Does AA Help Men & Women Differently?

Of course women are different in AA, Bill Wilson made sure of that when he talked Lois Wilson into Making Al-Anon to talk women into letting their AA husbands go out at all hours of the night to do 12 Step calls. Lois said she was very lonely in her book "Lois Remembers" of course she didn't mention that Bill Wilson was having numerous affairs, but Francis Hartigan the personal assistant of Lois Wilson knew....

Lois: "For my part, I would not let myself perceive that I was not as happy as I should have been after all my dreams of Bill's sobriety had come true. Although my joy and faith in his rebirth continued, I missed our companionship. We were seldom alone together now. There was no time for outdoor weekends. Bill was busy working with his alcoholics ... I felt left out and unneeded."
Source: Lois Wilson. Lois Remembers. 1979. pg. 98.

Francis Hartigan: "By the time Bill and Helen met, Lois had been long praticed in ignoring her husband's peccadilloes. From all the evidence, Bill never stopped loving Lois. He seems always to have sincerely enjoyed her company and to have sought and respected her opinion. He never stopped believing that he owed his very life to her loyalty and support."
Source: Francis Hartigan. Bill W.: A Biography of Alcoholics Anonymous Cofounder Bill Wilson. 2000. pg. 193.

Francis Hartigan: "In the mid-1950s, when Bill was in his early sixties, he began an affair that was different than any he had before. The Woman's name was Helen Wynn, and she was in her early forties when Bill met her. Helen and Bill were together some fifteen years. They saw each other regularly in New York and later in Pleasantville, a town fifteen minutes south of Bedford Hills, where Helen bought a home."
Source: Francis Hartigan. Bill W.: A Biography of Alcoholics Anonymous Cofounder Bill Wilson. 2000. pg. 190.

Of course the first know suicide of a woman in the cult of Alcoholics Anonymous was Florence Rankin who wrote the "Feminine Victory" in the first Edition and was quickly removed. The minions of Alcoholics Anonymous following in the foot steps of Bill Wilson made a martyr out of her like Bill made a martyr out of Bill C, the guy that killed himself because of the the brainwashing that didn't work with the kitchen gas stove at 182 Clinton Street while Bill was off partying with his wife and a bunch of fellow alcoholics.

The grave "tagged" by the Washington Area Intergroup Association (WAIA, http://www.aa-dc.org/)-

Florence Rankin Kalhoun
Birth: Dec. 17, 1895
Death: Apr. 19, 1943
Inscription: "A Feminine Victory"
Burial:
George Washington Cemetery
Adelphi
Prince George's County
Maryland, USA
Plot: Section 1A, Lot 325, Site 5
Created by: Michael Margetis
Record added: Jan 10, 2009
Find A Grave Memorial# 32806386
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=32806386

Dave- good post as it shows the creep Bill Wilson really was. I visited Stepping Stones this summer and there was an extra bed where Helen could sleep. Al ANON has never grown because it is a program based on complete victimization . Lois was such a victim. They try and re make it but , those are the facts. I attended AL Anon for years to try and get help with family . It help just a bit with siblings and parents, but I think its core belief that " we as family " can not help our own family, that only special Alcoholics can do that is one big fucking lie!

Lois has nothing to base anything on either. Bill was such a philanderer. Sex addict in todays lingo!

ANyway I was shocked when I learned this about Bill.

and AA was based on 13 stepping , sexual predation. One oldtimer using an new woman's vulnerability

ALso someone in Al Anon stole a large sum of money and bought a house. It didnt help their image.
Im glad its still small, however they are going after teens now. Of should I say their parents.

They give ridiculous advice like...throw your kid out" FUCK THEM! ANy kid who had that happen to them because their parents went to Al anon should sue their asses.

The cult of steppism killed two of my freinds, one male the other female so I suppose the same lies and misinformation affects both sexes the same

Dr. Kelly said, “AA helps both men and women stay sober following treatment by enhancing sober social networks and boosting confidence in coping with high-risk situations.”

So believing that you are 'powerless' over a dead plant and constantly repeating 'they told me' 'I want what theyve got' 'character defects' etc helps both men and women in coping with high risk situations? Come on Dr Kelly, pull the other one, its got bells on......the festive season has just ended LOL

Incidently have you any real proof of this assertion, or are you just parroting what other cult promoters have been lying and misinforming people with for years?

We all know that the only thing stepper cult indoctrination helps anyone cope with, is more stepper cult indictrination, it was designed that way

Hi Massive,

'AA can be a form of socializing for men and can help women cope with sadness.'

AA can be a form of SOCIALIZING for men????? Strange, very strange, I'd rather spend my social time watching paint dry than parroting 'they told me' 'I want what theyve got' 'get your self a sponsor' etc.....unless of course I was playing BS Bingo LOL

We’ve seen studies like this before. They are far from scientific. The very first thing a study of this nature does is drop all those for whom 12 steps completely failed from the study. AA has only around a 5% retention rate, so that’s dropping the vast majority. Then they conflate spontaneous remission with AA actually working for those 5%. Then they make some very incorrect assumptions about how AA goes about “helping,” such as this:

“[W]e found the ability to handle negative moods and emotions was important for women but not for men.”

AA doesn’t teach anyone how exactly to handle negative moods and emotions, it’s just tells then to not have them. For instance, there is absolutely no practical advice on handling anger, just that it’s dangerous.

“If we were to live, we had to be free of anger.” BB p.66, How It Works

So when the women report they are free of anger and it’s keeping them sober, they have been brainwashed to think that way and it’s more accurate that they are now stuffing their anger and it’s only their own motivation to stay sober that’s keeping them from drinking.

“Conversely, coping with high-risk social situations—which could be attending sports or other events where people are likely to drink—was important for men but not women.”

Again, this is not how AA “works.” People are told to completely avoid any high risk social situations, at least until they are “spiritually fit” an intentionally vague term that nobody knows exactly how to define. Again, there’s absolutely no practical advice on how to deal with high risk situations.

“If you go to the barber shop often enough you will get a hair cut.”

The “test” as to whether someone is “spiritually fit” enough is after the fact: Whether someone drank in the high risk situation or not.

I can’t find the actual study, but it appears this so-called study had none of the elements that define a scientifically rigorous inquiry, such as a control group and a comparison group, or it would have mentioned them. Even though it dropped those from the study for whom 12 step treatment didn’t work, it still shows a pretty abysmal rate of abstinence among those remaining.

“Women were abstinent from drinking 49 percent of days and men were for 53 percent of days.”

Not good.

interested. AAproves 13th stepping and condones it. What a wacko organization!!

Violent criminals and sexual predators are AAproved.