Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism.
- The only requirement for membership is the desire to stop drinking.
- There are no dues or fees for AA membership; we are self supporting through our own contributions.
- Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.
- AA is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy, neither endorses nor opposes any causes.
Am I An Alcoholic?
Nobody in A.A. is able to answer this question definitively.
The only person who is truly able to determine this is you.
What we can say, concerning this very personal decision, is that we were all faced with one, if not both, of the following two conditions:
If, when you honestly want to, you find you cannot quit entirely, or
Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 4, Page 44
if when drinking, you have little control over the amount you take, you are probably alcoholic.
Most of us have been unwilling to admit we were real alcoholics. No person likes to think he is bodily and mentally different from his fellows. Therefore, it is not surprising that our drinking careers have been characterized by countless vain attempts to prove we could drink like other people. The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death.
We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. The delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed.
Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 3, Page 30
If you have said to yourself: “Yes, I’m one of those people who are powerless over alcohol. My life has become unmanageable. I can’t stop drinking and I want help”, you have made a good start on Step One and discovered, as it says in the Big Book, “We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without defense against the first drink.”
Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 2, Page 24
Adapted from https://akronaa.org/aa-information/what-is-aa/
