FAMILY FRIENDLY –
March 6, 2025 – This is all a hacky way to introduce Al-Anon — a program that has helped to improve my life and the lives of many others. Al-Anon is not the same program as AA, and it’s not just a shortened way to say “Alcoholics Anonymous.” It’s a support group for people who have been affected by people who suffer from alcoholism, but may not necessarily be alcoholics themselves.
Why the hell the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous decided to give their 12-step program for people who have been emotionally injured by alcoholism a name that seems like another nickname for AA is beyond my realm of comprehension. I have to explain the difference to every single person in my life. A lot of the time people still don’t understand the difference.
(A separate 12-step program, Adult Children of Alcoholics, offers a much more illustrative idea of the program. It’s largely the same as Al-Anon, but I haven’t found ACA to be as useful to me as Al-Anon has been.)
