How Bill Wilson Invented Alcoholics Anonymous
There are a variety of programs for alcoholics ranging from secular to non-secular, health based to cold-turkey; today is the birthday of the organization that started the self-help movement AA. What I found interesting was cofounder Bill Wilson of AA was raised in Vermont.
How Bill Wilson Invented Alcoholics Anonymous
Seventy-one years ago today, outside the Akron, Ohio, city hospital, Dr. Robert Smith swigged from a bottle of beer. He and his friend Bill Wilson had just mapped out a new way to cure alcoholism, and they were sure it would work. Smith only needed one last drink to prevent hand tremors on the job. It sounds like the recidivist?s lame excuse, but the beer did turn out to be Smith?s last. The date was June 10, 1935?now known as the official birthday of Alcoholics Anonymous.
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By the time he got a call from an old drinking buddy in 1934, Wilson had, in AA parlance, hit bottom. In 1905, when he was only 10, his father had left his mother; his maternal grandmother raised him and his sister in Vermont.
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