"I'M AN ALCOHOLIC, MY NAME IS ________"
How Did The "I'm An Alcoholic" Custom Start?
Who was the first to start a meeting or a qualification with the statement, "I'm an alcoholic"? How did the worldwide custom begin? As late co-founder Bill W. used to observe: "Nobody invented AA It just grew." And so probably did its classic introduction at meetings.
"Many members ask these questions." says G.S.O. archivist, Frank M. "Unfortunately, only a few early timers are left, and not many of them are able to produce plausible theories. So we can only speculate."
According to an early friend of AA, the late Henrietta Seiberling, the expression dates back to meetings of AA's forerunner, The Oxford Group Movement, which had it's heyday in the early 1930's. Mrs. Seiberling, a nonalcoholic who had sought spiritual help in the Oxford Group meetings, introduced Bill to AA's other founder, Dr. Bob, then struggling to get sober in the Oxford Group.
At small meetings, the members knew one another and didn't need to identify themselves. But in the large "public" meetings, there was "witnessing," along the lines of an AA talk today, so personal identification became necessary. Chances are that someone at sometime said, "I'm an alcoholic" but, Mrs. Seiberling wasn't sure. Nor did she remember that the phrase was used at early AA meetings in Akron, before publication of the Big Book. In fact, she said the word "alcoholic" was rarely uttered, at least in Akron. People referred to themselves as "drunks" or "rum hounds" or "boozers" or other epithets reminiscent of the Temperance Movement that gained adherents during prohibition.
An early New York AA first heard expression as "I'm an alcoholic and my name is...". According to his recollection, that was after World War II, in 1945 or 1946. And it is a matter of record that, in 1947, a documentary film, "I'm an alcoholic" was produced by RKO. From there on, as Bill might say, the custom "just grew."
from Box 459, date/issue unknown, copied from "The Messenger", June 2001