Moderation Management Is In the Landscaping Business

30 years ago, Moderation Management (MM) was formed by a handful of courageous people who dared to  challenge the predominant belief that the only solution for problem drinking was total abstinence from alcohol. These people believed that controlled drinking or moderation was also an option. 

Early Controlled Drinking Research Threatens AA Culture

Controversial research studies in the 1980’s by Dr. Mark Sobell and Dr. Linda Sobell challenged the untested disease concept of alcholism and proved that controlled drinking was possible for a segment of problem drinkers. These studies were met with overwhelming resistance and skepticism. “Controlled drinking, in particular, threatened an entire culture based on the philosophy of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).  Further research studies conducted by Marth Sanchez-Craig  in the 1990’s substantiated the Sobells’ earlier research that moderation or controlled drinking was possible and provided definitions and guidelines for moderate drinking. Soon lay people and other professionals in the recovery field joined the movement toward a more scientific-based approach to problem drinking.   They challenged the experts, they conducted more research studies, they wrote articles and books and went on TV talk shows. The landscape of recovery started to change.

Moderation Management’s Early Days

Moderation Management started with a handful of meetings held in large cities like New York and L.A. The internet was a new frontier at that time but would eventually become home to the MM Forum and Listserv that served as communities of support and hope for thousands of people who were concerned about their drinking but did not believe they were powerless over alcohol.

Then Covid struck and the world was forced to conduct their lives as best they could from the safety of their own homes. MM strived to meet the needs of a world that was seeing their drinking increase amidst the stress and isolation of the Covid pandemic. The number of online  MM meetings grew to meet the need. MM now hosts several meetings per day with almost 1500 participants per month.

How MM Changed My Personal Landscape

I was fortunate to witness the beginning of MM in 1994.  At the time,  I lived in a rural area and there were no peer support meetings in my area or online MM communities. There was only AA and I wasn’t ready to quit drinking completely.  Fast forward 20 years and I had become a middle-aged daily heavy drinker. One night, desperate for help, I googled MM and found an active online community in the MM Forum. That was 2010 and I have been an active member of MM ever since.

MM has changed my own personal landscape for the better.  I owe a lot of gratitude (and my life) to those first brave founders who believed there was another way. I also owe MM’s fiercely loyal members who refused to let the organisation surrender to failure through some horrendously hard times. But most of all, I owe my fellow members who have always been there when I needed them.

For 30 years, MM has been there for me. Even though I did not  reach out for support from MM until 15 years ago, I was  aware there was an alternative to AA and 12-step programs  that offered support other than total abstinence from drinking. I am so grateful I had that knowledge. It dismays me when I hear a meeting participant share that they had never heard of MM until they googled alternatives to AA or their therapist referred them. MM should be a household name by now.

Payback Time

I can’t pay MM back for everything it has given me, but I can pay a portion forward right now. With  gratitude I give back, to make sure that MM will be there for that next, scared, shame-filled person like me  who finds their way to an MM meeting or community.

Please join me in Donating to MM’s Grateful Giving 2024.  I want to help spread the word that controlled drinking and moderation is possible with support and the right tools. I don’t want anyone else to wait 20 years to change the landscape of their life the way I did. 

Donate Today – Your generosity fuels our mission!

Donate once: https://moderation.org/donations, or monthly: https://moderation.org/donate-monthly

Mary Reid
Grateful MM Member