Alcoholics Anonymous is a voluntary organization that was conceived back in 1935 to help practicing alcoholics to find sobriety. It was the brainchild of Mr. Bill Wilson, a onetime financier who’s career in Finance was shattered by alcoholism.

While other patients who suffer from acute alcohol poisoning effects attend a hospital, Bill Wilson experienced what he called a spiritual experience and he could heal himself in his new receipt and belief in God.

Once leaving the hospital, he worked together with Dr. Bob Smith, and they performed their cooperative job to help and heal alcoholics. The project was very successful and in 1939, Bill Wilson created a book called Alcoholics Anonymous that started the organization we know today.

Today, there are over 106,000 Alcoholics Anonymous meeting groups and the organization has spread across the world. The only requirements to join AA are that you must be a practicing alcoholic who wants to quit drinking. There are no fees or subscriptions so the foundation gathers its finances from private donations.

The concept of treating alcoholism like a disease was the brainchild of Dr William Silkworth who was the physician who treated Bob Wilson in the New York hospital where here underwent his spiritual experience that put him on the path to creating Alcoholics Anonymous.

As alcoholic anonymous grew during the late 1930s and early 1940s, it became more structured and the 12 basic principles were developed that are still the backbone of the organization today. The original 12 principles were:

• Admitting alcoholism ruled their lives
• Believing God could cure alcoholism
• Putting themselves in hands of God
• Honest self evaluation
• Self confession of wrongs enacted
• Preparedness for God to get rid of the bad characteristics
• Requesting that God remove these bad characteristics
• Making list people they had harmed as well as committing to restore wrongs done
• Actually making any amends possible
• Continuous self-evaluation and admittance of any ongoing imperfections
• Vowing to try to understand God and his plans for recovering alcoholics
• Committing to assist other practicing alcoholics

Alcoholics Anonymous had a basic foundation in the belief of God, it appears from the original mission statements or principles, but the companionship has increased over the passage of several years, the principles have to be more and more general so as not to estrange or make themselves indefensible to alcoholics that badly need and want assistance, but saw religion as an obstacle to obtaining the assistance.

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