Fellowship for Families and Friends of Alcoholics in Idaho
Welcome
This website is intended to help members, potential members, the public, and the professional community to locate Al-Anon and Alateen meetings locally and to learn of the services they provide. If you are new to Al-Anon, there is hope and help.
Statement of Purpose
Al-Anon’s Suggested Preamble to the Twelve Steps
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.
Reprinted with permission from the Al-Anon/Alateen Service Manual (P-24/27), © 1992, Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc.
I Always Feel Better - An excerpt from the Forum
I never cease to be amazed at the way the spiritual principles embodied in the Twelve Steps, Twelve Traditions, and Twelve Concepts of Service—such as common welfare, unity, participation, right of decision, appeal and petition, autonomy, definition of responsibility, delegation of authority, and so on—weave together to create balance and harmony, and even beauty, in their application to any number of my “problems of living and working together” with others (Introduction to the Twelve Traditions).
The Twelve Steps
Because of their proven power and worth, AA’s Twelve Steps have been adopted almost word for word by Al-Anon. They represent a way of life appealing to all people of goodwill, of any religious faith or of none. Note the power of the very words!
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Dear Daughter - An excerpt from the Forum
I am grateful you are in my life. You are beautiful, intelligent, creative, kind, and compassionate, and I love you with all my heart.
After a great deal of suffering, I am seeing the impact your dependence on alcohol and drugs has had on me. This disease has shaped both our journeys for several years, and I have feared day and night that you would die.
The Twelve Traditions
The Traditions that follow bind us together in unity. They guide the groups in their relations with other groups, with AA and the outside world. They recommend group attitudes toward leadership, membership, money, property, public relations, and anonymity.
The Traditions evolved from the experience of AA groups in trying to solve their problems of living and working together. Al-Anon has adopted these group guidelines and over the years has found them sound and wise. Although they are only suggestions, Al-Anon’s unity and perhaps even its survival are dependent on adherence to these principles.
1. Our common welfare should come first; personal progress for the greatest number depends upon unity.
2. For our group purpose there is but one authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants—they do not govern.
3. The relatives of alcoholics, when gathered together for mutual aid, may call themselves an Al-Anon Family Group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation. The only requirement for membership is that there be a problem of alcoholism in a relative or friend.
4. Each group should be autonomous, except in matters affecting another group or Al-Anon or AA as a whole.
5. Each Al-Anon Family Group has but one purpose: to help families of alcoholics. We do this by practicing the Twelve Steps of AA ourselves, by encouraging and understanding our alcoholic relatives, and by welcoming and giving comfort to families of alcoholics.
6. Our Family Groups ought never endorse, finance or lend our name to any outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary spiritual aim. Although a separate entity, we should always co-operate with Alcoholics Anonymous.
7. Every group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. Al-Anon Twelfth Step work should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
9. Our groups, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
10. The Al-Anon Family Groups have no opinion on outside issues; hence our name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, films, and TV. We need guard with special care the anonymity of all AA members.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles above personalities.
Anger and Dispair - An excerpt from the Forum
When I came into the program, I was filled with despair and anger…
But as I stayed in Al‑Anon and started to work the program, I did find freedom: freedom from my obsession with someone else’s choices, freedom from my constant failure to control someone else’s behavior, freedom to improve my own life, and the life-changing freedom of no longer being a victim, of realizing that I always have choices.
Slogans, Concepts, & Warranties
This is a link to the WSO Website with a list of Slogans (with explanation), Concepts of Service and the General Warranties of the Conference.
The Language of Hope - An excerpt from the Forum
Enter the disease of alcoholism. Cunning. Baffling. Powerful. From the time I was a little girl, the disease of alcoholism was very prevalent in our home, and its effects ripped our family apart. To protect myself and my siblings, I built a fortress around us so high it was unscalable. I locked my heart and mind in chains and hid the key away in a vault buried so deep it would never be found. Alcoholism caused so many promises to be broken that I believed I must be unlovable. I couldn’t imagine allowing myself to be hurt one more time. The fortress in my mind served as a means of survival…
FAQs
Click to see a FAQ page that provides general information about Al-Anon and Alateen. Note: You are leaving the Idaho Al-Anon website and visiting the national World Service Office Al-Anon Family Groups website.
Reclaiming Hope After Relapse - An exerpt from the Forum
I never thought it would happen to me. I had been living in a recovery household for over 20 years. Then one day, my husband said, “I just want to let you know I drank while I was hunting.” My heart sank. I almost couldn’t believe it. I had plenty of Al‑Anon under my belt but never imagined I would need it for something like this. Thank God I already had a Sponsor, was attending meetings, had worked the Steps, and had built a support system.
My husband’s relapse sent me into what felt like a different realm. I had never known that kind of powerlessness before. I used the tools I had learned, but it was not an easy road. I couldn’t grasp the concept of the First Step for a long time. I decided to stay with him and try to work a good Al‑Anon program, but after two and a half years, my growth in the program gave me the courage to finally stop the merry-go-round ride. We separated, and that brought on a whole new hell for me. Once again, I used the tools that I had been practicing and held on for dear life.
Resources for Professionals
Al-Anon is a mutual support group of peers who share their experiences living with the impact of alcoholic behavior in their lives. Alateen is a peer support group for young people struggling with the impact of alcoholic behavior in their homes. No advance notice or written referral is necessary to attend Al-Anon or Alateen, and there are no dues or fees. Encourage your clients to try Al-Anon as a resource to support their own recoveries from the impactful effects of alcoholic behavior. Here is a link to additional resources for professionals on Al-Anon’s World Service Organization website.