Recovery mechanisms were explored by using potential mediators between AA attendance and alcohol consumption by Kelly et al. 37. Among aftercare patients, AA attendance indirectly improved the percentage of days abstinent via positive social self-efficacy, spiritual/religious practices, pro-abstinence social networks, and pro-drinking social networks. In the same group of patients, mediators between AA attendance and reduced drinks per drinking day were positive social self-efficacy, negative affect, spiritual/religious practices, depression, and pro-drinking social networks. Among outpatients, relationships between AA attendance and reduced drinks per drinking day as well as percentage of days abstinent were mediated by pro-abstinence social networks, pro-drinking social networks, and positive social self-efficacy 37.
Big Book ASL — Appendix IV – The Lasker Award
- In their longitudinal research, Kaskutas et al. 38 proved that involvement in AA both directly and indirectly—through support from other AA participants—influenced lower alcohol consumption and less severe problems.
- These forms can be used for religiously inclined individuals, but for religious skeptics, agnostics, and atheists, involvement in AA as a secular way of developing spirituality is preferred.
- We are not anti-alcohol and we have no wish to reform the world.
- It was confirmed that AA involvement in self-help groups indirectly via existential well-being is related to subjective well-being.
- Now translated into over 70 languages, it is still considered A.A.’s basic text.
All participants had a Roman Catholic affiliation. The mean of abstinence duration for participants was relatively long, which means that they can be treated as addicts with stable abstinence. Statistics of demographic variables are presented in Table 1. Most of the study participants were men with secondary and vocational education. On average they have stayed in abstinence longer than six years and have participated in AA longer than eight years.
Notable people who have attended AA
The achieved results have confirmed that another mechanism underlies the relationship between involvement in self-help groups and subjective well-being among the alcohol-addicted exists. The Alcoholics Anonymous Involvement Scale (AAIS) was used to assess lifetime AA attendance 88. AAI consists of 13 items related to involvement in AA attendance and activities, including considering oneself to be a member of AA, going to 90 meetings in 90 days, celebrating an AA birthday, having and/or being a sponsor, having a spiritual awakening, etc. Participants responded either “Yes” or “No”. Additionally, participants were asked about steps completed in alcohol treatment, about steps “worked”, about quantity of meetings attended in the last year, and total number of meetings ever attended. In the research, questions were asked regarding participation in any alcohol treatment, spiritual awakening as a consequence of involvement in AA, total number of meetings, and number of steps “worked”.
Disease model
It is possible that existential variables (such as meaning in life and hope) as an effect of involvement in AA may lead to subjective well-being. It can be treated as a parallel spiritual mechanism to that revealed in recent studies. Existential well-being is a secular dimension of spiritual well-being 17. Meaning in life and hope are components of existential well-being, which what does aa stand for alcohol includes realizing values, having goals, controlling one’s destiny, and finding self-acceptance 95.
Reviews and studies
It consists of one question in which the respondent evaluates his overall satisfaction with life on a scale from 0 (minimum) to 10 (maximum). It was used from future perspective (for the five years). This tool has satisfied psychometrics properties. Czapiński used this scale during a two month interval, obtaining a reliability score of 0.76 92. In another project the coefficient of reliability at a two year interval measured, 0.65 93.
- It finds reflections in Seligman’s 20 model of happiness approaches for a meaningful and purposeful life as one of three ways to achieve subjective well-being.
- The general rate at which alcohol is consumed each year per capita has been increasing since 1999 1, as have the numbers of individuals using alcohol in a risky and problematic way.
- In Gutierrez’s study 64 meaning in life via hope indirectly reduced alcohol and drug use.
- This was the proof that there are other but overlapping constructs or indicators of other variables.
- The research encompassed relationships between latent variables, which are not observed variables.
The score is computed by adding up the responses to all items. The higher the score, the stronger the satisfaction of the need for meaning in life; the lower the score, the greater the existential frustration. The reliability of this test measured as Pearson’s r coefficient was 0.82; with the Spearman-Brown correction, it was 0.90 50. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. You can help people who are affected by alcoholism by making a donation to the Cleveland District Office.
Mathis et al. 83 have indicated that hope predicted drug abstinence at an eight-month follow-up. Additionally, in a sample of AA participants from Poland and participants in Sex and Love Addicted Individuals (SLAA), hope was positively related to different measures of well-being 86,87. Given the existing research that links AA involvement and well-being, the current study aimed to understand further how AA involvement is related to subjective well-being among AA participants from Poland.
The Meeting Guide App
- The prayer encourages individuals to accept things they cannot change, to find the courage to make changes where possible, and to seek the wisdom to distinguish between the two.
- AAI consists of 13 items related to involvement in AA attendance and activities, including considering oneself to be a member of AA, going to 90 meetings in 90 days, celebrating an AA birthday, having and/or being a sponsor, having a spiritual awakening, etc.
- We are people who have discovered and admitted that we cannot control alcohol.
Now translated into over 70 languages, it is still considered A.A.’s basic text. According to recent research, the positive role of involvement in AA in the recovery process of individuals with alcohol dependence has been confirmed 30,31,33,38. In the longitudinal study conducted among individuals with alcohol dependence 36, AA affiliation reduced drinking and drug use indirectly via self-efficacy, motivation, and active coping. A 2020 review looked at 27 studies involving a total of 10,565 participants and noted that A.A.
We are not allied with any group, cause or religious denomination. We welcome new members, but we do not recruit them. We are people who have discovered and admitted that we cannot control alcohol. We have learned that we must live without it to live normal, happy lives. The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy of the participants.
Theoretical and practical implications were discussed. Little is known about the spiritual mechanism underlying the relationship between involvement in AA and subjective well-being. The aim of this study was to test the beneficial role of existential well-being in the indirect relationship between involvement in AA and the subjective well-being in a sample of individuals with alcohol dependence from Poland. In the literature, there is a lack of research regarding predictors of subjective well-being among participants of self-help groups. Most researchers have focused on abstinence duration or reduced drinking as a recovery indicators. Contrary to most recent studies, subjective well-being was used as a recovery indicator instead of abstinence duration or reduced drinking.
