Is AA for me?

Call (214) 887-6699, day or night, to speak with a sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous in the Dallas Area. We are here to help.



If you repeatedly drink more than you intend
or want to, if you get into trouble, or if you have
memory lapses when you drink, you may be an
alcoholic.
Only you can decide. No one in A.A. will tell
you whether you are or are not.

Seek help. Alcoholics Anonymous can help.

We are a Fellowship of men and women who
have lost the ability to control our drinking and
have found ourselves in various kinds of trouble
as a result of drinking. We attempt — most of us
successfully — to create a satisfying way of life
without alcohol. For this we find we need the help
and support of other alcoholics in A.A.

No. A.A. does not keep membership files or attendance records. You do not have to reveal anything
about yourself. No one will bother you if you don’t
want to come back.

They will be there for the same reason you are
there. They will not disclose your identity to outsiders. At A.A. you retain as much anonymity as
you wish. That is one of the reasons we call ourselves Alcoholics Anonymous.

An A.A. meeting may take one of several forms,
but at any meeting you will find alcoholics talking
about what drinking did to their lives and personalities, what actions they took to help themselves,
and how they are living their lives today.

We in A.A. know what it is like to be addicted to
alcohol, and to be unable to keep promises made
to others and ourselves that we will stop drinking. We are not professional therapists. Our only
qualification for helping others to recover from
alcoholism is that we have stopped drinking ourselves; and problem drinkers coming to us know
that recovery is possible because they see people
who have done it.

We in A.A. believe there is no such thing as a cure
for alcoholism. We can never return to normal
drinking, and our ability to stay away from alcohol
depends on maintaining our physical, mental, and
spiritual health. This we can achieve by going to
meetings regularly and putting into practice what
we learn there. In addition, we find it helps us to
stay sober if we help other alcoholics.

You are an A.A. member if and when you say so.
The only requirement for A.A. membership is
a desire to stop drinking, and many of us were
not very wholehearted about that when we first
approached A.A.

There are no dues or fees for A.A. membership.
An A.A. group will usually have a collection during
the meeting to cover expenses, such as rent, coffee, etc., and to this all members are free to contribute as much or as little as they wish.

No. Nor is it allied with any religious organization.

The majority of A.A. members believe that we
have found the solution to our drinking problem
not through individual willpower, but through a
power greater than ourselves. However, everyone
defines this power as he or she wishes. Many
people call it God, others think it is the A.A. group,
still others don’t believe in it at all. There is room
in A.A. for people of all shades of belief and nonbelief.

Family members or close friends are welcome at
“Open” A.A. meetings. Discuss this with your local
contact.

In our experience, the people who recover in A.A.
are those who:
a) stay away from the first drink;
b) attend A.A. meetings regularly;
c) seek out the people in A.A. who have successfully stayed sober for some time;
d) try to put into practice the A.A. program
of recovery;
e) obtain and study the Big Book, Alcoholics
Anonymous.

To contact Alcoholics Anonymous in the Greater Dallas Area, call (214) 887-6699, day or night.

Look for Alcoholics Anonymous online or in your
local telephone directory. These telephones are
answered by A.A. volunteers who will be happy to
answer your questions, or put you in touch with
those who can. If there is no A.A. telephone service close to you, write or phone the A.A. General
Service Office or visit our website at www.aa.org.

Remember that alcoholism is a progressive disease. Take it seriously, even if you feel you are only in the early stages of the illness. Alcoholism kills people. If you are an alcoholic, and if you continue to drink, in time you will get worse.