Alcoholics Anonymous Is One of the Most Remarkable Social Movements of the Last Hundred Years

Alcoholics anonymous was started in the 1930s by two men who themselves were addicted to alcohol Dr. Bob and Bill W. They came together in desperation and realized that by talking to each other and sharing their lived experiences they managed amazingly not to drink even when all these other medical interventions hadn't been helpful. It's a volunteer grassroots mutual help organization but it probably works through multiple different mechanisms one of them being just having a sober social network right affiliating with other people who are not using or who are trying not to use. And then I speculate that the other way that it works is by leveraging pro-social shame which can motivate people to stop using.