This sometimes nearly drove me back to drink, but I soon found that when all other measures failed, working with another alcoholic would save the day. , Paragraph 2: “I was not too well at the time, and was plagued with waves of self-pity and resentment. Page xxiv, paragraph 2: “In our belief, any picture of the alcoholic which leaves out this physical factor is incomplete.” “I don’t have an alcohol problem, I have a living problem” ![]() We feel as though we had been placed in a position of neutrality – safe and protected. We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. It just comes! That is the miracle of it. We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. We react sanely and normally, and we will find that this has happened automatically. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame. For by this time sanity will have returned. , paragraph 4, “And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone – even alcohol. “We are all just an arms length away from a drink” , paragraph 3: “We have recovered, and have been given the power to help others.” , paragraph 2: “Further on, clear-cut directions are given showing how we recovered.” , paragraph 2: “Doubtless you are curious to discover how and why, in face of expert opinion to the contrary, we have recovered from a hopeless condition of mind and body.įoreword to the First Edition: “We, of Alcoholics Anonymous, are more than one hundred men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body.” The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism” ![]() “I will always be recovering, never recovered.” , paragraph 2: “We are unable at certain times to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago.” His defense must come from a Higher Power.” Except in a few rare cases, neither he nor any other human being can provide such a defense. , paragraph 4: “Once more: The alcoholic at certain times has no effective mental defense against the first drink. “Think through the drink” - “Remember When” - “Remember your last drunk” There is a complete failure of the kind of defense that keeps one from putting his hand on a hot stove.” I f these thoughts do occur, they are hazy and readily supplanted with the old threadbare idea that this time we shall handle ourselves like other people. , paragraph 3: “The almost certain consequences that follow taking even a glass of beer do not crowd into the mind to deter us. Paragraph 2: “The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink.” It meant the destruction of self-centeredness.” , Paragraph 2: “Simple, but not easy a price had to be paid. With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start.” Paragraph 3: “We thought we could find an easier, softer way. Paragraph 2: “If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any lengths to get it–then you are ready to take certain steps.” Paragraph 1: “…a manner of living which requires rigorous honesty.” Paragraph 3: “We vigorously commenced this way of living, as we cleaned up the past.” ![]() Paragraph 2: “Half measures availed us nothing.” Page xiii Paragraph 1: “To show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book.” ![]() Here is a list of the opinions, perspectives, and slogans we often hear in rooms and what the our original Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous basic text (4th Edition) has to say about it. We hear a lot of stuff said in meetings that can’t be reconciled with the program as described in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. The result of this has been a severe decline in the success rate of alcoholics finding lasting recovery. Since the suggestion made by “The Grapevine” in the late 60’s that “Open Discussion” (OD) meetings might be a good idea, there has been a change in the message being presented in the rooms from a focus on the Program of Alcoholics Anonymous to “group therapy” where anyone and everyone is privileged to speak on whatever might be on their mind.
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