The History of AA, Alcoholism, Oxford Group, Medallions & The Birth of Alcoholics Anonymous and the 12 Steps

Chapters

• 0:02 History of Alcoholism and Recovery Movement
• 10:00 Evolution of Alcoholism Treatment

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Did you ever wonder about the history of AA, the history of alcoholism, medallions, the Oxford Group, all these big questions? Recovery Podcast, where we encourage you to laugh every day, to work hard, work hard in your relationships, work hard in recovery, work hard in your job, in your business, in school, and to love unconditionally. Just put much more love out there in the world and watch all this love return. The world and watch all this love return. Because we tell people all the time recovery is beautiful, your EQ is your IQ and you cannot outthink an emotional issue. Now what we encourage people to do is to join the Facebook group Recovery Freedom Circle. Link is down below. Link is down below. The community allows people to talk about the steps, share about the steps, try to understand the steps and allow people a dream that you accomplish always, always celebrate those wins and keep moving forward in recovery. So join the Facebook group Recovery Freedom Circle. Now let's jump in to this week's episode. A lot of people truly need to understand the history of AA, the history of 12 Steps. Where did all this begin to? A meeting that happened in 1934, a year before AA, or Bill W and Dr Bob meeting in 1935. So in 1934, there was a man named Ebi Thatcher who was a drinking buddy of Bill Wilson and he went over to visit Bill in November 1934. And, to Bill's surprise, ebi did not want to drink. Instead, ebi shared his experience with them, the Oxford group, and his experience with religion and finding God on how he was able to stop drinking. Bill was curious, because Bill had been wanting to stop drinking for a while, just never understood how or what type of path he needed to follow. Now, bill did not stop in November 1934, but he did have that seed planted. So then in 1935, when he was going into his three different stints in hospitals in New York City with Dr Silkworth, three different stints in hospitals in New York City with Dr Silkworth, dr Silkworth trying to tell him about the history of alcoholism, about spiritual conditions, about God, that he was much more receptive to this. So then let's look at actual clean times, sobriety dates, recovery dates. So when Bill finally did stop in June 1935 and did not drink again until his and he died sober in 1971, bill Wilson was 36 years sober, 36 years in recovery, in recovery.

Speaker 1: 4:03

On the flip side, ebi Thatcher, who introduced Bill to this new path. He remained sober and in recovery for a while, then went back to drinking, then would get some more clean time. Then in the 40s he would go back to drinking and at times he was as bad as he had ever been and Ebi did struggle with staying stopped in actual sobriety. He did end up dying sober. He ended up dying in recovery in 1966. And he had a number of years in almost like this 30-year period. He had a lot of good years of sobriety and recovery, but he also had gone back out and did that constant cycle of relapse. Now, dr Bob, after he had met Bill in June of 1935, he had one other bout with drinking and drank in August of 1935. And then. But he had never picked up another drink until his death in 1950. So Dr Bob ended up with 15 years of sobriety, 15 years of recovery. So these were the seeds of what we now talk about in terms of 12 steps, in terms of AA, in terms of battling and dealing and overcoming alcoholism.

Speaker 1: 5:43

But let's go back to what is the Oxford Group, because we hear that a lot Now. The Oxford Group was started by a man named Dr Frank Buckman and the original name was First Century Christian Fellowship. In 1931, they changed the name to the Oxford Group. Now the Oxford Group to deal with life's problems, to deal with alcoholism. Their main and the biggest problems were fear and selfishness. That's how they kind of viewed everything. The way to overcome that was to surrender to God's plan, and that's why, when we talked a lot about step three, that's where Bill picked up and introduced the whole thing about surrendering to a higher power, turn your will and then you make a decision into living a different way under God's plan, god's plan. You see, the key part that was really helpful, also from the Oxford group, was they believed in sharing and talking and, you know, sitting in groups, because they believed that sharing was healing. And they're absolutely right. They hit a home run when they introduced that concept about sharing and healing. And so, to deal with fear and unselfishness, they believed that they had to focus on four things honesty, purity, unselfishness and love. And it really came down. The Oxford group believed in what they called the five C's. A person needed confidence, yes. They needed confession, yes. They needed conviction, yes. They needed conversion, yes. And they needed continuance, yes. Those were the five C's Confidence, confession, conviction, conversion and continuance. And so that was really how the whole Oxford group and how they ended up dealing with ideas about turning your will. And that's where this whole thing about having a spiritual program began. That's where all the seeds were planted and that's where Bill used that as his basis.

Speaker 1: 8:23

Now let's talk about the history of alcoholism, as well as the history of medallions, of medallions. So, as all this is going on, there is a nun, sister Mary Ignatia Gavin, otherwise known as Sister Ignatia, in Geisha. Now, what she did, because she actually had a ward and she worked with the Sisters of Charity to really help people deal with alcoholism. In the ward of alcoholics, she started handing out medallions the sacred heart of Jesus, and she said under the protection of Jesus and AA. She said, under the protection of Jesus and AA, people could stop drinking. But she also would say now, if you're going to go back out and you're going to turn your medallion wet, return the medallion. And all of us was like you were turning your back to God and to AA and you had to almost go back in and start over after you had your relapse. But this was very important because, as we all know, we're all big fans of having our chip, having a medallion with the number of years that we have in recovery. We can keep it in our pocket. We can keep it anywhere else in our car, in our dressing rooms, wherever else we in our pocket, wherever else we do.

Speaker 1: 10:00

Now, the history of alcoholism Dr Bob, in August 16, 1935, was actually the first person that was admitted to a hospital under the medical condition of alcoholism. Now, what they did? He was diagnosed with acute gastritis. Acute gastritis Acute gastritis is an inflammation of the stomach lining which is usually attributed to a lot of heavy alcohol usage. And he was really the first person to be used and diagnosed as a medical condition in which, in turn, there was actual a solution, in which, in turn, there was actual a solution. So Dr Bob and Sister Mary Ignatia started a ward for alcoholics. They started to treat alcoholics differently than what was treated for before.

Speaker 1: 11:06

And it is true, you have to deal with the medical disease, the medical condition. You have to also deal with the spiritual condition, the emotional condition and also the mental and physical condition, and that is how you deal with alcoholism. So that is a brief story, and I think it's so important to understand the history of AA, the history of alcoholism, on how America and the world dealt with alcoholism, as well as the history of the Oxford Group, which really started a lot of these ideas on the 12 steps, and what is the foundation of the 12 steps, as well as the history of the medallions, is just something that we all carry now, 80, 90 years later, and this is such a beautiful thing the 12 steps. So the 12 steps are designed for living. If you want more information on the way I help people through the 12 steps of the Recovery Freedom Circle, tap in. I'll be more than helpful in getting you to truly understand recovery. Recovery is beautiful, and with that we are going to end this episode of the 1% in Recovery podcast.