I was taught to take my life one day at a time.

Gulf Daily News ~ Published: 7th May 2005

Alcoholics Anonymous has been helping people in Bahrain for 30 years. Recovering alcoholics tell in their own words how it has given them new lives.

"I had had enough. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired."

The man is in his late 40s. He is fit and neatly dressed. His name is Zaki and he is an alcoholic.

"I could not stop drinking and it had reached the point when I needed a drink first thing in the morning, just to stop the shakes," he said.

"I lost my job, my health, my family and my self-respect. I was suicidal when I came to my first meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous over four years ago.

"After three weeks of meetings every day I stopped drinking and I haven't had a drink since.

"It's been a slow but steady progress for me. But now I'm back in work, I am head of my household again and I feel well and happy. All thanks to AA."

Zaki looks fit and prosperous. It is hard to see him now as a shaking, miserable and dirty drunk, begging money from his friends and sleeping wherever he could find a bed for the night.

Zaki is "sharing his experience, strength and hope" with fellow recovering alcoholics in a room on the first floor of the American Mission Hospital in Manama.

It is smoky. The air-conditioner clatters. About 24 people listen intently.

This is the daily evening gathering of Alcoholics Anonymous, which marks 30 years of meetings in Bahrain next month.

The majority of the people in this particular meeting are expatriates and the meeting is in English.

But there are seven Bahraini men with a sobriety time ranging from three months to 20 years.

There are also two European women.

The age range is mid-20s to late 60s.

Worldwide, AA has over two million members who are sober today in over 140 countries and the "fellowship" is celebrating its own 70th birthday this year.

AA was started by two American alcoholics in 1935 and is by far the largest and fastest-growing self-help movement in the world.

Its success is based on a set of basic precepts that are read out at the start of every meeting:

"Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other, that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism.

"The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees for AA membership. We are self-supporting through our own contributions.

"AA is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organisation or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy, neither endorses nor opposes any causes.

"Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety."

One crucial element of AA's success in helping alcoholics to stop drinking and to stay stopped, is its insistence on complete abstinence from the outset - one day at a time.

"First we stop drinking, then we address the underlying problems that will pull any alcoholic back to the bottle," said Michael, a British AA member in his mid-60s.

"Other recovery programmes will help by counselling, trying to wean the drinker away from his or her dependence on alcohol, or will prescribe drugs as a substitute for the booze.

"These can help many with a drinking problem and I tried them all.

"But AA was the only programme which told me to stop drinking first, then to sort out my problems.

"I had tried psychiatrists, counsellors, and doctors. They helped me to stop, but they couldn't be with me throughout the day.

"I was prescribed Valium and told not to drink. All I got was another addiction - for 13 years to Valium itself.

"I even tried health farms, not drinking spirits, drinking only white wine and soda, only drinking at the weekends.

"And, at one time in desperation, I got a job in Saudi Arabia where I thought I couldn't possibly get a drink.

"But nothing worked because I would always drink again after a few days, weeks or once for five months.

"And when I did, it got worse. I was in and out of hospital and then I was given only three months to live by the liver specialist.

"For me, AA was the end of the road. I didn't want to end up with a bunch of no-hopers or religious nuts, which is what I thought made up AA meetings.

"How wrong I was! I was taught to take my life one day at a time. That I could stay sober for 24 hours, then another 24 hours.

"Now I have over 7,000 '24 hours' without a drink behind me. AA has not only saved my life, but has given me a new way to live."

The other unique element of AA is that all members are themselves recovering alcoholics.

"You can't kid a kidder," Michael explained.

"Each newcomer to AA is surrounded by people who have been where he or she is.

"Each of us came to AA refusing to accept that drinking was our main problem. "We blamed everything else, our marriage, job, society, childhood or just plain insisted that we could control our drinking."

AA members help the newcomer in many different ways.

In practical terms they will exchange phone numbers and call regularly to check how he or she is.

One long-time member will become the newcomer's 'sponsor', staying in daily contact and becoming a trusted confidante.

The sponsor will help by explaining AA's programme of ongoing recovery, which is essential if the individual is not only to stop drinking, but maintain emotional and mental balance to stay sober.

"Resentments, blaming others and self-pity will drag any alcoholic back to drinking," Michael frowns, as he tries to clarify his own journey in recovery.

"In my case, fear was the reason I drank. I didn't think I was 'enough' and I was angry at the world, scared of the future and very sorry for myself.

"But when I had a couple of drinks I felt smart, attractive and in control. Booze was the medicine that instantly cured what ailed me.

"But like any medicine, I needed more and more to make it work. Slowly but surely I couldn't face life without a drink and then the physical and mental effects of daily alcohol abuse began to take its toll.

"As we say: 'First I took a drink and then the drink took me'.

"AA helped me to understand that I have an addiction to alcohol, that when I take one drink, I can't stop.

"It's the first drink that gets me drunk.

"I used to think that it was the fourth or fifth drink that got me high."

Over Michael's almost 20 years of continuous sobriety he has come through the death of his first wife, the severe and chronic illness of his second wife, the mental breakdown of his eldest son, unemployment and near homelessness.

"Without the support of AA and the spiritual core of AA's programme of recovery, I would certainly have hit the bottle again and then I would have died, or worse, become seriously insane and hospitalised for life," he said.

Michael is now living happily in Bahrain and holds down a responsible job.