Recovery Fever

by Melinda Blau

Baby-Boomers and Club Kids are Turning Twelve Step Programs into a 90s Scene

(Note: The names of all those identified by their first names only have been changed .)

“Tonight,” Mary announces, “my topic is what There’s no doubt that being “in the we mean by sharing our ‘experience, strength, rooms” (attending meetings) bears far less and hope.“’ stigma than it did in the fifties. Mary is glad that There are groans. Mary isn’t surprised. people have lost their sense of shame about This Alcoholics Anonymous meeting–in a getting help and are coming into “the program” church basement in East Hampton–is filled with younger than they used to. (These days, almost vacationing Manhattanites, tanned, youthful- half of the members are 21-to-40-year-olds, and looking, dressed in weekend chic. Mary, who’s a third of the members are women.) leading the discussion, hadn’t expected them to But there’s a downside. The babylike to topic she’d chosen. boomers and club kids flooding into the “What they really wanted to talk about meetings can seem awfully self-involved. was relationships,” Mary laments after the Whenever somebody who’s been called on to meeting. “And that’s all they want to talk about. “share” (respond to the speaker’s story of his This isn’t what AA used to be!” recovery or the chosen topic) launches into the She should know: She’s a 34-year dread phrase “I’ve been going through some veteran who joined AA in desperation in 1957, changes” or “I’m in a lot of pain today,” AA after awakening one pitch-black night in her car, veterans get that sinking feeling. They know which was wrapped around a fire hydrant. Mary they’re probably in for a fuzzy monologue about had no idea how she’d got there. the pills the speaker has popped, the cocaine And so–though she was convinced she he’s snorted, the food she’s binged on, was joining the “dregs of society”–she ventured arguments he’s had with his lover, talk about her into an AA meeting. She was, at 35, by far the rotten childhood, his job anxieties, the Prozac youngest person in the room and one of the few she’s been taking for depression, her cowomen. “Some of the old-timers were skeptical dependency–everything but alcohol. about whether I could really be an alcoholic,” These maunderings can be plenty offshe says. ‘They told me to take the cotton out of putting–and, to tentative first-timers, my ears and stuff it in my mouth!” Mary thinks bewildering. “I must have been sober twenty some of the newer members she sees these years before I even heard about pain at an AA days could do with a little of that old-time advice. meeting,” Mary snaps. “We had to talk about She finds it hard to tolerate the way many of sober experience, which showed the strength of them stroll nonchalantly into meetings, acting as the program and gave the newcomer hope. if they’ve just joined the latest social club–as if Nowadays, ‘experience’ is whatever happened they’re just there to meet people. “Today, we’re that day–from which I get neither strength nor getting that Me Generation in,” she says hope!” Erin–a fifteen-year AA member–agrees. disdainfully. “A lot of them come in saying “These people have this incredible need to draw they’re alcoholics–because the rehabs tell them attention to themselves. They come up to a they are. They just want to belong to something! speaker during the break and say, ‘I need to I wish they would just listen and shut up. It’s a share–please call on me.’ That was unheard of chance for them to experience some kind of years ago! Why can’t they just talk to that person recovery that isn’t so self-centered.” then and there? They need the floor!”

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One wonders if even the visionary Bill themselves, they find a supportive community Wilson, who co-founded AA in the thirties, could that traditional one-on-one psychotherapy can’t have foreseen the recovery fever that has led so replicate. “These people are almost intractable many into the program (membership has more by conventional methods,” explains Dr. Donald than doubled in New York City since 1978)–and Nathanson, senior attending psychiatrist at made them so open about it. It’s likely he’d find Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital in even more amazing the alphabet soup of groups Philadelphia, “but if you group alcoholics (see sidebar) that have spun off from AA– together, they know each other’s tricks, they everything from Anorexic Bulimics Anonymous, begin talking about them, and they begin to heal Batterers Anonymous, Dual Disorders each other.” Anonymous, Families of Sex Offenders Meetings also help people break through Anonymous, and Homosexuals Anonymous to their isolation and learn how to trust again. Unwed Parents Anonymous, Workaholics “They talk about feelings,” notes Dr. Jonathan Anonymous, Victims Anonymous, and Youth Lampert, a psychiatrist at the Ackerman Institute Emotions Anonymous. Last, and far from least, for Family Therapy, who has had extensive are the many “co-dependent” and “adult children clinical experience with alcoholics and addicts of’ groups set up for people whose lives are and has observed “hundreds” of other kinds of entwined with one or another of these sufferers. Twelve Step meetings. “It’s very compelling to Most of the spinoffs base their programs have someone begin speaking what is on the Twelve Steps that Wilson and his early unspeakable, know what is unknowable. And colleagues devised to guide AA members into they have a protocol to follow-the steps–and recovery. Step One involves admitting that you others with whom they can mitigate the shame. are powerless over alcohol. Members are told That’s very powerful.” that their “disease” renders them out of control. Through AA, millions have recovered, Recovery is a matter not of weakness or lack of and will continue to recover, from the ravages of will but of willingness to “turn it over,” which is alcoholism. It boils down to support and where Step Two–accepting the notion that a identification–the idea of one drunk helping Higher Power exists–comes in. Step Three asks another. you to rely on that entity–be it a deity, a spiritual To find meetings they like, however, force, or the collective power of the group–to today’s newcomers may need perseverance as guide you. (“Turning it over to a Higher Power” well as the patience to look beyond the doesn’t mean abdicating responsibility: Your confusing digression and egotistic behavior of may have a disease, but you are now some members. Now that rehabs are pouring responsible for your actions.) Steps Four hundreds of newly sober people into these through Nine encourage you to look at yourself, programs each week and countless others are take an honest “inventory” of your faults, and coming in on their own, the balance between “make amends” to anyone you’ve hurt. Finally, old-timers (who have stories of long-term Steps Ten through Twelve are about continuing recovery that can encourage others) and to be honest and open and extending yourself, newcomers (who do not) has become skewed. which includes carrying the message to other It’s harder than it used to be to find “powers of alcoholics. example”–people who have attained a sense of Has AA’s popularity–and the develop- what serenity is all about and who are willing to ment of all those spinoff groups–so watered extend themselves. down the program that it’s no longer effective? “You don’t see people reaching out the Many acknowledge that some meetings have way we used to,” observes Kelly, a lover of lost their focus. But, they say, AA still cleaves to Quaaludes and Jack Daniel’s who joined AA ten Wilson’s original tenets. Alcoholics who have years ago, when she was 28. “The other night, I tired years of psychotherapy, antidepressants, heard a woman tell someone that she couldn’t or simply trying to “will” themselves away from a pick her up to take her to a meeting [this kind of drink still find in AA something that finally works. help for a newcomer was once a common When they walk into a roomful of people like practice]. The driver thought the newcomer lived

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too far out of her way. What was the woman arrived–and I’m glad!” exclaims Steven, 65, who supposed to do–drink?” joined AA “when Eisenhower was president.” He AA’s primary purpose, as stated in its is unconcerned about the criticism that there’s preamble, has always been to “stay sober and not enough talk of alcohol in AA rooms. “If they help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.” (“You listen closely, they’ll hear it,” he says. “They’ll learned how to not pick up that first drink–a day certainly hear about addiction and all the other at a time,” Mary says. “Then you reached out to problems that are common in early sobriety.” others.“) Though there are greeters at the door Moreover, he says, newcomers not only keep at some meetings, gone are the days when most the meetings going and growing, they add spice people routinely introduced themselves to to his life. “I’ve learned more about relationships whoever sat next to them or made sure they in these last ten years,” he says. “And approached a newcomer during a break. Maxi–a remember, I came from a closeted era. These nice Jewish girl from the Five Towns whose young people say things to a roomful of 100 heroin addiction landed her in jail, in an people that I wouldn’t say to my parish priest!” abandoned building on Ninth Avenue, and finally “in Times Square, turning tricks”–came into AA Salvation or Self-Indulgence eleven years ago, when she was 37. “In those The term recovery, once applied solely to days,” she says, “someone would announce, alcoholics and drug addicts, has expanded to ‘We’re all going for coffee!’ That’s how I learned include millions more who are afflicted with the to socialize when I came into the rooms. That maladies of modern living: the people who eat, happens a lot less now.” work, smoke, shop, gamble, exercise, or love Today, members are also less willing to too much; the sufferers of certifiable behavioral “do service”–run a meeting, make coffee, stack syndromes; the sex addicts, incest perpetrators, chairs, put out program literature, or even be a and pedophiles and their -victims–the sponsor (a person who welcomes phone calls “survivors” of rape, child abuse, molestation. and guides newcomers through the steps). Messies Anonymous? Emotions Anony- Worse, some meetings are run by tightly knit mous? Are these fellowships necessary? Don’t cliques–groups of friends who came into the groups with names like these diminish the fellowship around the same time, got sober with seriousness of a program like AA, which was one another, and socialize outside meetings as founded for people whose disease could cost well. As friends embrace in the doorway or shout them their lives? at one another across the room, a newcomer is “We seem to be turning everything into a likely to feel left out. Many members admit that pathology,” complains Daryl, who has been in they don’t ask strangers out for coffee as often; AA for eleven years. She is puzzled by the they don’t use the ten-minute break to talk to proliferation of groups for “co-dependents,” the someone who seems distressed or lonely; they people who coddle the addicted and afflicted. (If are more clannish; they just don’t take the time. you believe the recovery gurus who are trying to Georgeanne, in AA for the past ten sell their books, that’s 95 percent of the years, admits she is overwhelmed by the new population.) Daryl points out that women have faces and less willing to give of herself than she been socialized to put others’ feelings and was when she first came in. Her attitude sums needs above their own–and that’s one of the up a pervasive thirtysomething mentality: “I don’t hallmarks of co-dependency as it is defined really pay attention to them until they’ve been today. (The term is an outgrowth of “cocoming to meetings for 90 days–to see if they’re alcoholic,” someone who is dependent on the serious. I’ve got a husband and a baby and a alcoholic. He has his arms around the bottle; full-time job, and these newcomers can go on for she has her arms around him.) “Caring is a hours!” wonderful thing, even in a relationship with an Despite these problems, some veteran addict, but when we care only about the other AA members are amazed and heartened by the person, we get into trouble,” Daryl believes. “Nor program’s growth and the diversity of its are certain aspects of humanness–like membership. ‘The Woodstock generation has emotions–a “sickness.“’

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“The Twelve Step principles are definitely That so many people are members of being commodified,” says Frank Riessman, more than one program, even when they are director of the National Self-Help Clearinghouse newly sober, makes many veteran AA members (25 West 43rd Street, Room 620, 642-2944), suspicious. Maxi maintains, “If alcoholism is your which provides information on all kinds of self- primary disease, you have to get your help groups. Between 1978 and 1984 alone, the foundation in AA. When you go to a lot of aggressive marketing of recovery treatment different fellowships, you may not have to focus resulted in a 350 percent increase in private on your problems–or on changing your alcoholic-treatment facilities plus the behavior.” establishment of rehabs that take in not only Longtime members of Al-Anon–AA’s alcoholics and drug addicts but gamblers, companion program and the oldest and most overeaters, co-dependents, and adult children of stable of the “-Anons” (fellowships for families any type of dysfunctional family. These inpatient and friends of addicts)–are also distressed. facilities have become the “spas” of recovery. Spouses and other members of alcoholic Riessman reminds us not to forget why families used to learn at Al-Anon meetings that all these groups have sprung up. “Recovery they “enabled” the alcoholic by denying, therapy arose primarily because other methods rationalizing, or covering up his drinking, and the were failing to reach large numbers of people,” program taught them how to change their own he says. Indeed, Jonathan Lampert maintains, behavior. Now just about everybody is a “comany mental-health practitioners still aren’t dependent” or worried about being one–and all knowledgeable about addiction, and “they’re flock to Al-Anon. “We used to talk about the often overwhelmed by the kinds of extreme alcoholics in our lives,” says Lilly, an Al-Anon behaviors addicts talk about and bring into the member whose mother is an alcoholic and who office.” He believes that for many types of also tends to get romantically involved with problems, the various Twelve Step offshoots can alcoholics. “Now people in our meetings talk help people open up. “Many sophisticated about relationships with their lovers whether people can’t stop overeating, but they do it with they’re alcoholic or not.” OA [Overeaters Anonymous].” Since the newer, less stable programs Twelve Steps for Everybody? are works in progress, many of the more recent There are many who argue that we don’t me-too programs do not have as much to offer need all the me-too programs out there. But it’s as Twelve Step fellowships established prior to important to resist the tendency to trivialize. The 1970–and certainly not as much as AA. They pain one hears in those “other” Twelve Step may not be very well defined; members often rooms is no different from the pain of an talk more about problems than about solutions. alcoholic resisting a drink. The woman who goes (When Lindsey, an avid program goer, recently to an Overeaters Anonymous meeting and tried a meeting of Co-Dependents Anonymous— admits she hides cookies under her bed to feel CODA, one of the more popular new additions to safe but that nothing she eats ever makes her the city’s menu–she says, “I didn’t hear feel satisfied, or the man who attends a recovery; I heard weekly reports.“) Some Gamblers Anonymous meeting because he is meetings in these fellowships are not orderly; afraid he’s going to blow a month’s pay at some are run by the more dominant people in Aqueduct, may be talking to someone about the room and susceptible to personal whims. (In these problems and fears for the first time. AA, which is guided by its Twelve Traditions and Likewise, at a meeting of Sexaholics better organized, “group conscience” guides Anonymous, you’re bound to hear the agony of decision-making.) Some groups, predictably, a man (males far outnumber females) who can’t have already gone by the wayside, like Valium stop himself from going to the porn shops on Anonymous. And there’s at least one fellowship Broadway, from cheating on his wife, or from whose members couldn’t be located for picking up a prostitute–and that, these days, is interviews—Isolators Anonymous. as deadly as drug or alcohol addiction.

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Dr. Robert DuPont, clinical professor of recovery–has less confidence in using the psychiatry at Georgetown University and a Twelve Steps for behavior problems. “It’s like former director of the National Institute on Drug using penicillin for every disease. AA was Abuse, applauds the fact that Twelve Step developed specifically for alcohol. It is a fairly programs have splintered into smaller, very good program for alcoholics, and the program specialized groups whose “cultural specificity” has a decent crossover for people addicted to allows people to identify with one another more drugs. But many people go to meetings for the readily. Some meetings cover particular topics, social life, or because they have other problems like incest and being HIV-positive, or serve that they’re trying to cure on a free basis.” certain groups—young people, homosexuals, Katz maintains that you can’t apply a handicapped members. program based on abstinence to food disorders But does the AA prescription work for or relationship issues, because you can’t behavioral problems–like compulsive gambling completely abstain from eating or being in or sex addiction? Can someone with a food relationships. Thus, he fears, “the people who disorder, for example, be helped by a program need genuine intervention are not getting it-originally designed around complete they’re going to Twelve Step meetings instead.” abstinence? Critics of the recovery movement also “I’ve watched people get well,” Dr. challenge the widespread use of the “disease DuPont insists. By affiliating themselves with model”’ originally applied only to alcoholism. The these programs, he says, “people are not only theory holds that alcoholics are not morally saying, ‘That’s me,’ they’re finding better ways to responsible for their behavior. They have an live.” “allergy” to liquor: The first drink triggers a Donald Nathanson is more cautious, craving, and then they can’t stop themselves especially when it comes to programs like Adult any more than a diabetic can control the way his Children of Alcoholics and Sex and Love Addicts body reacts to sugar. Anonymous, where the tendency is to point a Labeling all these difficulties “diseases,” finger at someone else. “The major focus is not regardless of their degree of severity, says Katz, on a person’s responsibility for his own behavior is neither scientifically warranted nor helpful to but on the inevitability that he behaves a certain the patient–although it does tend to drum up way because others made him this way.” business for the recovery movement. Katz thinks Still, Nathanson thinks these programs these labels cause people to perceive can work–if the person is willing to expend some themselves as victims, to use the label to effort. “If you can think about your inner life once excuse their behavior, and to become a day, you’re doing pretty well”’ he says. “You dependent on the program they’re going to: reinforce the fact that you’re an alcoholic or that They are eternally “recovering”’ never you resort to sex as an anodyne or do any of a “recovered.” number of types of behavior that are a detour Dr. Marc Galanter, professor of from facing your own feelings.” psychiatry and director of the Division of Motivation is all–and, according to Alcoholism and Drug Abuse at New York Nathanson, “some of the people in these other University Medical Center and director of the programs haven’t suffered as much as alcohol-and-drug-abuse program at Bellevue alcoholics or addicts. So they don’t have as Hospital Center, has studied cults and religious much need and don’t go to as many meetings. groups as well as AA. He characterizes Twelve One has to ask about their problem behavior, Step programs as part of a “zealous social ‘How long have they been doing it? How much movement.” He maintains that at stressful times, of their world have they lost because of it? And some people are more susceptible to becoming how desperately do they want to change?“’ dependent on the program: “The more you are Psychologist Stan J. Katz’ co-author of vulnerable, the more you glom on to something The Codependency Conspiracy–a thoughtful, that seems to offer more permanence.” albeit controversial, critique of the marketing of You can usually spot the kind of people who “hide in the rooms.” For them, getting sober

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becomes an end unto itself. But Mary stresses Alcoholics, RR says, can look within themselves that it’s not AA that causes this–it’s the for strength and use “reason to light the way.” individual. “AA is a bridge back to life. It was Every RR meeting has a professional never meant to be your life.” Jonathan Lampert “adviser,” a counselor, therapist, M.D., minister, notes that the program-shoppers who go from or nurse who donates time and allegedly has a room to room “use the therapists the same way!” minor role. An adviser can “spot a problem–like While he concedes that Twelve Step principles symptoms of suicide”’ explains Vincent Fox, a can sometimes be misinterpreted or even member who also sits on the board of directors abused, he holds that the best starting point for of RR. For the most part, however, the adviser talking about your problems is still a Twelve takes a backseat to the “coordinator,” an Step program. experienced member who “manages” the meetings. Twelve Step meetings allow no “cross Does It Work If You Work It? talk” (no advising or answering one another A major stumbling block for some who try during the meeting); RR is run more like group AA and its spinoffs is swallowing the idea of a therapy. Higher Power. “People think of us as a bunch of Predictably, there is some AA-bashing at religious nuts,” admits Nan Robertson, an AA RR meetings, 90 percent of whose members are member for the past sixteen years and the AA dropouts. And because the organization is author of Getting Better: Inside Alcoholics so young, it seems to be suffering some of the Anonymous. Many people have trouble with the same growing pains that also beleaguer younger “God part,” she says. The word God appears in AA offshoots–instability and a lack of long-term four of the Twelve Steps and is mentioned 132 sobriety. “We’re not at the final stage of our times in Alcoholics Anonymous (better known as evolution,” Fox admits. “Ten years from now, The Big Book). we’ll evolve into something more polished, more Meetings in this city are particularly “New mature.” York” in tone–intense, sharp-edged, laced with A few inpatient institutions now offer RR, psychological jargon. But, perhaps because of in addition to the usual Twelve Step fare, to the New York’s diverse population, some meetings newly recovering. To help shore up its claims, here don’t have the religious overtones one finds RR is submitting to efficacy studies. For now, in other parts of the country; closing with the the jury is out on new groups like RR and Lord’s Prayer makes many non-Christian Secular Organizations for Sobriety, another nonmembers uncomfortable. Instead, meetings spiritual alternative. often end with the nonsectarian Serenity Prayer: But then, the flow of bodies into Twelve “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I Step programs has not been inspired by cannot change, courage to change the things I evidence. The truth is, there’s very little scientific can, and wisdom to know the difference.” proof that AA works. The “anonymous” nature of Inevitably, that’s followed by a rousing “Keep the program, a safeguard incorporated to protect comin’ back–it works if you work it!” people from the shame of declaring themselves But the “God part” keeps some people alcoholics (that’s a bit of an irony, these days), from “working it.” For them, Rational Recovery as well as AA’s tradition of resisting professional Systems (RR), a five-year-old organization that’s involvement, has made it difficult to monitor. close to 300 groups strong, hopes to provide an Dr. Galanter’s 1990 study is a alternative. noteworthy exception. Galanter and his team RR, which is based on psychologist surveyed a group of 100 recovering alcoholic or Albert Ellis’s rational-emotive therapy, appeals dually addicted doctors who had received to thinkers, not believers, according to RR’s inpatient treatment in which AA affiliation was Small Book In RR, the alcoholic’s or addict’s will part of the program. They had been clean and and intelligence are called upon to help change sober an average of 33 months at the time of the his behavior. RR doesn’t believe an alcoholic is study. powerless, nor must he be forever recovering. “After all was said and done,” Galanter reports, “they rated their AA experiences as the

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most influential aspect of their recovery.” publishes The Self-Help Sourcebook, says, Though Galanter allows that this was a select “Twelve Step programs constitute the majority of and highly committed population, he believes all self-help programs. And people are getting that the findings can be generalized. ‘There are help.” But look out, he says. Not all “anonymous” more than 1 million members nationwide. They programs are necessarily built on the Twelve wouldn’t be going if they didn’t think it helped. Steps. In fact, some groups masquerade as self- Certainly, in my experience with the patients I’ve help, and some are commercial enterprises. treated, that’s the case.” (One doctor, for instance, wrote a book on Robert DuPont adds that many program- pathological jealousy and called Madara to bashers, especially his peers in the medical network a group called Jealousy Anonymous.) profession, are skeptical about AA and other In the past, it was suggested that you try Twelve Step programs because “it’s a language six meetings of the fellowship you’re interested that’s alien to professionals. The Establishment in joining. Most veterans suggest doubling that sees it as a fringe approach–small, quirky, figure, because nowadays it may take a while to nonintellectual, cult-oriented, religious–that’s the feel comfortable at a meeting and find a group dominant view. They don’t understand it.” you like. Find a “home group,” Mary advises. “If Clearly, Twelve Step programs don’t you don’t belong to a group, you don’t become work for everyone–nor does one type of part of the structure of the program.” treatment. Lampert and others call for an A newcomer would be wise to adopt an integrated approach, combining self-help with a attitude of cautious optimism. At some meetingsthoughtful psychological assessment that factors -certainly not all–there is considerable whining; in personality, family history, and the person’s some sponsors are controlling; and there are context today–his relationships, work situation, “thirteen-steppers” out there: members who try socioeconomic status, among other things. to get vulnerable newcomers into bed. The point As the AA saying goes, “Some are sicker is, one can’t assume that all people in Twelve than others.” Some people need only the Step programs are virtuous. As one member put support of a fellowship and the education and it, “We’re sick people getting better, not bad guidance that a Twelve Step program provides. people getting good.” Others may want–or need–what Donald At the same time, the ever-increasing Nathanson calls “thicker soup: something that acceptance of the Twelve Step philosophy, allows them to deal with their own personal which places a premium on “honesty, openness, feelings more on a one-to-one basis.” and willingness,” offers suffering people a place Many of the criticisms of Twelve Step to turn. The AA program (and its copies) urges programs are well taken. People going to these people to be tolerant and to give to others-in meetings might want to ponder whether they essence, to get out of themselves. This is have isolated themselves there, doing only precisely the kind of “moral jogging”–a way to Twelve Step activities with Twelve Step friends. practice selflessness–that psychologist Martin If they feel “stuck” or like victims, or if their Seligman, author of Learned Optimism, conversations repeatedly center on the past or prescribes to combat the depression that comes on other people’s behavior, it may mean they from “overcommitment to the self and are dealing with issues that warrant professional undercommitment to the common good.” treatment. People who are members of more Unfortunately, as Seligman puts it, “giving to than one fellowship should think about whether others and spending serious time, money, and they’re really getting something different from effort enhancing the common good does not each one–or whether program-hopping helps come naturally to the present generation.” them avoid taking responsibility for their lives. To prospective and neophyte Twelve Steppers, Ed Madara, director of the American Self-Help Clearinghouse (see sidebar), which

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Sidebar: The Twelve Step Hit Parade

Although not all “anonymous” or –anon 19 76 Debtors Anonymous-credit-card groups are guided by AA’s Twelve Steps, nearly abusers, under-earners, and overspenders 100 self-help groups are. Below is a partial 1976 Augustine Fellowship, Sex and Love listing of the more popular clone groups for Addicts Anonymous-people with obsessive/ various types of addicts and people affected by compulsive sexual behavior or emotional their behavior. The information comes from the attachment 1990 edition of The Self-Help Sourcebook ($lO), 1977 Sex Addicts Anonymous-compulsive-sex available from the American Self-Help addicts Clearinghouse, St. Clares-Riverside Medical 1978 Drugs Anonymous (formerly Pills Center, Denville, New Jersey 07834 (201-625- Anonymous)–chemical addicts 7101). 1979 Pill Addicts Anonymous- addicted to mood-changing pills and drugs 1935 Alcoholics Anonymous-alcoholics 1979 Sexaholics Anonymous-people with 1951 Al-Anon-families and friends of alcoholics sexually destructive thinking and behavior 1953 Narcotics Anonymous-addicts 1957 Alateen–twelve to eighteen year-olds who 1980 Incest Survivors Anonymous-incest have alcoholics in their lives survivors 1957 Gamblers Anonymous-compulsive 1982 Cocaine Anonymous-cocaine addicts gamblers 1982 Survivors of Incest Anonymous- victims 1960 Gam-Anon–families and friends of of childhood sexual abuse compulsive gamblers 1984 Adult Children of Alcoholics-now 1960 Overeaters Anonymous-people with interpreted to include adult children of people compulsive-eating disorders with other problems 1967 Nar-Anon—families and friends of addicts 1984 S-Anon-relatives and friends of sex 1970 Emotional Health Anonymous- people addicts with mental-health problems 1985 Nicotine Anonymous-(formerly Smokers 1971 Emotions Anonymous-people who want Anonymous)–nicotine addicts to gain better emotional health 1986 Co-Dependents Anonymous- (CODA)- 1971 Families Anonymous–relatives and people who grew up in dysfunctional families friends of drug or alcohol abusers or of people and have trouble with relationships with behavioral problems 1975 O-Anon—friends and relatives of people with compulsive-eating disorders

Source: New York, September 9, 1991

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