Al Anon Family Groups Popular Books

Al Anon Family Groups Biography & Facts

Al-Anon Family Groups, founded in 1951, is an international mutual aid organization for people who have been impacted by another person's alcoholism. In the organization's own words, Al-Anon is a "worldwide fellowship that offers a program of recovery for the families and friends of alcoholics, whether or not the alcoholic recognizes the existence of a drinking problem or seeks help." Alateen "is part of the Al-Anon fellowship designed for the younger relatives and friends of alcoholics through the teen years". Background Al-Anon defines itself as an independent fellowship with the stated purpose of helping relatives and friends of alcoholics. According to the organization, alcoholism is a family illness. Its "Preamble to the Twelve Steps" provides a general description: The Al-Anon Family Groups are a fellowship of relatives and friends of alcoholics who share their experience, strength, and hope in order to solve their common problems. We believe alcoholism is a family illness and that changed attitudes can aid recovery. Al-Anon is not allied with any sect, denomination, political entity, organization, or institution; does not engage in any controversy; neither endorses nor opposes any cause. There are no dues for membership. Al-Anon is self-supporting through its own voluntary contributions.Al-Anon has but one purpose: to help families of alcoholics. We do this by practicing the Twelve Steps by welcoming and giving comfort to families of alcoholics, and by giving understanding and encouragement to the alcoholic. Not an intervention program, Al-Anon does not have the stated primary purpose of arresting another's compulsive drinking. Members meet in groups. Meetings are usually small (five to twenty-five); in larger meetings, members often split into smaller groups after the opening readings so everyone has a chance to speak.Many Al-Anon family group meetings begin with the "Suggested Al-Anon/Alateen Welcome", which starts: We welcome you to the [Name of Group] Al-Anon Family Group and hope you will find in this fellowship the help and friendship we have been privileged to enjoy. We who live, or have lived, with the problem of alcoholism understand as perhaps few others can. We, too, were lonely and frustrated, but in Al-Anon we discover that no situation is really hopeless, and that it is possible for us to find contentment, and even happiness, whether the alcoholic is still drinking or not. History Al-Anon was co-founded in 1951, 16 years after the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous on June 10, 1935, by Anne B. and Lois W. (wife of AA co-founder Bill W.). Before the formation of Al-Anon, independent groups of families of alcoholics met. "Bill thought the[se] groups could be consolidated and that Lois should be the one to take it on."Al-Anon adopted the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous for their own use, changing the word "alcoholics" in the twelfth step to "others" ("we tried to carry this message to others"). Its name derives from the first parts of the words "Alcoholics Anonymous". Alateen, part of Al-Anon, began in California in 1957 when a teenager named Bob "joined with five other young people who had been affected by the alcoholism of a family member." Purpose Although people commonly turn to Al-Anon for help in stopping another's drinking, the organization recognizes that the friends and families of alcoholics are often traumatized themselves and in need of emotional support and understanding. According to Lois W.: After a while I began to wonder why I was not as happy as I ought to be, since the one thing I had been yearning for all my married life [Bill's sobriety] had come to pass. Then one Sunday, Bill asked me if I was ready to go to the meeting with him. To my own astonishment as well as his, I burst forth with, "Damn your old meetings!" and threw a shoe as hard as I could. This surprising display of temper over nothing pulled me up short and made me start to analyze my own attitudes ... My life's purpose of sobering up Bill, which had made me feel desperately needed, had vanished ... I decided to strive for my own spiritual growth. I used the same principles as he did to learn how to change my attitudes ... We began to learn ... that the partner of the alcoholic also needed to live by a spiritual program. Benefits Problems Al-Anon/Alateen literature focuses on problems common to family members and friends of alcoholics such as excessive care-taking, an inability to differentiate between love versus pity and loyalty to abusers, rather than the problems of the alcoholic. The organization acknowledges that members may join with low self-esteem, largely a side-effect of unrealistically overestimating their agency and control: attempting to control another person's drinking behavior and, when they fail, blaming themselves for the other person's behavior. Improvement Participation in Al-Anon has been associated with less personal blame by women who, as a whole, engage in more initial personal blame for the drinking than men. Family members of alcoholics begin to improve as they learn to recognize family pathology, assign responsibility for the pathology to a disease, forgive themselves, accept that they were adversely affected by the pathology and learn to accept their family members' shortcomings.Al-Anon members are encouraged to keep the focus on themselves, rather than on the alcoholic. Although members believe that changed attitudes can aid recovery, they stress that one person did not cause, cannot cure and cannot control another person's alcohol-related choices and behaviors. Treatment of alcoholism Al-Anon's primary purpose is to help families and friends of alcoholics, rather than stopping alcoholism in others or assisting with interventions. When an alcoholic's spouse is active in Al-Anon and the alcoholic is active in AA, the alcoholic is more likely to be abstinent, marital happiness is more likely to be increased and parenting by both is more likely to improve. A 1999 clinical analysis of methods used by concerned significant others (CSOs) to encourage alcoholics to seek treatment indicated that Al-Anon participation was "mostly ineffective" towards this goal. The psychologists found community reinforcement approach and family training (CRAFT) "significantly more" effective than Al-Anon participation in arresting alcoholism in others. Demographics In 2015, Al-Anon Family Groups published its 2015 Member Survey Results of demographic and other information from Al-Anon members in Canada and the United States Of the 8,517 respondents, 93 percent identified as white, 83 percent as female and 61 percent as married. Twelve percent of the respondents had children under age 18 at home, while "80 percent of respondents have been in a romantic relationship involving an alcoholic partner". And one side finding was that "40 percent of respondents initially joined Al-Anon because a person with a drug problem was negatively affecting their lives".F.... Discover the Al Anon Family Groups popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Al Anon Family Groups books.

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  • The Forum - April 2017 synopsis, comments

    The Forum - April 2017

    Al-Anon Family Groups

    The Forum is an international monthly publication of Al‑Anon Family Groups, a fellowship that offers strength and hope for the friends and families of problem drinkers. In the page...

  • The Forum - June 2020 synopsis, comments

    The Forum - June 2020

    Al-Anon Family Groups

    The Forum is an international monthly publication of Al‑Anon Family Groups, a fellowship that offers strength and hope for the friends and families of problem drinkers. In the page...

  • The Forum - March 2017 synopsis, comments

    The Forum - March 2017

    Al-Anon Family Groups

    The Forum is an international monthly publication of Al‑Anon Family Groups, a fellowship that offers strength and hope for the friends and families of problem drinkers. In the page...

  • The Forum - August 2019 synopsis, comments

    The Forum - August 2019

    Al-Anon Family Groups

    The Forum is an international monthly publication of Al‑Anon Family Groups, a fellowship that offers strength and hope for the friends and families of problem drinkers. In the page...

  • The Forum - September 2017 synopsis, comments

    The Forum - September 2017

    Al-Anon Family Groups

    The Forum is an international monthly publication of Al‑Anon Family Groups, a fellowship that offers strength and hope for the friends and families of problem drinkers. In the page...

  • How to Raise a Drug-Free Kid synopsis, comments

    How to Raise a Drug-Free Kid

    Joseph A. Califano

    The highly acclaimed comprehensive guide to getting your child through the formative preteen, teen, and college years drugfreenow completely revised and updated.Nearly every child ...

  • The Forum - June 2017 synopsis, comments

    The Forum - June 2017

    Al-Anon Family Groups

    The Forum is an international monthly publication of Al‑Anon Family Groups, a fellowship that offers strength and hope for the friends and families of problem drinkers. In the page...

  • The Forum - December 2017 synopsis, comments

    The Forum - December 2017

    Al-Anon Family Groups

    The Forum is an international monthly publication of Al‑Anon Family Groups, a fellowship that offers strength and hope for the friends and families of problem drinkers. In the page...

  • Hope for Today synopsis, comments

    Hope for Today

    Al-Anon Family Groups

    Daily sharings from Al‑Anon’s adult children members are for anyone who wants to grow in acceptance, compassion, and understanding. Indexed.

  • Opening Our Hearts, Transforming Our Losses synopsis, comments

    Opening Our Hearts, Transforming Our Losses

    Al-Anon Family Groups

    Grief and loss affect almost every aspect of livingor having livedwith alcoholism. Members share how they have learned to acknowledge and accept these losses with the help of Al‑An...

  • The Forum - October 2017 synopsis, comments

    The Forum - October 2017

    Al-Anon Family Groups

    The Forum is an international monthly publication of Al‑Anon Family Groups, a fellowship that offers strength and hope for the friends and families of problem drinkers. In the page...

  • The Forum - March 2019 synopsis, comments

    The Forum - March 2019

    Al-Anon Family Groups

    The Forum is an international monthly publication of Al‑Anon Family Groups, a fellowship that offers strength and hope for the friends and families of problem drinkers. In the page...

  • Courage to Change synopsis, comments

    Courage to Change

    Al-Anon Family Groups

    More daily inspiration from a fresh, diverse perspective. Insightful reflections reveal surprisingly simple things that can transform lives.

  • The Forum - December 2016 synopsis, comments

    The Forum - December 2016

    Al-Anon Family Groups

    The Forum is an international monthly publication of Al‑Anon Family Groups, a fellowship that offers strength and hope for the friends and families of problem drinkers. In the page...

  • The Forum - January 2024 synopsis, comments

    The Forum - January 2024

    Al-Anon Family Groups

    The Forum is an international monthly publication of Al‑Anon Family Groups, a fellowship that offers help and hope for the families and friends of alcoholics. This magazine feature...

  • How Al-Anon Works synopsis, comments

    How Al-Anon Works

    Al-Anon Family Groups

    AlAnon's basic book discusses our mutualhelp program of recovery, including personal stories. A beginning approach to the Twelve Concepts of Service is included.

  • The Forum - June 2018 synopsis, comments

    The Forum - June 2018

    Al-Anon Family Groups

    The Forum is an international monthly publication of Al‑Anon Family Groups, a fellowship that offers strength and hope for the friends and families of problem drinkers. In the page...

  • The Forum - January 2020 synopsis, comments

    The Forum - January 2020

    Al-Anon Family Groups

    The Forum is an international monthly publication of Al‑Anon Family Groups, a fellowship that offers strength and hope for the friends and families of problem drinkers. In the page...

  • Courage To Change synopsis, comments

    Courage To Change

    Bill Pittman & Dick B.

    The writings of the Reverend Sam Shoemaker, Episcopal minister, are examined in this volume in the light of their contribution to the principles of Twelve Step recovery.Courage to ...

  • The Forum - May 2019 synopsis, comments

    The Forum - May 2019

    Al-Anon Family Groups

    The Forum is an international monthly publication of Al‑Anon Family Groups, a fellowship that offers strength and hope for the friends and families of problem drinkers. In the page...

  • The Forum - January 2018 synopsis, comments

    The Forum - January 2018

    Al-Anon Family Groups

    The Forum is an international monthly publication of Al‑Anon Family Groups, a fellowship that offers strength and hope for the friends and families of problem drinkers. In the page...

  • Boundaries Where You End And I Begin synopsis, comments

    Boundaries Where You End And I Begin

    Anne Katherine

    The coronavirus pandemic has brought new and challenging interpersonal situations into our lives. Each challenge is an opportunity to assert who we are, and what we truly need to l...

  • The Forum - January 2017 synopsis, comments

    The Forum - January 2017

    Al-Anon Family Groups

    The Forum is an international monthly publication of Al‑Anon Family Groups, a fellowship that offers strength and hope for the friends and families of problem drinkers. In the page...

  • The Forum - May 2018 synopsis, comments

    The Forum - May 2018

    Al-Anon Family Groups

    The Forum is an international monthly publication of Al‑Anon Family Groups, a fellowship that offers strength and hope for the friends and families of problem drinkers. In the page...

  • Esperanza para hoy synopsis, comments

    Esperanza para hoy

    Al-Anon Family Groups

    Los aportes de hijos adultos que son miembros de AlAnon son para toda persona que quiera lograr una mayor aceptación, compasión y entendimiento. Con índice.

  • The Forum - June 2019 synopsis, comments

    The Forum - June 2019

    Al-Anon Family Groups

    The Forum is an international monthly publication of Al‑Anon Family Groups, a fellowship that offers strength and hope for the friends and families of problem drinkers. In the page...

  • The Forum - August 2017 synopsis, comments

    The Forum - August 2017

    Al-Anon Family Groups

    The Forum is an international monthly publication of Al‑Anon Family Groups, a fellowship that offers strength and hope for the friends and families of problem drinkers. In the page...

  • The Forum - February 2018 synopsis, comments

    The Forum - February 2018

    Al-Anon Family Groups

    The Forum is an international monthly publication of Al‑Anon Family Groups, a fellowship that offers strength and hope for the friends and families of problem drinkers. In the page...

  • The Forum - February 2017 synopsis, comments

    The Forum - February 2017

    Al-Anon Family Groups

    The Forum is an international monthly publication of Al‑Anon Family Groups, a fellowship that offers strength and hope for the friends and families of problem drinkers. In the page...