Does AA work? (2)

To look at the AA literature is one way to approach AA, to look at the fellowship in action another. While the format of AA meetings is the same all over the world (there are all sorts of meetings, from step-meetings to discussion-meetings, open and closed ones etc.), it is the ones attending who decide how these meetings are conducted and create the vibes (and it is often these vibes that make people stay or leave). I've heard of meetings in the Philippines, and in Italy, where, allegedly, alcohol was consumed, have participated in meetings that I've found difficult to bear in the sense that David Foster Wallace (1995) described: "So then at forty-six years of age I came here to learn to live by clichés ... To turn my will and life over to the care of clichés. One day at a time. Easy does it. First things first. Ask for help. Thy will not mine be done. It works if you work it. Grow or go. Keep coming back", and I've been to meetings where I felt profoundly helped by the stories shared. In other words, what AA do we refer to when asking whether it works?

Hans Durrer: Does AA work?