The therapeutic efficacy of AA, though acknowledged, is little understood. An analysis of the addictive experience is conducted to provide explanatory hypotheses for the success of AA. The addictive experience is characterized by intensity of feelings which cannot be rendered symbolically via language. Out of this mode of experiencing emerges three phenomena: (1) an alleration in the sense of the movement of time; (2) a sense of alienation and lack of connection to others; (3) a lack of sense of agency and the inability for self/affect regulation. These results are brought into dialogue with the AA recovery program and AA is found to specifically address the problematic modes of experiencing characteristic of the addicted person.