Happy 87 Years to AA
Tomorrow, Friday, June 10, marks the 87th anniversary of the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous, a global group that was born by the grace of a Higher Power, as its members themselves define it, when they fortuitously met to talk about their problems with alcohol. in 1935, co-founders Bill W. (William Grifith Wilson) and Dr. Bob (Robert Smith), who years later wrote the organization’s title book containing the highly successful 12-step program, adopted currently in more than 180 countries around the world and applied to all types of addictions.
The so-called International Day of Alcoholics Anonymous serves the whole world, not only to commemorate the lives of its founders, the old veterans, but it is an occasion to multiply the message of hope and recovery to all who need it, with the testimony of millions of patients and their families to whom this group and its program changed their lives.
AA veterans decided that this date would be taken as the founding of the group, leaving in the history of their organization that famous meeting in which Bill W., who enjoyed a few weeks of abstinence, on a business trip, had the compelling desire to drink again and, to prevent his own relapse, he searched Akron Ohio where he was passing through, for a person who also had a drinking problem, finding Dr. Bob, who initially would only give him 15 minutes of his agenda, in an appointment that lasted for hours and is considered the first mutual aid meeting.
Both characters talked for hours about their problems with alcohol and realized that, while they did so, the desire to drink disappeared in an almost magical way, with which they would be finding one of the therapeutic principles of the meetings.
There were many years of working together from that first meeting to which, over time, new ex-drinkers were added and what is now known throughout the planet took shape and was cataloged by Pope John XXIII as the miracle of the 20th century, while pioneering psychiatrist Carl Jung considered it a great program based on spirituality.
The story of the birth and development of this wonderful effort to help solve the serious problem of alcoholism can be consulted in the official literature of Alcoholics Anonymous in its central offices in Mexico and New York, which are truly inspiring books for those who suffer from the disease. or are interested in it.
The 12-step program has been so powerful that, after alcoholics, it was adopted by almost all addictions and some obsessive-compulsive behaviors, as well as many rehabilitation clinics around the world, particularly those that use the method. Minnesota, have adopted it as one of the pillars of treatment for this mental illness.
Therefore, in addition to congratulating AAs around the world, as an addiction specialist and communicator, I will always continue to recommend to my patients and my audience that, in addition to other tools in their therapeutic processes, they go to a mutual help group and practice the 12 step program.
Many just for today for all AAs in every corner of the planet.