Talk:Al-Anon/Alateen

Emotions Anonymous

Putting Emotions Anonymous back in the list of "See Also" groups. EA's founder originally went to Al-Anon meetings, though she was not related to an alcoholic. — Craigtalbert 08:06, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Lois's story

Why was the excerpt from Lois' story removed? — DavidMack 19:04, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

There was no source. — Craigtalbert 23:03, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Put it back in with reference. — DavidMack 23:41, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

I like how it fits in the article. Thank you for the reference and adding it back. — Craigtalbert 00:04, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Alateen membership

The main paragraph states that Alateen is for teens who are offspring of alcoholics. But, any teen may join Alateen, including those who only have alcoholics for friends, even if their parents aren't alcoholics.rich 03:03, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Good point, reworded. -- Craigtalbert 04:50, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Unnecessary acronyms?

There are a few places where acronyms are introduced, but are not used again (e.g. COA, CRAFT, CSO). Are these necessary? Is it a goal of the article to teach these acronyms? Is this information important for people to take away? --Dan Griscom (talk) 22:16, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

They're not necessary, you can remove them if you'd like. If you're interested in the topic, I'm been working on a related article, Alcoholism in family systems in my sandbox. I would appreciate any feedback you might have. -- Scarpy (talk) 00:36, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

Age limit

The age for Alateen membership has been reduced. It is now for 12-17 as 18 year olds are classed as adults and unscreened adults are not allowed in the alateen closed meetings. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 150.127.225.247 (talk • contribs) 18:57, Feb 23, 2009 (UTC)

If you can find some place where this has been published on the Alanon website, or a citation for a published source, I will correct it on the page. -- Scarpy (talk) 19:20, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Criticisms

This article does not reflect criticisms of 12-step programs. Not really NPOV —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.190.27.18 (talk) 04:08, 3 August 2008 (UTC)

WP:SOFIXIT -- Scarpy (talk) 17:21, 3 August 2008 (UTC)

CRAFT Relevancy Issue

While Al-Anon states that "the family situation is bound to improve as we apply the Al-Anon ideas", the purpose of the program is not about the alcoholic, nor is it about arresting the progression of the alcoholic's disease. "Al-Anon exists for but one purpose, to help friends and family of alcoholics." Therefore, the section "Encouraging alcoholics to participate in treatment" and a comparison of CRAFT's effectiveness to Al-Anon is not relevant to the article.

Since Alcoholics Anonymous is the program that focuses on the alcoholic, perhaps a comparison of CRAFT's effectiveness could be stated in the Alcoholics Anonymous article instead? That would seem more appropriate than here.

I vote to remove the section.

Discussion? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.73.100.29 (talk) 22:38, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

• I agree, it seems tangential. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.225.191.66 (talk) 22:00, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

If Anonymous, how statistics?

If Al-Anon is an anonymous program, how are there statistical claims of membership such as percentage of "whites", "women" and "college degrees"? In my own community at the Al Anon meetings I've attended, white is the minority.

Al-Anon Family Groups Inc. takes a survey of its membership every three years and publishes the results (or at least used to) as a pamphlet, "Who Are the Members of Al-Anon?" They are online as well: Al-Anon Membership Survey Results. I have not compared the 2009 survey to statistics in the article, however.  ~ InkQuill  01:42, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Accurate, but not Neutral

Having participated in Al-Anon for about a year, and simultaneously attending group counseling sessions with an addictions psychiatrist-addictions counselor team, I have noticed that I have learned much more and much faster about addictions in the group counseling than in the Al-Anon meetings. Al-Anon meetings provide group therapy through commiseration and sharing of mutual problems, and rather infrequently, sharing of solutions. Herein lies my concern - Al-Anon, and writers in this Talk seem to accept that since "you did not cause the addiction, you cannot control the addiction, and you cannot cure the addiction", you cannot have any positive effect on the addict, so you should focus on fixing yourself. Duh! If the addiction enters recovery, your problems will be reduced, so CRAFT (yes, acronyms are useful to provide in write-ups) helps you if it helps the addict. "Setting boundaries" as recommended by Al-Anon helps you, but also has a beneficial effect on the addict. Cutting off all contact with an addicted offspring can have a beneficial effect in pushing them toward recovery. I think Al-Anon published literature, meetings, and conferences focus too much on fixing self, and too little on helping their addict ("qualifier") feel the pain of consequences that moves them closer to recovery. Don't get me wrong, I will "keep coming back" to Al-Anon. The above, however, is original observations, as far as I know, so it cannot be included in the Al-Anon article. Does anyone know if similar comments have been published anywhere? In summary, this article needs some balancing, with reasonable criticisms of Al-Anon. Drbillellis 01:09, 19 February 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Drbillellis (talk • contribs)

Association with AA

I often see Al-Anon looked upon as just an alternate name for Alcoholics Anonymous, which of course is incorrect. But seeing as Al-Anon sprung from the same source, maybe there should be something more clearly indicating whether or not Al-Anon and AA have any actual relationship today or if they are completely separate organizations. 68.146.233.86 (talk) 18:22, 6 November 2016 (UTC)

According to Al-Anon's Tradition Six, "Although a separate entity, we should always co-operate with Alcoholics Anonymous".