What about AA?

Any examination of the ways to quit drinking alcohol must make mention of the 12 steps, the method used by millions of people who join Alcoholics Anonymous. It’s an international movement with a proven success rate. It doesn’t claim to work with every problem drinker but the world is full of success stories having used this program.

The 12 steps could not be simpler.

• Honesty
• Faith
• Surrender
• Soul-searching
• Integrity
• Acceptance
• Humility
• Willingness
• Forgiveness
• Maintenance
• Making contact
• Service

There are some who look at the number of steps and choose something less complicated such as the program called CORE. But one of the beauties of the 12 steps is that you are able to share your progress at any step with anyone in the group. That’s the basis of the AA program. You don’t seek to quit drinking alcohol alone. Your AA meeting may have only a handful or be packed. But you are on your journey with someone else.

Some of the 12 steps are described as tough. For instance Integrity requires the drinker wanting to quit to admit to their drinking and to do so in public at the meeting. Some people find this a step too far. To describe their secrets, some they might have had ‘secret’ for years, seems too much.

Step 9 is called Forgiveness and can also be a challenge. In step 8 you state the names of those you have hurt by your drinking and now you are to seek forgiveness wherever it is sensible to do so. This means to the person you know you have offended. A tough ask again.

But all of these steps have been tried and tested over the years. They are available for people who have the disease of alcoholism. You may feel that you are not an alcoholic and that could be true. You may simply be a social drinker or a light drinker and the spectre of AA is simply not appropriate for your condition.

Again that could well be true but the principles of quitting are the same. Understanding how your brain works in encouraging you to drink applies to someone who has the occasional wine with their meals as it does to someone who is a seriously heavy drinker.



For more information on how to stop drinking alcohol please go to the next article.