over time: 20 to 60% higher remission rates.”
What Is the death toll from alcohol?
One of the leading causes of death worldwide is alcohol use disorder. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that “harmful use of alcohol” causes about 3 million deaths annually, or 5.3% of all fatalities.
Those who are in their 20s and 30s are significantly affected by this. In 2022, there were 10,048 alcohol-related deaths. The alcohol-specific death rate was 16.6 per 100,000 people, up from 11.1 in 2012. Men had a higher rate of alcohol-related deaths (22.3 per 100,000 population) than women (11.1)
Kelly notes that “in AA, we have a free resource in the community that can save lives, sustain remission, and reduce healthcare costs for individuals and the healthcare system” in the face of such a pervasive public health issue. That’s good news from a public health perspective, as it can help people achieve long-term remission and reduce the burden on the healthcare system.
Expanding studies on alcohol consumption
Researchers are still figuring out how the AA method helps people with alcohol addiction. According to Kelly, it can strengthen coping mechanisms that are behavioural and cognitive, both of which are essential for abstinence.
Additionally, he claims that it “massively changes social networks and reduces craving and impulsivity.” “It can also boost spirituality, which aids in stress management and the search for meaning and purpose in life.”
Although the data indicates that AA is generally helpful, it is only appropriate for some. Referred individuals may never attend, while others may only continue after trying it.
If you or your loved one is struggling with alcohol-related issues, call Freephone at 0800 140 4044
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