Recently I saw someone “out there” attempt to debunk the saying that “alcohol is a drug.” Well, for the singleness of purpose of AA that could confuse folks and I understand.

But for my friends who have problems with drugs that is the type of arrogance that could send someone to their death.

Directly from the Basic Text of Narcotics Anonymous, page 18;

“Thinking of alcohol as different from other drugs has caused a great many addicts to relapse. Before we came to NA many of us viewed alcohol separately, but we cannot afford to be confused about this. Alcohol is a drug. We are people with the disease of addiction who must abstain from all drugs in order to recover.”

Drug addicts are worthy of all the consideration to live we can offer them.

Post from: Blisstree

Alcohol Is A Drug

“We must change playmates, playgrounds, and playthings”

Page 100-101: “Assuming we are spiritually fit, we can do all sorts of things alcoholics are not supposed to do. 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. Our experience shows that this is not necessarily so.
We meet these conditions every day. An alcoholic who cannot meet them, still has an alcoholic mind; there is something the matter with his spiritual status. His only chance for sobriety would be some place like the Greenland Ice Cap, and even there an Eskimo might turn up with a bottle of scotch and ruin everything!”

Which is effectively telling us that saying, in AA, that we must change our playmates, playgrounds and playthings isn’t necessarily correct – to the Basic Text of Narcotics Anonymous, which tells us (pg. 16);

“The ultimate weapon for recovery is the recovering addict. We concentrate on recovery and feelings not what we have done in the past. Old friends, places and ideas are often a threat to our recovery. We need to change our playmates, playgrounds and playthings.”

Thoughts?

Post from: Blisstree

Who’s Willing To Tackle This?

The Little Big Book Dictionary

“Made EXPRESSLY for use with “The Big Book” of A.A. Definitions do not necessarily translate for use with ‘The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions’ book of A.A.

The Little Big Book Dictionary includes over 2,200 of the most difficult words, terms, and phrases found in The ‘Big Book’ of Alcoholics Anonymous. Providing text referenced definitions, simple phonic pronunciation guides, and page numbers for the included words. Sized to fit in the back of your Big Book. Includes many program ‘topical’ words. Designed for elementary to advanced education levels. In most cases the first definition provided can be used as a simplified substitute for the word in question while maintaining proper sentence structure and intent.”

Please let us know what you think…

Post from: Blisstree

The Little Big Book Dictionary

Getting Ahead

See if you can identify with this (I can);

“Most alcoholics I have known, including myself, wanted to get ahead. If we didn’t, well, there was nothing so rosy as the dreams of success and glory which subsequently came out of the bottle; such fantasies are the warp and woof of the active alcoholics life.”

No, I don’t know what the writer meant by “warp” or “woof” except he/she wasn’t speaking of a twisted dog. I can definitely say that one of the constant disappointments in my life (to my then way of thinking) was the seemingly never-ending let downs when it came to getting ahead in life. I had many reasons, some even responsible and noble, to want to get ahead. One was probably so everyone would finally leave me alone so I could drink while all the bills were paid. Then I’d have been more than “good enough.”

The writer thinks “that one of the main differences between an active alcoholic and a recovering alcoholic can be expressed as a matter of tense. The active alcoholic tends to live in the future or in the past. The sober alcoholic, using part of the philosophy he learns in his A.A. experience, lives or strives to live in the present.”

How often I regretted so many things I cannot count. How often I feared so many things in the future I also cannot count.

“The nondrinking alcoholic discovers in A.A. that you cannot Get Ahead until you learn to be Here. We discover from our Serenity Prayer that one of the things we cannot change is time. The Here-and-Now is the only reality, whereas in the unreal world of the drinking alcoholic there was only yesterday-and-tomorrow.”

Which begs the question I was asked – “Are your head and your a** in the same place as your feet?”

“I like to think that Staying Here provides a clue to the practice of the Eleventh Step. We don’t improve our conscious contact with God, as we understand Him, by projecting into the future. After all, even the Hereafter begins with Here.”

Post from: Blisstree

Getting Ahead

Learning To Love Ourselves

“Alcoholism was a lonely business, even though we were surrounded by people who loved us…. We were trying to find emotional security either by dominating or by being dependent on others…. We still vainly tried to be secure by some unhealthy sort of domination or dependence.” As Bill Sees It, pg 252

Ego-maniac with an inferiority complex.

This time, the person who has responded says “It was through staying sober, having a good sponsor and working the Twelve Steps that I was able to build up my low self-esteem. First the Twelve Steps taught me to become my own best friend, and then, when I was able to love myself, I could reach out and love others.”

Self-hatred and self-loathing are incredibly heavy burdens to carry, speaking from personal experience. When others try to add to the weight, it not only simply adds to the weight it doubles or triples if those who are doing the adding are loved ones. Why are they adding? Because we are on a merry-go-round of doing emotional harm to them. I.E. we bring it on ourselves. Therefore, as this respondent mentions “I drank to dull the emotional pain.”

It took many years for my emotional pain to gather, all the while never ebbing because of my drinking. Even after years in recovery (despite what some might say) I’m far from a finished product and that is just fine the way it is, for me. I have no need for perfection today. I’m happy with me personally. And, if you don’t like it, well, I guess you’ll stay on your merry bandwagon spewing endlessly won’t you? I don’t have to drink today – and that is the miracle! (once again, despite judgment to the contrary)

Post from: Blisstree

Staying Teachable

“In the course of writing my two latest A.A. History titles – The Conversion of Bill W. and Introduction to The Sources and Founding of Alcoholics Anonymous, I had occasion to look much more deeply into the Silkworth/Wilson/A.A. links.

First, as to resources, there are none better for me than Dale Mitchel’s Silkworth: The Little Doctor Who Loved Drunks and the Silkworth website.

Second, because Mitchel dug into Silkworth family papers, we can see much more about the good doctor’s belief in healing by religious means.

Third, some of the newly unearthed facts are these: Silky belonged to Sam Shoemaker’s Calvary Episcopal Church in New York and also attended Norman Vincent Peale’s church; and as their friend also, he was privy to a good many religious ideas with which he inculcated Bill Wilson in the pre – ”hot flash” days at Towns Hospital. Silky was also conversant with the William James Varieties title which documented the many healings by conversion that had taken place in the missions over the years. Silky also appears to have been familiar with Carl Jung’s prescription of conversion as a cure for alcoholism.

Not only does history now flesh out these points; but the points themselves make clear how Bill Wilson’ first and foremost solution to the alcoholism problem was conversion. Bill’s grandfather Willie had been converted and healed of alcoholism. Bill was told by Dr. Silkworth that he could be cured by Jesus Christ, the Great Physician. Bill was told by Ebby that conversion was available at the altar at Calvary Rescue Mission, and Bill went there and made a decision for Christ – writing in two different places that he had “for sure been born again.”

Bill staggered on to Towns Hospital and declared that if there were a Great Physician, he’d better call on Him. And this he did – having a conversion experience almost identical to that which his grandfather had had years before – and with the same result: sober for life. Then, when both Silkworth and Lois Wilson confirmed to Bill that he had experienced a genuine conversion, Bill spent the rest of the day studying the William James book which had been given to him by either Ebby or Rowland.

Bill saw the many recorded instances of conversions and cure by the power of God; and he concluded that his own conversion was valid and established the validity of the solution Jung had prescribed for Rowland. The bottom line is that “conversion” became the A.A. solution – both in Bill’s mind as he expressed the idea on page 191 of the Big Book; and in Akron where surrender to Jesus Christ was a mandatory part of the A.A. program.

And what’s the point?

Well most AAs have never heard these historical points; most AAs have no realization that the Oxford Group expressions (spiritual experience and spiritual awakening) were Oxford Group expressions referring to dynamic life-change, whereas the conversion experience was what Carl Jung, Rowland Hazard, Ebby Thacher, Sam Shoemaker, Dr. Silkworth, and the Missions were tendering to drunks. And with great success.

I hope this new data will help correct so much of the confusion today about what a “spiritual experience” or a “spiritual awakening” are and exemplify how they differ from the original “conversion” experience that Bill had. For it was Bill’s conversion that topped the list of items that Bill was asked over the years to keep recounting.”

God Bless,

Dick B.

Thanks Dick… [it was waaaaaay too long for a simple comment ]

Post from: Blisstree

Dick B On Dr. Silkworth

The AA Grapevine has it’s own web site with valuable and useful resources including humor. Check it out here.

Follow it through to the Digital Archive and then the Grab Bag. The Grab Bag has a rotating recovery joke (yeah, so some are old and lame, but ya’ never know when a good laugh could just get you out of that funk you’re in).

Don’t forget to check out how many days/hours/minutes/seconds you have in recovery. Right now, today, I have 5945 days. Cool…

Mark

Post from: Blisstree

The AA Grapevine

We 12 Steppers know that our Program, whatever it is, is a spiritual program. But what does that mean? Of course it means something different to every single one of us, although we often have more in common than we think.

I particularly like Sharon Janis’s book, Spirituality for Dummies. Billed as “A Reference For the Rest of Us!” my first reaction when I was gifted with this book was ho hum – that is until I actually began to read it.

I also was suspicious of the format. After all, I reasoned, this works for teaching computer programs, but teaching spirituality? I was wrong again. It works like a charm. And Janis knows her stuff. It’s a deep, rich book that’s easily accessible. I use it when I feel spiritually flat or disconnected. In her allowing manner she manages to put me back in touch with the God of my understanding without imposing anything on me at all.

Plus, there’s a dynamite CD tucked in the back… some great music, some guided meditations… this book is a jewel.

With love, gratitude and blessings,

You may want to read my complete review and while your there, subscribe to the newsletter.

Post from: Blisstree

Spirituality for Dummies

As Bill Sees It carries the subtitle of The A. A. Way of Life …Selected Writings of the A. A.’s Co-Founder. Much of what’s in this small volume is reprinted from AAs magazine, The Grapevine.

Not only is it a nice selection of Bill W.’s writing, it’s also got a subject index. That means you can look up, say Character Defects, and find are a whole bunch of pages dealing with just that.

Although not part of what I consider original source material, As Bill Sees It is another must-have for everyone in any 12 Step program.

With love, blessings, and gratitude,

Post from: Blisstree

As Bill Sees It

The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, aka 12 and 12, is the textbook to the Steps. Written in 1952, mostly by Bill W., this slim volume gives details about working all 12 Steps. It also tells us about the Traditions. Although it was written long after the Big Book, the 12 and 12 is also part of the original source material for any 12 Step Program

The Steps are how we work our program; the Traditions are how our fellowships work. This book will answer many questions about both, and provide you a way to work with each.

With love, blessings and gratitude,

Post from: Blisstree

The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions – Textbook to the Steps