Alcoholics Anonymous, the Original Twelve-Step Program

Alcoholics Anonymous was started in June of 1935 when stockbroker Bill Wilson met Dr. Bob Smith while on a business trip to Akron, Ohio. Bill had gone into a hotel lobby at six months sober, and chose to call a local hospital to ask to work with another alcoholic instead of wandering into the hotel's bar.

The book entitled "Alcoholics Anonymous" was published in 1939. The Alcoholics Anonymous book outlines each of the twelve steps to recovery and is the foundation on which the organization was built. The Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) program has helped millions of people get and stay sober. Alcoholics Anonymous has worked where countless treatment programs for alcoholics has failed because of the fellowship of alcoholics reaching out to each other to provide a supportive environment in which the recovering alcoholic knows that they are not alone.

During Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and with the help of a sponsor, recovering alcoholics are convinced that the need for a moral inventory, confession of personality defects, restitution for harm done to others, helping other alcoholics, and the necessity of a belief in a power greater then themselves are the keys to long term sobriety.