Self-help, or self-improvement, is a self-guided improvement - economically, intellectually, or emotionally - often with a substantial psychological basis. There are many different self-help movements and each one has its own unique focus, techniques, associated beliefs, proponents and in some cases leaders. Self-help often takes place on the basis of publicly available information or of support groups where people in similar situations join together (wikipedia).

Most self help tries to deal with and change deep seated thought patterns. Why is It so difficult to change them? The reason is- few of us are truly aware of our own thoughts, motives, compulsions and drives. We lack self awareness at the best of times- and certainly when we need it most. This is the reason why giving up smoking, worrying, procrastination- any habit, is so difficult. There are other reasons too. We dream of a big change but rarely go about it systematically. Change involves many steps:

“..In the first stage, I'll call it "avoidance," we just don't think about the problem, even though it is perfectly clear to others. Or, we may briefly wish to change but have no serious intentions or plans for changing. Often, we blame others for the problem and resist change or believe we can't do anything about it. We must move to the next stage, call it "contemplation," before we can begin to change. In this stage we become more aware of the problem and we think about changing, but we haven't definitely decided to do something about it yet. We may wonder if change is worth the effort; we should weigh the pros and cons of changing. Many people remain in this stage for a long time (smokers for an average of two years). To actually change, however, we must move to the next two stages of commitment, called "planning" and "action." When we make explicit plans, we have decided to take action soon. We may have already tried to change and want to try again. Ideally, we will not obsess too long with understanding the problem and developing a perfect treatment plan; it is important to actually start changing. In the "action" stage we stick with an effective plan until we reach our goals. The last stages are "maintenance," in which after making gains we do whatever is necessary to avoid relapse, and "termination”. (more)
(From Psychological Self-Help, by Dr. Clayton E. Tucker-Ladd)

Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) is one of the better known self help movement. It changed the attitude of health care professionals towards self help, from distrust to respect and cooperation. Alcoholism (addiction) is a psycho-physiological condition where in people find themselves truly 'helpless'. Medical system too does not have a satisfactory universal answer to the problem. We have seen educated normal people and their families sliding down to ruin helplessly. This is the nature of most addictions.

AA was based on a twelve step program inspired by a spiritual perspective. Since God and Communism are viewed with same distrust in many western communities, for historical reasons, AA too received its fare share of criticism for being a 'cult' etc. But if we look at its core six steps (later broken into twelve), we find nothing objectionable from the point of view of a man who has tried everything and has failed, who has been written off by family and friends. There are some similarities in the stance taken by TISA, in the self help movement for people who stammer. Here are the six steps at the core of most Alcoholic Anonymous groups:

1. We admitted that we were licked (defeated), that we were powerless over alcohol.

2. We made a moral inventory of our defects or sins.

3. We confessed or shared our shortcomings with another person in confidence.

4. We made restitution to all those we had harmed by our drinking.

5. We tried to help other alcoholics, with no thought of reward in money or prestige.

6. We prayed to whatever God we thought there was for power to practice these precepts.

At the organizational level, AA had 12 traditions; the Traditions provide guidelines for group governance. They were developed in AA in order to help resolve conflicts in the areas of publicity, religion and finances. Most twelve-step fellowships have adopted these principles for their structural governance. The Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous are as follows.

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon AA unity.

2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.

3. The only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking.

4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or AA as a whole.

5. Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.

6. An AA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the AA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

7. Every AA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

8. Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

9. AA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

10. Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.

11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.

12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

If we do a deeper study, we can see that AA offers a replicable and enduring model of self change, with help of others in a spiritual perspective. Stammerers can certainly benefit from this study- stammering too is a long term problem with little medical help. Stammering too has been misunderstood. Society often thinks that PWS could control their stammering if they would use a little extra self control, or just worked on this bad habit consistently or did a speech therapy course. Are we ready for a big change, as individuals, as a group?

Read this article to learn more about AA and its history.
Finally here is a real humorous incident about a couple looking for AA meeting but landing up in a SHG of PWS:

A few years ago at one of our NSA meetings a man and a woman walked in and sat down just as we had begun going around the room introducing ourselves and 'checking in'. There were probably 10 or 12 of us PWS there and it took quite some time with all of stuttering. and believe me, we were stuttering! The couple had sat patiently watching and waiting for the 30 or so minutes it took us to finish. When we were finally finished we asked the couple how they had found out about our meeting. The man hesitantly replied that they had searched in the newspaper for an AA meeting and found this one. We all looked at them with puzzled expressions and the man said "Wrong meeting?" We shook our heads "Yes, wrong meeting." They got up and quickly left. The room exploded into side-splitting laughter as we wondered what they thought about what they had just experienced. A very, very funny stuttering experience for us as we laughed at ourselves! (Wrong Meeting - by Lucy Reed, from Kuster's home page)