The 164 and More book is sold on this website at the Publisher List Price of $20.00 plus postage.
The book may also be sold by Intergroup/Central Offices or recovery book stores at List Price
or slightly higher. But beware of others that sell the book marked up 400% or more.
For the same money, you could buy 4 books and use 3 as sponsee gifts.
From the books ... Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book) and Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (12 & 12)
Click the page number or the book cover icon
to view that page in the literature.1.
2.
3.
By late 1937, the number of members having substantial sobriety time behind them was sufficient to convince
the membership that a new
light had entered the dark world of the alcoholic.
4.
5.
But what about the real alcoholic?
6.
Physicians who are familiar with alcoholism
agree there is no such thing as making a normal drinker out of an alcoholic.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Yet, he is alcoholic.
11.
12.
If, when you honestly want
to, you find you cannot quit entirely, or if when drinking, you have little control over the amount you take, you are probably alcoholic.
13.
14.
15.
If he sticks to the idea that
he can still control his drinking, tell him that possibly he can -- if he is not too alcoholic.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
It is probably true that you
and your husband have been living too much alone, for drinking many times isolates the wife of an alcoholic.
23.
One day he told me about an executive of
the same bank who, from his description, was undoubtedly alcoholic.
24.
25.
26.
As to them, his policy is undoubtedly sound, but he
did not distinguish between such people and the alcoholic.
27.
Painfully aware of being somehow abnormal, the man did not fully realize what it meant to be alcoholic.(*)
28.
"As psychiatrists have often observed, defiance is the outstanding characteristic of many an
alcoholic.
29.
30.
To watch the eyes of men and women open with wonder as they move from darkness into light, to see their lives quickly fill with new purpose and meaning, to see whole families reassembled, to
see the alcoholic outcast received back into his community in full citizenship, and above all to watch these people awaken to the presence of a loving God in their lives -- these things are the substance of
what we receive as we carry
A.A.'s message to the next alcoholic.
31.
32.
The subject presented in
this book seems to me to be of
paramount importance
to those afflicted with
alcoholic addiction.
33.
34.
Never once in my life have I had a headache,
which fact leads me to believe that I was an alcoholic
almost from the start.
35.
The wife usually goes on doing the best she knows how, but meanwhile the alcoholic alternately loves and hates her maternal care.
36.
37.
To spend too much time on any one situation is to deny some other alcoholic an opportunity to live and be happy.
38.
39.
I say this after many years' experience as Medical Director of one of the oldest hospitals in the country treating alcoholic and drug addiction.
40.
41.
A well-known doctor, chief physician at a nationally prominent hospital specializing
in alcoholic and drug addiction, gave Alcoholics Anonymous
this letter:
42.
They grinned, which I didn't like so much, and then asked me if I thought myself alcoholic and if I were really licked this time.
43.
44.
To me, this incident illustrates lack of understanding as to what really ails the alcoholic, and lack of knowledge as to what part employers might profitably take in salvaging their sick employees.
45.
Instead, the Washingtonians permitted politicians
and reformers, both alcoholic and nonalcoholic, to
use the society for their own purposes.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
The man in the bed was told of the acute poisoning from which he suffered, how it deteriorates the body of an
alcoholic and warps his mind.
51.
Why did we leave it to each newcomer to decide himself whether he was an alcoholic and
whether he should join us?
52.
The wonderful energy it
releases and the eager action by which it carries our
message to the next suffering alcoholic and which
finally translates the
Twelve Steps into action upon all our affairs is the payoff, the magnificent reality, of
Alcoholics Anonymous.
53.
We, who have collectively seen a great deal of business life, at least from the alcoholic angle, had to smile at this gentleman's sincere opinion.
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
If you are satisfied that he is a real alcoholic, begin to dwell on the hopeless feature of the malady.
59.
Prior to his journey to Akron, the broker had worked hard with many alcoholics on the theory that only an alcoholic
could help an alcoholic, but he
had succeeded only in keeping sober himself.
60.
61.
Surveying his business
or employment record, almost any alcoholic can ask questions like these: In addition to my drinking problem, what character defects contributed to my
financial instability?
62.
63.
... alcoholic capable
of honestly facing his problems ...
BB
Appendix II, Spiritual Experience, p.568
Most emphatically we wish to say that any alcoholic capable of honestly facing his problems in the light of our experience can
recover, provided he does
not close his mind to all spiritual concepts.
64.
They figured the town needed a great big alcoholic center, a kind of pilot plant A.A. groups could duplicate everywhere.
65.
66.
67.
The minute we put our work on a service plane, the alcoholic commences to rely upon our assistance rather than upon God.
68.
But the moment I made up my mind to go
through with the process,
I had the curious feeling
that my alcoholic condition
was relieved, as in fact it
proved to be.
69.
70.
These things will come to pass naturally and in good time provided, however, the
alcoholic continues to demonstrate that he can be sober, considerate, and helpful, regardless of
what anyone says or does.
71.
72.
73.
Prior to his journey to Akron, the broker had worked hard with many alcoholics on the theory that only an alcoholic
could help an alcoholic, but he
had succeeded only in keeping sober himself.
74.
As we discovered the principles by which the individual alcoholic could live, so we had to evolve principles by which the A.A. groups and A.A. as a whole could survive and function effectively.
75.
So that was it -- last summer
an alcoholic crackpot; now, I suspected, a little cracked about religion.
76.
77.
To be doomed to an alcoholic
death or to live on a spiritual basis are not always easy alternatives to face.
78.
While on the subject of confidence, can you adopt
the attitude that so far as
you are concerned this will
be a strictly personal
matter, that his alcoholic derelictions, the treatment about to be undertaken, will never be discussed without his consent?
79.
His call to the clergyman
led him presently to a certain resident of the town, who, though formerly able and respected, was then nearing
the nadir of alcoholic despair.
80.
Faced with alcoholic destruction, we soon became as open minded on spiritual matters as we had tried to be
on other questions.
81.
This physician had repeatedly tried spiritual means to resolve his alcoholic dilemma but had failed.
82.
In it alcoholism was described from the alcoholic's
point of view, the spiritual ideas of the Society were codified for
the first time in the Twelve Steps, and the application of these Steps
to the alcoholic's dilemma
was made clear.
83.
84.
Sometimes these excuses
have a certain plausibility, but none of
them really makes sense in the light of the havoc an alcoholic's drinking bout creates.
85.
One instance comes to mind in which a malicious individual was
always making friendly little jokes about an alcoholic's drinking exploits.
86.
87.
It is not to be expected that an alcoholic employee will receive a disproportionate amount of time and attention.
88.
89.
90.
91.
For if an alcoholic failed to
perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, he could not survive
the certain trials and low spots ahead.
92.
The unselfishness of these men as we have come to know them, the entire absence of profit motive, and their community
spirit, is indeed inspiring to one who has labored long and wearily in this alcoholic field.
93.
Compared to this prospect, the ten thousand dollars under consideration
wasn't much, but like the alcoholic's first drink it would, if taken, inevitably set up a disastrous chain reaction.
94.
When her will was read, it was
discovered she had left Alcoholics Anonymous in
trust with the Alcoholic Foundation a sum of ten thousand dollars.
95.
(*) In 1954, the name of the
Alcoholic Foundation,
Inc., was changed to the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous, Inc., and the Foundation office is now the General Service Office.
96.
(*) In 1954, the name of the
Alcoholic Foundation,
Inc., was changed to the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous, Inc., and the Foundation office is now the General Service Office.
97.
(*) In 1954, the name of the
Alcoholic Foundation,
Inc., was changed to the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous, Inc., and the Foundation office is now the General Service Office.
98.
(*) In 1954, the name of the
Alcoholic Foundation,
Inc., was changed to the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous, Inc., and the Foundation office is now the General Service Office.
99.
(*) In 1954, the name of the
Alcoholic Foundation,
Inc., was changed to the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous, Inc., and the Foundation office is now the General Service Office.
100.
(*) In 1954, the name of the
Alcoholic Foundation,
Inc., was changed to the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous, Inc., and the Foundation office is now the General Service Office.
101.
The second printing of the
first edition added the appendix "Spiritual Experience";
in the second edition, the
appendices on A.A. Tradition, the "medical view" and "religious view" of A.A., the Lasker Award and information on how to contact A.A. were added, and the appendix on the
Alcoholic Foundation was
discontinued.
102.
Six months earlier, the broker had been
relieved of his drink obsession by a sudden spiritual experience, following a meeting with an
alcoholic friend who had been
in contact with the Oxford
Groups of that day.
103.
104.
I now remembered what my
alcoholic friends had told me, how they prophesied
that if I had an alcoholic mind,
the time and place would come -- I would drink again.
105.
106.
Never talk down to an alcoholic from any moral or spiritual hilltop; simply lay out the kit of spiritual tools for his inspection.
107.
At last experience taught us that to take away any alcoholic's full chance was sometimes to pronounce his death sentence, and often to condemn him to endless misery.
108.
It was then discovered that when one alcoholic had planted in the mind of another the true nature of his malady, that person could never be the same again.
109.
We do not like the thought
that the contents of a book
or the work of another alcoholic has accomplished in
a few weeks that for which we struggled for years.
110.
Now and then the family will be plagued by spectres from the past, for the
drinking career of almost every alcoholic has been marked by escapades, funny, humiliating, shameful or
tragic.
111.
112.
Then he fell victim to a belief which practically
every alcoholic has -- that his
long period of sobriety and self-discipline had qualified
him to drink as other men.
113.
We won't be biased or scared
off by that fact, because although he was not an alcoholic he did, like us, go through the emotional wringer.
114.
If he temporizes and still thinks he can ever drink again, even beer, he might as well be discharged after the next bender which, if an alcoholic, he is almost certain to have.
115.
At a certain point in the drinking of every alcoholic, he passes into a state where the most powerful
desire to stop drinking is of absolutely
no avail.
116.
117.
If you draw this fallacious reasoning to
the attention of an alcoholic, he will laugh it off, or become irritated and refuse to talk.
118.
119.
120.
121.
The alcoholic, his wife, his children, his "in-laws", each one is likely to have fixed ideas about the family's attitude towards himself or herself.
122.
123.
These are some of the questions which race through the mind of every woman who has an alcoholic husband.
124.
125.
The doctor said: "You have the
mind of a chronic alcoholic. I have never seen one single case recover, where that state of mind existed to the extent that it does in you."
126.
But not so with the alcoholic illness, for with it there goes
annihilation of all the things worth while in life.
127.
128.
But the ex-problem drinker who has found this solution, who is properly
armed with facts about himself, can generally win the entire confidence of another
alcoholic in a few hours.
129.
130.
(*) Written in 1939, when
there were few women in A.A., this chapter assumes that the alcoholic in
the home is likely to be the
husband. But many of the suggestions given here may be adapted to help the person who lives with a woman alcoholic -- whether she is still drinking or is recovering in A.A. A further source of help is noted on page 121.
131.
132.
133.
134.
135.
So the hand of Providence
early gave us a sign that any alcoholic is a member of our Society when he says so.
136.
137.
A doctor said to us, "Years of living with an alcoholic is almost sure to make any wife or child neurotic.
138.
They arise out of ourselves, and the alcoholic
is an extreme example of
self-will run riot, though he usually doesn't think so.
139.
Drinking occasionally, and understanding your own reactions, it is possible
for you to become quite sure of many things which, so far as the alcoholic is concerned, are not
always so.
140.
141.
142.
In this statement he confirms what we who have suffered alcoholic torture must believe -- that the body of the
alcoholic is quite as abnormal as his mind.
143.
144.
We know that while the alcoholic keeps away from drink, as he may do for
months or years, he reacts much like other men.
145.
146.
147.
148.
149.
Every new alcoholic looks for this spirit among us and is immensely relieved when he
finds we are not witch-burners.
150.
It was thought that no alcoholic man or woman could be excluded from
our Society; that our leaders might serve but never govern; that each group was to be autonomous and there was to be no professional class of therapy.
151.
152.
The alcoholic may say to himself in the most casual way, "It won't burn me this time, so here's how!"
153.
Whether the family goes on a spiritual basis or not, the alcoholic member has to if he would recover.
154.
One more suggestion: Whether the family has spiritual convictions or not, they may do well to examine the principles by which the alcoholic member is trying to live.
155.
To 1950, the year of his death, he carried the A.A. message to more than 5,000 alcoholic men and women, and to all these he gave
his medical services without thought of charge.
156.
Our hope is that many alcoholic men and women, desperately in need, will see these pages, and we believe that it is only by fully disclosing ourselves and our problems
that they will be persuaded
to say, "Yes, I am one of them too; I must have this thing."
157.
Because this book has become the basic text for our Society and has helped such large numbers of alcoholic men and women to recovery, there exists strong sentiment against any radical changes being made in it.
158.
Alcoholics Anonymous
is a worldwide fellowship of more than one hundred thousand(*) alcoholic men and women who are banded together to solve their common problems and to help fellow sufferers in recovery from that age-old, baffling malady, alcoholism.
159.
They piled on me heaps of evidence to the effect that
an alcoholic mentality, such as I had exhibited in Washington, was a hopeless condition.
160.
We are much more afraid of what people might say than the trouble this strange alcoholic might bring.
161.
162.
I now remembered what my
alcoholic friends had told me, how they prophesied
that if I had an alcoholic mind,
the time and place would come -- I would drink again.
163.
An alcoholic who cannot meet
them, still has an alcoholic mind; there is something the
matter with his spiritual
status.
164.
165.
166.
167.
In late 1934 I attended a patient who, though he had been a competent businessman
of good earning capacity, was an alcoholic of a
type I had come to regard as hopeless.
168.
To one who feels he is an atheist or agnostic such an experience seems impossible, but to continue as he is means disaster, especially if
he is an alcoholic of the hopeless variety.
169.
170.
With many individuals the
methods which I employed
are successful, but I have never been successful with
an alcoholic of your description."(*)
171.
... alcoholic often
overcomes his excessive concentration upon ...
BB
Appendix III, The Medical View on A.A., p.570
They help others with similar problems ... In this
atmosphere the alcoholic
often overcomes his excessive concentration upon himself.
172.
Of course, there is such a thing as incompatibility, but in nearly every instance the alcoholic only seems to be unloving and inconsiderate; it is usually because he is warped and sickened that he
says and does these appalling things.
173.
174.
175.
Of course an alcoholic ought to be freed from his physical craving for liquor, and this often requires a definite hospital procedure, before psychological measures can be of maximum
benefit.
176.
To watch the eyes of men and women open with wonder as they move from darkness into light, to see their lives quickly fill with new purpose and meaning, to see whole families reassembled, to
see the alcoholic outcast received back into his community in full citizenship, and above all to watch these people awaken to the presence of a loving God in their lives -- these things are the substance of
what we receive as we carry
A.A.'s message to the next alcoholic.
177.
The alcoholic's past thus becomes the principal asset of the family and frequently it is
almost the only one!
178.
Doctors are rightly loath to tell alcoholic patients the whole story unless it will serve some good purpose.
179.
180.
Therefore, we are not to be the hasty and foolish martyr who would needlessly
sacrifice others to save himself from the alcoholic pit.
181.
One of these men, staff member of a world-renowned hospital, recently made this statement to some of
us: "What you say about the general hopelessness of
the average alcoholic's plight is, in my opinion, correct.
182.
In it alcoholism was described from the alcoholic's
point of view, the spiritual ideas of the Society were codified for
the first time in the Twelve Steps, and the application of these Steps
to the alcoholic's dilemma
was made clear.
183.
184.
185.
Some day we hope that Alcoholics Anonymous will help the public to a better realization of the gravity of the alcoholic problem, but we shall be of little use if our attitude is one of bitterness or hostility.
186.
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.
187.
Even if you feel your organization has no alcoholic problem, it might pay to take another look down the line.
188.
His alcoholic problem was so
complex, and his depression so great, that we
felt his only hope would be through what we then called
"moral psychology," and
we doubted if even that would
have any effect.
189.
190.
Many times we talk to a new man and watch his hope rise as we discuss his alcoholic problems and explain our fellowship.
191.
192.
193.
194.
This established identification with alcoholic readers and proved to them that the virtually impossible had
now become possible.
195.
This is a point we wish to emphasize and re-emphasize, to smash home upon our alcoholic readers as it has been revealed to us out of bitter experience.
196.
197.
The alcoholic, realizing
what his wife has endured,
and now fully understanding how much he
himself did to damage her
and his children, nearly
always takes up his marriage responsibilities with a willingness to repair what
he can and to accept what he can't.
198.
After your man has gone along without drinking for a few months, you may be able to make use of his services with other employees who are giving you the alcoholic run-around -- provided, of course, they are
willing to have a third party in the picture.
199.
200.
201.
No, the average alcoholic, self-centered in the extreme,
doesn't care for this prospect -- unless he has to
do these things in order to
stay alive himself.
202.
Each day, somewhere in the world, recovery begins when one alcoholic talks with another alcoholic, sharing experience, strength, and
hope.
203.
If this presents difficulty, re-reading chapters two and three, where the alcoholic sickness is discussed at length might be
worth while.
204.
205.
Yet no alcoholic, soberly analyzing his destructive behavior, whether the destruction
fell on the dining-room furniture or his own moral fiber, can claim "soundness of mind" for himself.
206.
When drinking, or getting
over a bout, an alcoholic, sometimes the model of honesty when normal, will do incredible things.
207.
These quiet disclosures
helped him to lose his fear of the alcoholic stigma, and spread the news of A.A.'s existence in his community.
208.
The experiment of quitting for a period of time will be helpful, but we think we can render an even greater service to alcoholic sufferers and perhaps to the medical fraternity.
209.
210.
... alcoholic talks
with another alcoholic, sharing experience, ...
BB
Foreword to Third Edition, p.xxii
Each day, somewhere in the world, recovery begins when one alcoholic talks with another alcoholic, sharing experience, strength, and
hope.
211.
When this sort of thinking
is fully established in
an individual with alcoholic tendencies, he has probably placed himself beyond human aid, and unless locked up, may die or go
permanently insane.
212.
213.
214.
Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal
adventures before and after make clear three pertinent ideas:
215.
216.
Even the newest of newcomers finds undreamed rewards as he tries to help his brother alcoholic, the one who is even blinder than he.
217.
When dealing with an alcoholic, there may be a natural
annoyance that a man could
be so weak, stupid and irresponsible.
218.
To a person who has had experience with an alcoholic,
this may seem like tempting Providence, but
it isn't.
219.
This very form of faulty dependence has caused many a rebellious alcoholic to conclude that dependence
of any sort must be intolerably damaging.
220.
Highly competent psychiatrists who have dealt with us have found it sometimes impossible to
persuade an alcoholic to discuss his situation without reserve.
221.
222.
I earnestly advise every alcoholic to read this book through, and though perhaps he came to scoff, he may remain to pray.
223.
In this statement he confirms what we who have suffered alcoholic torture must believe -- that the body of the
alcoholic is quite as abnormal as his mind.
224.
If the alcoholic tries to shield himself he may succeed for a time, but he usually winds up with a bigger explosion then ever.
225.
226.
227.
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.
228.
229.
Hardly an alcoholic we approached paid any attention; most of those who did join us were like flickering candles in a windstorm.
230.
231.
Enthusiastic over the spectacular recovery of
a brother alcoholic, we'd sometimes discuss those intimate and harrowing aspects of his case meant for his sponsor's ear alone.
232.
(*) Written in 1939, when
there were few women in A.A., this chapter assumes that the alcoholic in
the home is likely to be the
husband. But many of the suggestions given here may be adapted to help the person who lives with a woman alcoholic -- whether she is still drinking or is recovering in A.A. A further source of help is noted on page 121.
233.
234.
An alcoholic who cannot meet
them, still has an alcoholic mind; there is something the
matter with his spiritual
status.
235.
We A.A.'s are active folk, enjoying the satisfactions of dealing with the realities
of life, usually for the first time in our lives, and strenuously trying to help the next alcoholic who comes along.
236.
237.
One night, when confined in a hospital, he
was approached by an alcoholic who had known a spiritual experience.
238.
239.
He is like the retired business man who lolls in the Florida sunshine in the winter complaining of the sad state of the nation; the minister who sighs over the sins of the twentieth century; politicians and reformers who are sure all
would be Utopia if the rest of
the world would only behave;
the outlaw safe cracker who thinks society has wronged him; and
the alcoholic who has lost all
and is locked up.
240.
An alcoholic who has recovered, but holds a relatively unimportant
job, can talk to a man with a better position.
241.
For the type of alcoholic who is
able and willing to get well, little charity, in the ordinary sense of the word, is needed or wanted.
242.
For practicing A.A.'s remaining eleven Steps means the adoption of attitudes and
actions that almost no alcoholic who is still drinking can dream of taking.
243.
Though we work out our solution on the spiritual as well as an altruistic plane, we favor hospitalization
for the alcoholic who is very jittery or befogged.
244.
We know that little good can come to any alcoholic who joins A.A. unless he has first accepted his devastating
weakness and all its consequences.
245.
Some day we hope that every alcoholic who journeys will find a Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous at
his destination.
246.
Our earliest printing voiced the hope "that every alcoholic who journeys will find the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous at
his destination.
247.
To clergymen, doctors,
friends, and families,
the alcoholic who means well and tries hard is a heartbreaking riddle.
248.
What sort of thinking dominates an alcoholic who repeats time after time the desperate experiment of
the first drink?
249.
... alcoholic who
shows no immediate interest in ...
BB
Appendix VI, How to Get in Touch With A.A., p.573
Should you be the relative or friend of an alcoholic who shows no immediate interest in A.A., it is suggested that you
write the Al-Anon Family Groups, Inc., 1600 Corporate Landing Parkway, Virginia Beach, VA 23456, USA.
250.
Five -- Each group has but one primary purpose -- to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
251.
5. Each Alcoholics Anonymous group ought to be a spiritual entity having but one primary purpose -- that of carrying its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
252.
Tradition Five -- "Each group has but one primary purpose -- to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers."
253.
"Each group has but one primary purpose -- to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers."
254.
Five -- Each Alcoholics Anonymous group ought to be a spiritual entity having but
one primary purpose -- that of carrying
its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
255.
Almost from the beginning, we have been positive that face-to-face work with the alcoholic who suffers could be based only on the desire to help and be helped.
256.
If you are an alcoholic who wants to get over it, you may already be asking -- "What do I have to do?"
257.
But with the alcoholic, whose
hope is the maintenance
and growth of a spiritual
experience, this business of resentment is
infinitely grave.
258.
259.
Being possessed of a spiritual experience,
the alcoholic will find he has much in common with these people, though he may differ with them
on many matters.
260.
261.
But the actual or potential alcoholic, with hardly an exception, will be absolutely unable to stop drinking on the basis of self-knowledge.
262.
263.
264.
This sometimes nearly drove me back to drink, but I soon found that when all other measures failed, work with another alcoholic would save the day.
265.
Relieved of responsibility, every
alcoholic would shrug and say, "Oh, the Foundation is wealthy --
why should I bother?"
266.
The 164 and More™ Book, eBook, and Web Site
are all CONCORDANCES which display passages from the Big Book
Alcoholics Anonymous, the
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions,
and the A.A. Grapevine (A.A. Preamble only).
Sorting and rendering passages in the proprietary format of the
164 and More concordance does not in any way imply
affiliation with or endorsement by either Alcoholics Anonymous World Services
Inc., or the A.A. Grapevine, Inc. Further A.A.W.S. Inc. and the A.A.
Grapevine Inc. have no objection to the use of this material in the
164 and More concordance.
Copyright © 2005-2023, Recovery Press LLC; All Rights Reserved.