January 1975

drunk.” But the whole Fellowship greater than ourselves” which is caof AA stands ready to help him keep pable of reclaiming from the scrap that distance. When he’s tempted to heap any human being, however far take a drink, all he has to do is call gone in alcoholism, who has “a de- As Our Friends See Us another AA, day or night, rain or sire to stop drinking.” shine, winter or summer. Every AA Many attempts have been made is ready to drop what he’s doing to by outsiders to explain how AA by Louis Caesels hclp another AA remember that so- manages to succeed, where psychi- Lolris Cussels, United Press Interncrtbml senior editor briety is infinitcly preferable to alco- atry and medical treatment so often und prizewinning religion writer, died in larl~rary1974. holic oblivion under any and all fail, in restoring alcoholics to sobri- He wus u great friend of Alcoholics Anonytnous, and circumstances. ety. Psychological terms such as in his widely sytldicuted colrrr~rr~ I I reli,siorts und ethicd I’m not an AA, but I have many “group therapy” and “mutual reinmutters, he often wrote crboltt A A . Tlre /ollowi~~ff i . ~a friends who are, and I’ve becn privi- forcement” are trotted out to make reprint of one of his cvliontts, written in 1970. Iegcd to attend a lot of AA meetings. the explanations sound scientific. The sense of community, the bond But anyone who has seen AA of Iiunlitn brotherhood, which exists work, close up, knows there is somein ;in A A group is so pialpable, there thing more involved, something that B R A C E YOURSELF. Here comes some of that stuff newspapers at ;I rate of about ten percent a year. This indicates a growing rccogniare accused of neglecting: good tion that alcoholism is a treatable l ~ v eheen tirncs when I found myself a h o s t regretting that I’m not cannot be reduced to a pat verbal forn~ula. news. It concerns the growth of one disease – and a growing willingncss cligiblc. AAs don’t bother too much trying of the world’s most useful organiza- on the part of its victims to seek AA has no religious creed or dog- to figure it out. All they know tions, Alcoholics Anonymous. hclp. ma, beyond a convictbn born of and all that a prospective member During the past year, more than I’crhaps the most encouraging experience that there is “a Power needs to know -is that it works. 1,000 new AA groups were estab- news is that tllc average age of A(\ lished. That brings the worldwide nlcnibcrs has been decreasing stcadtotal to 16,000,* more than three ily over the past few years. 1nstc;ld times as many as there were ten of wiiiting until thcir lives haw bccn , years ago. ruined by alcoholism, people are Each AA group is self-supporting admitting thcir problcri~and seeking and self-governing. The different AA help in the early stagcs of the groups keep in touch with each other disease. through a General Service Office in No one has yet found ii trc;it- New York. But there’s not much nwnt which will cnablc a truc alcocentral organization. So nobody can holic to rcsunle “nornlal drinking.” say exactly how nlany practicing But AA 11as proved bcyond a doubt AAs there are at the mon1en.t. that an alcoholic ciln rccovcr from The informed guess of the Gen- his addiction and go on to livc a eral Service Office is that the total hi~ppyand useful lifc without alcois near 500,000.* And it’s growing hol. Thr lotul nrrmbrr of A A grorrps L now rrtl- Hc’II always be, in it famous AA mcrtrd to hr o w 2 2 . W ; nnnrhrr o/ atcnthrrs worldwide, 725,000. phrase. “onc drink away from a