Recovered Alcoholic

  If he is not interested in your solution, if he expects you to act only as a banker for his financial difficulties or a nurse for his sprees, you may have to drop him until he changes his mind.   This he may do after he gets hurt some more.   If he is sincerely interested and wants to see you again,   ask him to read this book in the interval.   After doing that,   he must decide for himself whether he wants to go on.   He should   not be pushed or prodded by you,   his wife, or his friends.   If he is to find God, the desire must come from within.   If he thinks he can do the job in some other way, or prefers some other spiritual approach, encourage him to follow his own conscience. We have no monopoly on God; we merely have an approach that worked with us.   But point out that we alcoholics have much in common and that you would like, in any case, to be friendly. Let it go at that. Working With Others    pg 95 Pai...

  I had a desire to stop drinking, but I really didn't want to be a member..LOL! I remember telling people that I would go to some meetings, stop drinking and get on with my life. I would use AA the way I had used everything and everyone else...to get what I wanted my way. Instead, I learned that along with the desire to stop drinking I had to actually give back to AA. AA is not a self-help program. It is a program to teach selfish people how to not be, at least that's' how it was designed. I am a member because in order for this thing to stick, in order for me to have sustainable, solid sobriety, I need to show others precisely how I recovered. Not use AA to feed my ego or make it about me...which I have in the past.  We, OF Alcoholics Anonymous, are more than one hundred men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. To show other alcoholics PRECISELY HOW WE HAVE RECOVERED is the main purpose of this book. For the...

  I was studying the 12x12 this morning (The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions) the two warnings below regarding the future of the fellowship. The traditions, if followed, would safeguard the integrity and stability of the program. But they are not, so the fellowship and the program is at threat. One of the major threats seems to be the need to seek approval from the world. To conform to it. All the things that drove us to drink in attempting to conform, twist and fit to the illogical, are now infecting the fellowship directly. In the Introduction to the 12 x12 (which is hard to find on the internet now as it seems the Introduction doesn't suit the narrative), but the hard copy remains they simple states: *Alcoholics Anonymous first published Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions in 1953. Bill W., who along with Dr. Bob S. founded Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935, wrote the book to share 18 years of collective experience within the Fellowship on how A.A. members recover, a...