What is the success rate of recovery in AA? That depends entirely on who you ask, and on exactly what you are measuring. For example, there is documentation that proves “early AA” had a success rate of about 75 percent. On the other hand, there are some people who claim that AA actually has a negative rate of recovery, and that people actually relapse in AA who might have recovered “spontaneously” through spontaneous remission of the disease. Finally, there are a large number of estimates out there that put the success rate of recovery at around 3 to 5 percent. But it is indeed a tricky thing to measure. For one, what exactly are we measuring? Complete abstinence for life? Alcoholics who successfully make it to one year sober? What exactly determines “success” when we are talking about success rates? This is the first half of the measuring problem. The other half of the problem is that it is very difficult to obtain truly accurate results across a large sample. There are a number of reasons for this, not the least of which is the anonymity that the program is based on. Add that to the shame and guilt associated ...
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