Emotions Anonymous History
The EA membership is composed of people who come together in weekly support group meetings for the purpose of working toward recovery from emotional difficulties. EA members are from many walks of life and are of diverse ages, economic statuses, and social and educational backgrounds.
- The only requirement for EA membership is a desire to become well emotionally.
The first group of what is now Emotions Anonymous met on April 13th, 1966, at the Merriam Park Community Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.
- The group, originally known as Neurotics Anonymous, was started by Marion F., a 55-year-old woman, after seeing a newspaper article that suggested the twelve-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous could be used as a tool for recovery from emotional illness. Because of her many years of fear and panic, she thought the program might be beneficial to her.
At the first meeting, about a dozen people were present; including several Al-Anon members. The news media picked up on it, and the following week there were sixty-five people present.
- By the fall of that year,1966, a Minneapolis, Minnesota group was added, leading to other groups forming throughout the Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and eventually spreading to other neighboring states.
As the program grew, differences developed between these groups and the main offices of Neurotics Anonymous. After a number of attempts to settle this discord, the Minnesota Intergroup Association dissociated from Neurotics Anonymous and became Emotions Anonymous.
EA officers were elected and permission was granted from A.A. World Services to use their Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions in the new program. EA Articles of Incorporation were filed on July 22nd, 1971.
In the years to come, EA books and publications were developed for the membership, as well as an official logo for the organization.
The first annual EA convention was held in 1972, and at that time the bylaws were ratified and the first International Service Board of Trustees was elected. EA still holds annual conventions and the Board of Trustees oversees the work of the International Service Center, staffed by an Executive Director and office staff.
The Emotions Anonymous Book ("The Big Book"), still in use today, was completed in 1978.
An EA daily reader, The Today Book, was published in 1987.
In 2003, a book, It Works if You Work It, was published as a how-to primer for EA members.
Welcoming the Spiritual Awakening Within You is the newest workbook available through EA and was published in July 2019.
Today, EA has materials translated into sixteen different languages and used in more than thirty countries around the world.
