Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in 1935 in Akron, Ohio, by Bill Wilson and Dr. Robert Holbrook Smith. Its Twelve Steps were first published in 1939. Step One reads: “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.”
More than 200 self-help organizations now use the twelve-step model. Many keep the sentence and change one word. Narcotics Anonymous is powerless over “our addiction,” Overeaters Anonymous over “food,” Gamblers Anonymous over “gambling” and Debtors Anonymous over “debt.”