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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.
My friend promised when
these things were done I would
enter upon a new relationship with my Creator; that I would have the elements of a way of living which answered all my
problems.
2.
My wife and I abandoned ourselves with enthusiasm to the idea of helping other alcoholics to a solution
of their problems.
3.
4.
5.
Most alcoholics have to be pretty badly mangled before they really commence to solve their problems.
6.
7.
Yet we had been seeing another kind of flight, a spiritual liberation from this world,
people who rose above their problems.
8.
We all have sex problems.
9.
We usually conclude the
period of meditation
with a prayer that we be shown all through the day what our next step is to be, that we be given whatever we need to take care of such problems.
10.
Aside from fellowship and
sociability, the prime
object was to provide a time and place where new people might bring their problems.
11.
This headquarters will
give the location of the nearest family group and will, if you wish, correspond with you
about your special problems.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
Many times we talk to a new man and watch his hope rise as we discuss his alcoholic problems and explain our fellowship.
17.
Our immediate temptation will be to ask for specific solutions to specific
problems, and for the ability
to help other people as we have already thought they should be helped.
18.
But from what you've told me about yourself and your problems and
how you propose to lick them,
I think I know what's wrong.'
19.
But just like all other societies, we do have
sex and marital problems, and sometimes they are
distressingly acute.
20.
I reasoned I was not so far
advanced as most of you fellows, that I had been usually successful in licking my other personal problems, and that I
would therefore be successful where you men failed.
21.
A.A. experience has taught us we cannot live alone with our pressing problems and the character defects which cause or aggravate them.
22.
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.
23.
If you have developed a high confidence in him, and
his temperament and problems are close to your own, then such a choice will be good.
24.
25.
I was to sit quietly when in
doubt, asking only for direction and strength to
meet my problems as He would
have me.
26.
We have been talking about problems because we are problem people who have found a way up
and out, and who wish to share our knowledge of that
way with all who can use it.
27.
If any feel that as psychiatrists directing a hospital for
alcoholics we appear somewhat sentimental, let them stand with us a while on the firing line, see the tragedies, the despairing wives, the little children; let the solving of these problems become a part of their daily work, and even of their sleeping moments, and the
most cynical will not wonder that we have accepted
and encouraged this movement.
28.
They have become persuaded, and rightly so,
that many problems besides alcohol will not yield to a headlong assault powered by the individual
alone.
29.
When we saw others solve their problems by a simple reliance upon the Spirit of the Universe, we had to stop doubting the power of God.
30.
31.
You and your husband will find that you can dispose of serious problems easier than you can the trivial ones.
32.
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.
33.
Get an idea of his behavior, his problems, his background, the seriousness of his condition, and his religious leanings.
34.
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.
35.
... problems ...
In this atmosphere the alcoholic often ...
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.
36.
37.
38.
But also like others, we often discover a greater challenge in the lesser and
more continuous problems of life.
39.
40.
41.
Six -- Problems of money, property, and authority may easily divert us from our primary spiritual aim.
42.
Six -- An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
43.
Tradition Six -- "An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our
primary purpose."
44.
"An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our
primary purpose."
45.
Let's here take note of our improved outlook upon the problems of personal importance, power, ambition, and leadership.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
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.
51.
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.
52.
53.
(*) The fellowship of Al-Anon Family Groups was formed about thirteen years after this chapter was written. Though it is entirely separate from Alcoholics Anonymous, it
uses the general principles of the A.A. program as a guide for husbands, wives, relatives, friends and others close to alcoholics. The foregoing pages (though addressed only to wives) indicate the problems such people may face. Alateen, for teen-aged children of alcoholics, is a part of Al-Anon.
54.
If you have been successful in solving your own domestic problems, tell the newcomer's family how that was accomplished.
55.
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.
56.
We have been considering so many problems that it may appear that A.A. consists mainly of racking dilemmas and troubleshooting.
57.
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."
58.
For it is only by accepting and solving our problems that we can
begin to get right with ourselves and with
the world about us, and with Him who presides over us all.
59.
The very practical approach to his problems, the
absence of intolerance
of any kind, the informality, the genuine
democracy, the uncanny
understanding which these people had were irresistible.
60.
We had to ask ourselves why we shouldn't apply to our human problems this same readiness to change our point of view.
61.
62.
63.
64.
When we do that, we find it solves our problems too; the ensuing lack of fear, worry and hurt feelings is a wonderful thing.
65.
66.
67.
68.
69.
We had tried to bombard our
problems with it instead of
attempting to bring it
into agreement with God's intention for us.
70.
With the best of intentions, he tends to force his own will into all sorts of situations and problems with
the comfortable assurance that he is acting
under God's specific direction.
71.
If he feels free to discuss his problems with you,
if he knows you understand and will not be upset by anything he wishes to say, he will probably be off to a fast start.
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