From the books ... Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book) and Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (12 & 12)
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to display the full page from the Big Book1.
... alcohol.
12&12 p.32,
Step Two
2.
... alcohol.
12&12 p.45,
Step Four
3.
... alcohol.
12&12 p.63,
Step Six
4.
... alcohol.
12&12 p.124,
Step Twelve
5.
... alcohol.
BB p.1,
Bill's Story
6.
... alcohol.
BB p.26,
There Is A Solution
7.
... alcohol.
BB p.33,
More About Alcoholism
If we are planning to stop
drinking, there must be no
reservation of any kind, nor any lurking notion that someday we will
be immune to alcohol.
8.
... alcohol.
BB p.66,
How It Works
We could not wish them away any more than alcohol.
9.
... alcohol.
BB p.76,
Into Action
10.
... alcohol.
BB p.84,
Into Action
11.
... alcohol.
BB p.143,
To Employers
12.
... alcohol.
BB p.152,
A Vision For You
13.
... alcohol.
BB xxviii(xxvi),
The Doctor's Opinion
14.
... alcohol.
BB xxxi(xxix),
The Doctor's Opinion
15.
... alcohol --
an allergy, they called it.
12&12 p.22,
Step One
Relentlessly deepening our dilemma,
our sponsors pointed
out our increasing sensitivity to alcohol --
an allergy, they called it.
16.
... alcohol, and
came to believe that a ...
12&12 p.76,
Step Seven
It is really saying to us that we now ought to be willing to try humility in seeking the removal of our other shortcomings just as we did when we admitted that we were powerless over alcohol, and
came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves
could restore us to sanity.
17.
... alcohol, and
that some of these refuse ...
12&12 p.39,
Step Three
By now, though, the chances are that he has become convinced that he
has more problems than alcohol, and that some of these refuse to be solved by all
the sheer personal determination and courage he can muster.
18.
... alcohol, are
on the wrong track.
BB p.98,
Working With Others
19.
... alcohol at
all.
BB p.101,
Working With Others
People have said we must not go where liquor is served; we must not have it in our homes;
we must shun friends who drink; we must avoid moving pictures which show drinking scenes; we must not go into bars; our friends must hide their bottles if we go to their houses; we mustn't think or be reminded about
alcohol at all.
20.
... alcohol began
to have its way with ...
12&12 p.29,
Step Two
21.
Alcohol being
no respecter of persons, we ...
BB xx,
Foreword to Second Edition
Alcohol being no respecter of persons, we
are an accurate cross section of America, and in
distant lands, the same democratic evening-up process is now going on.
22.
... alcohol burned
behind him.
12&12 p.39,
Step Three
His financial insecurity worries him
sick, and panic takes over when he thinks of
all the bridges to safety
that alcohol burned behind him.
23.
... alcohol, but
He did give man instincts ...
12&12 p.64,
Step Six
He did not design man to destroy himself by alcohol,
but He did give man instincts to help him to stay alive.
24.
... alcohol, but
we also perceived that faith ...
12&12 p.34,
Step Three
We saw that we were powerless over alcohol, but we also perceived
that faith of some kind, if
only in A.A. itself, is possible to anyone.
25.
... alcohol by
one who hates it.
BB p.103,
Working With Others
We would not even do the cause of temperate drinking any
good, for not one drinker
in a thousand likes to be
told anything about alcohol by one who hates it.
26.
... alcohol, can
be practiced with absolute perfection.
12&12 p.68,
Step Six
Only Step One, where we made the 100 percent admission we were powerless over alcohol, can
be practiced with absolute perfection.
27.
... alcohol commission
wanted a paid researcher.
12&12 p.170,
Tradition Eight
28.
... alcohol could
do to a family.
12&12 p.170,
Tradition Eight
29.
... alcohol --
cunning, baffling, powerful!
BB p.58,
How It Works
30.
... alcohol disagrees
with you.
BB p.102,
Working With Others
31.
... alcohol does
not often recover overnight nor ...
BB p.133,
The Family Afterward
Now about health: A body badly burned by alcohol does not often recover overnight nor do twisted
thinking and depression vanish in a twinkling.
32.
... alcohol, each
of them has decided to ...
12&12 p.35,
Step Three
Isn't it true that in all matters touching upon
alcohol, each of them has decided to turn his or her life over to the care, protection, and guidance of Alcoholics
Anonymous?
33.
... alcohol education.
12&12 p.157,
Tradition Six
34.
... alcohol education.
12&12 p.167,
Tradition Eight
Even greater furors were
provoked when A.A. members began to run rest homes and farms for alcoholics, when some hired out to corporations as personnel men in charge of the alcoholic problem in industry, when
some became nurses on alcoholic wards, when
others entered the field
of alcohol education.
35.
... alcohol's final
catastrophe.
12&12 p.31,
Step Two
36.
... alcohol for
a period of time he ...
BB xxx(xxviii),
The Doctor's Opinion
There is the type who always believes that after being entirely free from alcohol for a period of time he can take a drink without
danger.
37.
... alcohol for
the last time.
BB p.13,
Bill's Story
38.
... alcohol from
their lives.
12&12 p.64,
Step Six
So in a very complete and literal way, all A.A.'s have "become entirely ready" to have God remove the mania for alcohol from their lives.
39.
... alcohol has
been involved, we have been ...
BB p.38,
More About Alcoholism
However intelligent we may have been in other
respects, where alcohol
has been involved, we have been strangely insane.
40.
... alcohol has
him down for keeps.
12&12 p.25,
Step Two
41.
... alcohol has
upon them.
BB xxx(xxviii),
The Doctor's Opinion
42.
... alcohol, he
may overdo.
BB p.146,
To Employers
Being somewhat weakened, and faced with physical and mental readjustment to
a life which knows no alcohol, he may overdo.
43.
... alcohol, I
guess I have to be ...
12&12 p.36,
Step Three
But suppose that instinct still cries out, as
it certainly will, "Yes, respecting alcohol, I guess I have to be dependent upon A.A., but in
all other matters I must
still maintain my independence.
44.
... alcohol, imploring
God's help, but the help ...
12&12 p.32,
Step Two
45.
... alcohol in
any form at all; and ...
BB xxviii(xxvi),
The Doctor's Opinion
These allergic types can
never safely use alcohol in any form at all; and once
having formed the habit and
found they cannot break it,
once having lost their self-confidence, their reliance upon things human,
their problems pile up on
them and become astonishingly difficult to solve.
46.
... alcohol in
its worst aspect.
BB p.132,
The Family Afterward
47.
... alcohol interests
us.
BB xxvi(xxiv),
The Doctor's Opinion
48.
... alcohol into
themselves that they destroy their ...
12&12 p.64,
Step Six
When men and women pour so much alcohol into
themselves that they destroy their lives, they commit a most unnatural act.
49.
... alcohol is
a subtle foe.
BB p.85,
Into Action
50.
... alcohol is
concerned, self-confidence was no good ...
12&12 p.22,
Step One
Then we had been told that so far as alcohol is concerned, self-confidence was no good
whatever; in fact, it was a total liability.
51.
... alcohol is
his first step toward liberation ...
12&12 p.73,
Step Seven
Every newcomer in Alcoholics Anonymous
is told, and soon realizes for himself, that his
humble admission of powerlessness over alcohol is his first step toward liberation from its paralyzing grip.
52.
... alcohol is
no longer a problem and ...
BB p.119,
To Wives
After all, your family is reunited, alcohol is no longer a problem and you and
your husband are working
together toward an undreamed-of future.
53.
Alcohol is
so sexually stimulating to some ...
BB p.134,
The Family Afterward
54.
Alcohol, now
become the rapacious creditor, bleeds ...
12&12 p.21,
Step One
Alcohol, now become the rapacious creditor, bleeds us of all self-sufficiency and all will to resist its demands.
55.
... alcohol obsession,
their lives unaccountably transformed, they ...
12&12 p.28,
Step Two
Relieved of the alcohol obsession, their lives unaccountably transformed, they came to
believe in a Higher Power, and most of them began
to talk of God."
56.
... alcohol obsession
until we first admitted that ...
12&12 p.107,
Step Twelve
Step One showed us an amazing paradox: We found that we were totally unable to be rid of the alcohol obsession until we first admitted that we were
powerless over it.
57.
... alcohol on
his brain?
BB p.140,
To Employers
Can it be appreciated that he has been a victim of crooked thinking, directly caused by the action of alcohol on his brain?
58.
... alcohol on
his mind.
BB p.140,
To Employers
But these scrapes can generally be charged, no
matter how bad, to the abnormal action of alcohol on his mind.
59.
... alcohol on
these chronic alcoholics is a ...
BB xxviii(xxvi),
The Doctor's Opinion
We believe, and so suggested a few years ago,
that the action of alcohol
on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy; that the phenomenon of craving is
limited to this class and
never occurs in the average temperate drinker.
60.
... alcohol or
without it.
BB p.152,
A Vision For You
61.
... alcohol problem.
12&12 p.27,
Step Two
62.
... alcohol problem.
12&12 p.39,
Step Three
He made a beginning, we have seen, when he commenced to rely upon A.A. for the solution of his
alcohol problem.
63.
... alcohol problem.
12&12 p.152,
Tradition Five
He shouts that if his partner would treat him better, and his wife would leave him alone, he'd soon solve his alcohol problem.
64.
... alcohol problem.
12&12 p.168,
Tradition Eight
No individuals have been more buffeted by such emotional gusts than those
A.A.'s bold enough to accept employment with outside
agencies dealing with
the alcohol problem.
65.
... alcohol problem.
BB p.101,
Working With Others
Ask any woman who has sent her husband to distant places on the theory he would escape the
alcohol problem.
66.
... alcohol problem
in all its ramifications.
BB xxi,
Foreword to Second Edition
In all probability, we shall never be able to touch more
than a fair fraction of
the alcohol problem in all
its ramifications.
67.
... alcohol problem
in favor of those suggested ...
12&12 p.35,
Step Three
Already a willingness has been achieved to cast out one's own will and one's own ideas about the alcohol problem in favor of those suggested by A.A.
68.
... alcohol reform,
or sectarian religion.
12&12 p.192,
Tradition Ten (Long)
Ten -- No A.A. group or member should ever,
in such a way as to implicate A.A., express any opinion on outside controversial issues
-- particularly those of politics, alcohol reform, or sectarian religion.
69.
... alcohol reform,
or sectarian religion.
BB p.565(567),
Appendix I, The A.A. Tradition
10. No A.A. group or member should ever,
in such a way as to implicate A.A., express any opinion on outside controversial issues
-- particularly those of politics, alcohol reform, or sectarian religion.
70.
... alcohol returns
and we drink again.
BB p.66,
How It Works
71.
... Alcohol, shivering
denizens of his mad realm, ...
BB p.151,
A Vision For You
As we became subjects of
King Alcohol, shivering denizens of
his mad realm, the chilling vapor that is loneliness settled down.
72.
... alcohol --
that our lives had become unmanageable."
12&12 p.21,
Step One
73.
... alcohol --
that our lives had become unmanageable.
BB p.59,
How It Works
74.
... alcohol that
they cannot stop.
BB p.114,
To Wives
75.
... alcohol, the
grace of God can enter ...
12&12 p.64,
Step Six
As they are humbled by the terrific beating administered by alcohol,
the grace of God can enter them and expel their obsession.
76.
... alcohol, the
only effort necessary being that ...
BB xxix(xxvii),
The Doctor's Opinion
On the other hand -- and strange as this may seem to
those who do not understand -- once a psychic change has occurred, the very same person who seemed doomed, who had so many problems he despaired of
ever solving them, suddenly finds himself easily able to control his
desire for alcohol, the only
effort necessary being
that required to follow
a few simple rules.
77.
... alcohol, there
was found to be no ...
BB xxxi(xxix),
The Doctor's Opinion
78.
... alcohol to
kill the pain, can be ...
12&12 p.39,
Step Three
He relies upon the assurance that his many troubles, now made more acute because he cannot use alcohol to kill the pain, can be solved, too.
79.
... alcohol too
well.
12&12 p.57,
Step Five
80.
... alcohol until
his material needs are cared ...
BB p.98,
Working With Others
He clamors for this or that, claiming he cannot master
alcohol until his material
needs are cared for.
81.
... alcohol was
a great persuader.
BB p.48,
We Agnostics
82.
Alcohol was
my master.
BB p.8,
Bill's Story
Alcohol was my master.
83.
... alcohol, we
are apt to breathe a ...
12&12 p.73,
Step Seven
When we have finally admitted without reservation that we are powerless over alcohol, we
are apt to breathe a great sigh of relief, saying, "Well, thank
God that's over!
84.
... alcohol, we
shall need to make a ...
12&12 p.68,
Step Six
If we would gain any real advantage in the use of this Step on problems other than
alcohol, we shall need to make
a brand new venture into
open-mindedness.
85.
... alcohol whatever
into his system, something happens, ...
BB p.22,
There Is A Solution
We are equally positive
that once he takes any alcohol whatever into his system,
something happens, both in the bodily and mental sense, which makes it virtually impossible
for him to stop.
86.
... alcohol wielded
a double-edged sword over us: ...
12&12 p.22,
Step One
The tyrant alcohol wielded a double-edged sword over us: first we were smitten by an
insane urge that condemned us to go on drinking, and then by an allergy of the body that insured we would ultimately destroy
ourselves in the process.
87.
... alcohol will
not yield to a headlong ...
12&12 p.40,
Step Three
They have become persuaded, and rightly
so, that many problems besides alcohol will not yield to a headlong assault powered by the individual alone.
Passages from the Big Book Alcoholics Anonymous
and the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
are reprinted with permission of A.A. World Services, Inc.
The A.A. Preamble, copyright ©
The A.A. Grapevine, Inc., is reprinted with permission.
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