FAQs About Alcohics Anonymous V
Mailing Address: District 43 P.O. Box 912 Lemont, PA 16851-0912
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AA Frequently Asked Questions

This page attempts to answer the
Frequently Asked Questions about AA.
Adapted from the Alcoholics Anonymous Website


44 Questions
This is A.A. General Service Conference-approved literature
Copyright © 1952 by Works Publishing, Inc.
(Now known as A.A. World Services, Inc.)
All Right Reserved



Newcomers' Questions

A.A. has but one primary purpose, although it may indirectly be responsible for other benefits.
The following are questions that are occasionally asked by newcomers to the Fellowship.


Will A.A. help me financially?

Many alcoholics, by the time they turn to A.A. for help with their drinking problems, have also
accumulated substantial financial problems. Not unnaturally, some may cherish the hope that A.
A. may in some way be able to help them with more pressing financial obligations.

Very early in A.A. experience as a society, it was discovered that money or the lack of it had
nothing to do with the newcomer's ability to achieve sobriety and work his or her way out of the
many problems that had been complicated by excessive use of alcohol.

The absence of money — even with a heavy burden of debts — seemed to prove no hindrance
to the alcoholic who honestly and sincerely wanted to face up to the realities of a life without
alcohol. Once the big problem of alcohol had been cleared away, the other problems, including
those related to finances, seemed to work out, too. Some A.A.s have made sensational financial
comebacks in relatively brief periods. For others, the road has been hard and long. The basic
answer to this question is that A.A. exists for just one purpose, and that purpose is in no way
related to material prosperity or the lack thereof.

There is nothing to prevent any member of a group from staking a newcomer to a meal, a suit of
clothes, or even a cash loan. That is a matter for individual decision and discretion. It would,
however, be misleading if an alcoholic gets the impression that A.A. is any sort of moneyed
charity organization.


Will A.A. help me straighten out
my family troubles?

Alcohol is frequently a complicating factor in family life, magnifying petty irritations, exposing
character defects, and contributing to financial problems. Many men and women, by the time
they turn to A.A., have managed to make a complete mess of their family lives.

Some newcomers to A.A., suddenly aware of their own contributions to chaos, are eager and
enthusiastic about making amends and resuming normal patterns of living with those closest to
them. Others, with or without cause, continue to feel bitter resentments toward their families.

Almost without exception, newcomers who are sincere in their approach to the A.A. recovery
program are successful in mending broken family lives. The bonds that reunite the honest
alcoholic with family members are often stronger than ever before. Sometimes, of course,
irreparable damage has been done, and a totally new approach to family life has to be
developed. But generally, the story is one with a happy ending.

Experience suggests that the alcoholic who comes to A.A. solely to keep peace in the family,
and not because of an honest desire to stop drinking, may have difficulty achieving sobriety.
The sincere desire for sobriety should come first. Once sober, the alcoholic will find that many
of the other problems of daily living can be approached realistically and with very good chance
of success.


Does A.A. operate hospitals
or rest homes for alcoholics?

There are no "A.A. rest homes or hospitals." Traditionally, no professional services or facilities
are ever offered or performed under A.A. sponsorship. By adhering to the tradition of avoiding
services that others are prepared to render, A.A. thus avoids any possible misunderstanding of
its primary purpose, which is to help alcoholics searching for a way of life without alcohol.

In some areas, service committees made up of individual A.A. members have made
arrangements with local hospitals for the admission of alcoholics who are sponsored by A.A.s as
individuals, not as representatives of the Fellowship as a whole.

In other areas, individual A.A.s or groups of A.A.s have established rest homes that cater
primarily to newcomers to the recovery program. Because of their special understanding of
problems confronting the alcoholic, the owners or managers of these homes are often able to
help the newcomer during the first crucial period of sobriety. But these homes have no
connection with A.A. beyond the fact that they may be operated by persons who achieved their
own sobriety through A.A. As a movement, A.A. is never affiliated with business enterprises of
any description.


Does A.A. sponsor any social activity
for members?

Most A.A.s are sociable people, a factor that may have been partially responsible for their
becoming alcoholics in the first place. As a consequence, meetings of local A.A. groups tend to
be lively affairs.

A.A. as a fellowship has never developed any formal program of social activities for members,
since the sole purpose of the movement is to help alcoholics get sober. In some areas,
members, entirely on their own individual responsibility, have opened clubrooms or other
facilities for members of the local group. These clubs are traditionally independent of A.A., and
great care is usually taken to avoid direct identification with the movement.

Even where no club exists, it is not uncommon for local groups to arrange anniversary dinners,
picnics, parties on New Year's Eve and other special occasions, and similar affairs. In some
large cities, A.A.s meet regularly for lunch and sponsor informal get-togethers over weekends.


What do medical authorities think of A.A.?
Also see pamphlet: "A.A. as a Resource
for the Health Care Professional"

From its earliest days, A.A. has enjoyed the friendship and support of doctors who were familiar
with its program of recovery from alcoholism. Doctors, perhaps better than any other group, are
in a position to appreciate how unreliable other approaches to the problem of alcoholism have
been in the past. A.A. has never been advanced as the only answer to the problem, but the A.
A. recovery program has worked so often, after other methods have failed, that doctors today
are frequently the most outspoken boosters for the program in their communities.

Some measure of the medical profession's attitude toward A.A. was suggested in 1951 when
the American Public Health Association named Alcoholics Anonymous as one of the recipients
of the famed Lasker Awards in "formal recognition of A.A.'s success in treating alcoholism as an
illness and in blotting out its social stigma."

A.A. is still new (or unknown) in some communities, and not all doctors are familiar with the
recovery program. But here are excerpts from comments on A.A. by leading medical authorities:

In 1967, the American Medical Association stated that membership in A.A. was still the most
effective means of treating alcoholism and quoted Dr. Ruth Fox, an eminent authority on
alcoholism and then medical director of the National Council on Alcoholism: "With its thousands
of groups and its 300,000 recovered alcoholics [now upwards of 2,000,000], A.A. has
undoubtedly reached more cases than all the rest of us together. For patients who can and will
accept it, A.A. may be the only form of therapy needed."

    "I have the utmost respect for the work A.A. is doing, for its spirit, for its essential
    philosophy of mutual helpfulness. I lose no opportunity to express my endorsement
    publicly and privately where it is of any concern."

    Karl Menninger, M.D.
    Menninger Foundation


    "Perhaps the most effective treatment in the rehabilitation of the alcoholic is a philosophy
    of living which is compatible with the individual and his family, an absorbing faith in himself
    which comes only after he has learned to understand himself, and a close association
    with others whose experiences parallel his own. The physician's cooperation with
    Alcoholics Anonymous is one way of obtaining these things for his patient."

    Marvin A. Block, M.D., member of the
    American Medical Association's Committee
    on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence

What do religious leaders think of A.A.?
Also see pamphlet:
"Members of the Clergy Ask About A.A."

Probably no lay movement of modem times has been more richly endowed than A.A. with the
support of the clergy of all the great faiths. Like the doctors, mankind's spiritual advisers have
long been troubled by the problem of alcoholism. Many of these advisers have heard honest
people make sincere pledges to abstain from alcohol they could not control - only to see them
break those pledges within hours, days, or weeks. Sympathy, understanding, and appeals to
conscience have been of little avail to the clergy in their attempts to help the alcoholic.

Thus it is perhaps not surprising that A.A. - although it offers a way of fife rather than a way of
formal religion - should be embraced so warmly by representatives of many different
denominations. Here is how some of them have referred to A.A. in the past:

    "Father Dowling of The Queen's Work staff had exceptional opportunity to observe the
    Alcoholics Anonymous movement.

    "He found that the keystone of the A.A. therapy includes self-denial, humility, charity,
    good example, and opportunities for a new pattern of social recreation. All denominations
    are represented in the movement. Readers can be assured that no article or book on the
    movement is one-tenth as convincing as is personal contact with an individual or group of
    A.A.s whose personalities and homes and businesses have been transformed from chaos
    into sound achievement."
    The Directors Bulletin,
    A Jesuit periodical published at St. Louis, Mo.


    "Basis of the technique of Alcoholics Anonymous is the truly Christian principle that a man
    cannot help himself except by helping others. The A.A. plan is described by the members
    themselves as 'self-insurance.' This self-insurance has resulted in the restoration of
    physical, mental, and spiritual health and self-respect to hundreds of men and women
    who would be hopelessly down-and-out without its unique but effective therapy. "

    The Living Church (Episcopal)

Who is responsible for the
publicity about A.A.?

The A.A. tradition of public relations has always been keyed to attraction rather than promotion.
A.A. never seeks publicity but always cooperates fully with responsible representatives of press,
radio, television, motion pictures, and other media that seek information about the recovery
program.

At national and international levels, news of A.A. is made available by the Public Information
Committee of the General Service Board. Local committees have also been organized, to
provide the media with facts about A.A. as a resource for alcoholics in their communities.

A.A. is deeply grateful to all its friends who have been responsible for the recognition accorded
the movement. It is also deeply aware of the fact that the anonymity of members, upon which
the program is so dependent, has been respected so faithfully by all media.

It should also be noted that within A.A., at A.A. meetings and among themselves, A.A. members
are not anonymous.


A New Way of Life

A way of life cannot truly be described; it must be lived. Descriptive literature that relies upon
broad, inspirational generalities is bound to leave many questions unanswered and many
readers not fully satisfied that they have come upon the thing they need and seek. At the other
extreme, a catalog of the mechanics and details of a program for living can portray only part of
the value of such a program.

A.A. is a program for a new way of life without alcohol, a program that is working successfully for
hundreds of thousands of men and women who approach it and apply it with honesty and
sincerity. It is working throughout the world and for men and women in all stations and walks of
life.

Perhaps this pamphlet has answered the main questions, spoken and unspoken, that you may
have concerning A.A. Perhaps there are other questions that can be answered, as those in this
pamphlet have been, solely on the basis of A.A. experience with the problem of alcoholism. If
you have such questions, feel free to get in touch with an A.A. group in or near your community.
Or write to General Service Office, Box 459, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163.

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 a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or
    fees for A.A. membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions.
  • A.A. 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.
  • Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.
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