Self-help groups, also known as mutual help, mutual aid, or recovery support groups, play a vital role in substance abuse treatment in the United States, and research has shown that active involvement in support groups significantly improves the likelihood of remaining clean and sober. In a self-help group, the members share a common problem, often a common disease or addiction. Self-help groups can occur in a wide variety of forms, from two individuals sharing experience and coping strategies, to small groups gathering in community meeting rooms, to large, incorporated organizations offering information, support and advocacy services. Recovery from alcoholism and addiction…

When Marty Mann first established the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism (NCEA) in 1944, now known as the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD), the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) was only nine years old and still working its way through the trial and error process that would ultimately lead to the development of the Fellowship's Twelve Traditions, principal among them the concept of anonymity at the public level. Struggling with how AA as a whole might best publicize its life-saving work while maintaining the anonymity of its individual members was one of the most critical issues AA had to…