Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous

The impressions you may have seen in the movies or on TV of the miserable and self-obsessed addicts and alcoholics looking glum in cold rooms could not be further from the truth. People choosing to maintain their recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction in these fellowships are more likely to be happy, laughing and content beings. They will have come from their own hellish existence into a new life full of promise, variety and humour. What’s not to like! Attendance at any of the 200+ weekly AA meetings in Thailand will quickly confirm this.

Described by none other than Henry Kissinger as the ‘greatest accomplishment of the 20th century’, Alcoholics Anonymous was formed in 1935 by two alcoholics who decided to help each other to defeat alcoholism and formulated a 12 step program as a roadmap to recovery. Their success led to the first 100 members basically publishing Alcoholics Anonymous’ first major literature and spreading the word far and wide. In 1953 some drug addicts trying to defeat their drug addiction in AA asked for and were granted permission to adapt the program and slightly alter the wording for their use, at which point the first offshoot was formed, that is Narcotics Anonymous. The first NA meeting in Thailand is thought to have taken place around 1988. There are now over 50 meetings a week.

Between the two worldwide fellowships, there are now estimated to be over 3 million members and 200,000 meetings per week across 200 countries. So they must be doing something right and any rehab would be remiss in not utilising some of their principles and methods.

SafeHouse will reference the 12 steps in the treatment program and will take all clients, drug addicts and alcoholics alike, to at least two Anonymous meetings a week. If our clients wish, they can continue to attend after the residential treatment program is completed. If they don’t like it or doubt it is for them, they don’t have to.

The Anonymous 12 step programs encompass, and in fact pioneered many crucial and now commonplace professional principles in successfully finding and maintaining lives away from alcoholism and drug addiction. If SafeHouse Rehab Centre Thailand can pass on some of the wisdom learned by AA and NA in nearly a century of successful existence, it will prove of immense long-term value to the client.

SafeHouse Rehab recommends but would never insist that all clients embrace these programs. We are not affiliated in any way with Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous, nor they with us.

If you require any further SafeHouse information or simply require some advice, our professional staff are ready and waiting for your call.