Abstinence and well-being among members of alcoholics anonymous: Personal experience and social perceptions

The authors examined the subjective experience of well-being (WB) among abs tinent Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) members and social perceptions of an absti nent alcoholic's WE among 3 nonalcoholic French-Canadian samples: male poli ce officers, Catholic nuns, and university women. The short-term abstinent AA members, along with the university women, reported the lowest self-ratin gs of WB, whereas the Catholic nuns reported the highest. However, among th e abstinent AA members, the level of WE was positively related to the lengt h of abstention. The 3 nonalcoholic groups evaluated an abstinent AA member more positively than a nonabstinent alcoholic. These evaluations of an abs tinent AA member converged with the AA members' self-evaluations on the mea sure of WE.