Self-help groups Alcoholics Anonymous

Motivation to Change Change without Formal Treatment Self-Help Groups Alcoholics Anonymous Other Self-Help Groups Models of Substance-Use Disorders Five Model Categories Biopsychosocial Model Professional Treatment Assessment and Goals... 

The self-help groups Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are major resources in helping people who have alcohol and drug use disorders, respectively. 

Self-help Groups Alcoholics Anonymous and Those that Followed 155... 

Little has been written in the CAT literature about either the development of service infrastructure or the establishment of mutual self-help groups, although there is a wealth of literature which considers the role of Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon which is of relevance here.38 As with service co-ordination, however, service development is not a task which the community team can undertake in isolation. The support received from service managers and planners is crucial in determining the extent to which such a role can be operationalised. 

Alcoholics Anonymous, the great self-help group-therapy movement, is the only established treatment for alcoholics. Until much more is known about the personal (biochemical and psychological), familial, and social factors that contribute to alcoholism, so it will remain. Most new therapies are merely adjunctive to AA and will continue to be so until it is shown that they have therapeutic value when used alone. In my view, psychedelic therapy is best used as a preparation for AA. 

In this section we briefly describe the peer self-help movement organized for helping individuals identified as alcoholics—Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Because of space limitations we cannot describe in detail the major self-help groups for the treatment of drug problems, called Narcotics Anonymous (NA). NA is analogous to AA, however, and what wc know about AA can be applied readily to NA. 

The American disease model is especially important because of its u idespread prevalence and prominence in the United States. It also is the foundation of Alcoholics Anonymous and other self-help groups. In the American disease model (it is called American because it is not nearly so popular in otlier countries), alcohol and drug dependence is viewed as the product of a progressiv e, irreversible disease. The disease is described as a merging of physical, psychological, and spiritual causes. The treatment that follows from the disease model is to identify people who have the disease, confront them with it, help them to accept that they have it, and persuade them to abstain from alcohol and other drugs. 

Twelve-step programs do not work for everyone, nor are they the only self-help groups available to provide support. As of this writing, however. Alcoholics Anonymous and those that use its model are the most widely available and time tested. Which kind of support group should people use Whichever works best for them. 

Self-help groups are a well-known aspect of outpatient drug treatment. Organizations such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are often viewed as extensions of drug therapy and counseling programs. 

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a self-help organization for people whose common goal is recovery from alcoholism, and it is the most widely accessed resource for individuals with alcohol problems (McCrady and Miller 1993). The philosophy is based on the concept of alcoholism as a chronic disease that cannot be cured, but one that can be halted by means of complete abstinence. AA has described 12 principles or steps to guide those in recovery. Twelve-step facilitation, a manual-based psychotherapy to promote AA participation (Nowinski et al. 1992), was equally efficacious, compared with cognitive-behavioral and motivational enhancement therapies, in a large study of treatments for alcohol dependence (Project Match Research Group, 1997). 

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is founded. Although the group will have its critics, its quasi-religious group self-help model will prove effective for many people. 

Twelve-step groups, one of the most popular types of self-help organizations, have been active in the United States since the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) in 1935. Narcotics Anonymous (NA), a group that... 

---