There are far more than Twelve Promises written in the Big Book “Alcoholics Anonymous.”

This is a listing of only those relating to the First Step (please, some may be a stretch – utilize, don’t analyze);

First Step Promises:

1. How many thousands of men and women have recovered from alcoholism. (Title page).

2. Who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. (foreword 1st edition xiii)

3. To show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book. (foreword 1st edition xiii)

4. We are sure that our way of living has its advantages for all. (foreword 1st edition xiii)

5. Our earliest printing voiced the hope -that every alcoholic who journeys will find the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous at his destination (foreword 2nd edition xv)

6. It also indicated that strenuous work, one alcoholic with another, was vital to permanent recovery (xvii)

7. A.A.’s had to hang together or die separately. We had to unify our Fellowship or pass off the scene.(xix)

8. Today the remarkable unity of A.A. is one of the greatest assets that our Society has.(xix)

9. It is our great hope that all those who have as yet found no answer may begin to find one in the pages of this book and will presently join us on the highroad to a new freedom. (xxi)

10. …recovery begins when one alcoholic talks with another alcoholic, sharing experience, strength, and hope. (xxii)

11. We who have suffered alcoholic torture must believe that the body of the alcoholic is quite as abnormal as his mind (xxiv)

12. We are sure that our bodies were sickened as well. (xxiv)

13. We work out our solution on the spiritual as well as an altruistic plane. (xxiv)

14. 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. (xxvii)

15. There are many situations which arise out of the phenomenon of craving which cause men to make the supreme sacrifice rather than continue to fight. (xxviii)

16. I was soon to be catapulted into what I like to call the fourth dimension of existence. I was to know happiness, peace, and usefulness, in a way of life that is incredibly more wonderful as time passes. (8:2)

17. 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. Belief in the power of God, plus enough willingness, honesty and humility to establish and maintain the new order of things, were the essential requirements. (13:5)

18. 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. If he did not work, he would surely drink again, and if he drank, he would surely die. Then faith would be dead indeed. With us it is just like that. (14:6)

19. It is a design for living that works in rough going. (15:1)

20. The joy of living we really have, even under pressure and difficulty. (15:2)

21. There is scarcely any form of trouble and misery which has not been overcome among us. (15:2)

22. I have seen hundreds of families set their feet in the path that really goes somewhere; have seen the most impossible domestic situations righted; feuds and bitterness of all sorts wiped out. I have seen men come out of asylums and resume a vital place in the lives of their families and communities. Business and professional men have regained their standing. (15:2)

23. There is, however, a vast amount of fun about it all. I suppose some would be shocked at our seeming worldliness and levity. But just underneath there is deadly earnestness. Faith has to work twenty-four hours a day in and through us, or we perish. (16:2)

24. Most of us feel we need look no further for Utopia. We have it with us right here and now. Each day my friend’s simple talk in our kitchen multiplies itself in a widening circle of peace on earth and good will to men. (16:3)

25. …there exists among us a fellowship, a friendliness, and an understanding which is indescribably wonderful. (17:2)

26. Our joy in escape from disaster does not subside as we go our individual ways. (17:2)

27. The feeling of having shared in a common peril is one element in the powerful cement which binds us… The tremendous fact for every one of us is that we have discovered a common solution. We have a way out on which we can absolutely agree, and upon which we can join in brotherly and harmonious action. This is the great news this book carries to those who suffer from alcoholism. (17:2)

28. An illness of this sort-and we have come to believe it an illness-involves those about us in a way no other human sickness can. (18:1)

29. For with it (the alcoholic illness) there goes annihilation of all the things worth while in life. It engulfs all whose lives touch the sufferer’s. It brings misunderstanding, fierce resentment, financial insecurity, disgusted friends and employers, warped lives of blameless children, sad wives and parents-anyone can increase the list. (18:1)

30. Most of us sense that real tolerance of other people’s shortcomings and viewpoints and a respect for their opinions are attitudes which make us more useful to others. Our very lives, as ex-problem drinkers, depend upon our constant thought of others and how we may help meet their needs. (19:4)

31. The alcoholic reacts differently from normal people. We are not sure why, once a certain point is reached, little can be done for him. We cannot answer the riddle. We know that while the alcoholic keeps away from drink, as he may do for months or years, he reacts much like other men. 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. (22:3)

32. The main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind, rather than in his body. (23:1)

33. 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. (24:0)

34. The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink. Our so-called will power becomes practically nonexistent. 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. We are without defense against the first drink. (24:1)

35. There is a solution. (25:1)

36. We saw that it really worked in others. (25:1)

37. We have found much of heaven and we have been rocketed into a fourth dimension of existence of which we had not even dreamed. (25:1)

38. The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a way which is indeed miraculous. He has commenced to accomplish those things for us which we could never do by ourselves. (25:2)

39. A new life has been given us or, if you prefer, “a design for living” that really works. (28:2)

40. All of us, whateverour race, creed, or color are the children of a living Creator with whom we may form a relationship upon simple and understandable terms as soon as we are willing and honest enough to try. (28:3)

41. The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. (30:1)

42. We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking. We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control. All of us felt at times that we were regaining control, but such intervals-usually brief-were inevitably followed by still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization. We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness. Over any considerable period we get worse, never better. (30:3)

43. To be gravely affected, one does not necessarily have to drink a long time nor take the quantities some of us have. This is particularly true of women. Potential female alcoholics often turn into the real thing and are gone beyond recall in a few years. (33:3)

44. The actual or potential alcoholic, with hardly an exception, will be absolutely unable to stop drinking on the basis of self-knowledge. (39:1)

45. That if I had an alcoholic mind, the time and place would come-I would drink again. (41:2)

46. I saw that will power and self-knowledge would not help in those strange mental blank spots. (42:0)

47. The program of action, though entirely sensible, was pretty drastic (42:0)

48. Most alcoholics have to be pretty badly mangled before they really commence to solve their problems. (43:1)

49. The alcoholic at certain times has no effective mental defense against the first drink. Except in a few rare cases, neither he nor any other human being can provide such a defense. His defense must come from a Higher Power. (43:3)

50. If he is an alcoholic of the hopeless variety. To be doomed to an alcoholic death or to live on a spiritual basis are not always easy alternatives to face. (44:2)

51. We had to face the fact that we must find a spiritual basis of life -or else. (44:3)

52. Our human resources, as marshalled by the will, were not sufficient; they failed utterly. (45:0)

53. Lack of power, that was our dilemma. We had to find a power by which we could live, and it had to be a Power greater than ourselves.(45:1)

[edited to bring this post into 2009]

Post from: Blisstree

First Step Promises

But first – regardless of the outcome I am thankful because I have been motivated. The motivation was certainly from the God I understand today. All the frills that came along with it may have hidden its meaning for a day or two but I was finally able to see the signpost. Therefore, within a couple of days the SCCSCU will be in receipt of a letter, however poorly written or not it may be, that they had requested and my disturbance with them had put off. I am still disturbed by their lack of trust in me but I have more important issues to get past.

So – from page 85 of AA’s Big Book;

“It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe. We are not cured of alcoholism. What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition.”

I.E. – for me – through relatively simple consideration last night, I can remember that I am more than simply a drivers license and a motorcycle. I am certainly not a loser because those are two items not in my material inventory today. However, they are certainly within reach. There’s the line though. Being judged for what you don’t have rather than where you are striving to be.

And it’s ok. One person doesn’t know – her. One person does know – me. I am able today, by the grace of my God, to pull myself up and take care of business. And not be my own worst judge anymore.

“Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God’s will into all of our activities. ‘How can I best serve Thee – Thy will (not mine) be done.’ These are thoughts which must go with us constantly. We can exercise our will power along this line all we wish. It is the proper use of the will.”

I’ve never had it so good!

Post from: Blisstree

Me and H.P.

It seems like this months Daily Reflections are more on target, for me, than most other months. What today’s actually speaks to my mind is: “Count Your Blessings, Not Your Troubles”

“One exercise that I try to practice is to try for a full inventory of my blessings…”

“What did I have to be grateful for? I shut myself up and started listing the blessings for which I was in no way responsible, beginning with having been born of sound mind and body.”

Well, maybe he was born with a sound mind lol.

“I went through seventy-four years of living right up to the present moment. The list ran to two pages, and took two hours to compile; I included health, family, money, A.A. – the whole gamut.”

Instantly, I’m also grateful! I have a long way to go before I’d have to go through 74 years! Of course, family and money are still sticky issues for me and might not make it to the list, for now.

“Every day in my prayers, I ask God to help me remember my list, and to be grateful for it throughout the day. When I remember my gratitude list, it’s very hard to conclude that God is picking on me.”

God picking on me was one of those “overriding” states of mind I once had. Convinced there was something wrong with me that was hopelessly beyond repair. Thank God for AA.

Post from: Blisstree

God Isn’t Picking On Me?

We’ve seen the First Step Promises, the Second Step Promises, , the Third Step Promises, and the Fourth Step Promises, now here are the Fifth Step Promises from the AA History Lovers Group at Yahoo!

1. In actual practice, we usually find a solitary self-appraisal insufficient. (72:2)

2. If we skip this vital step, we may not overcome drinking. (72:2)

3. They took inventory all right, but hung on to some of the worst items in stock. They only thought they had lost their egoism and fear; they only thought they had humbled themselves. But they had not learned enough of humility, fearlessness and honesty, in the sense we find it necessary, until they told someone else all their life story. (73:0)

4. We must be entirely honest with somebody if we expect to live long or happily in this world. (73:4)

5. Once we have taken this step, withholding nothing, we are delighted. (75:2)

6. We can look the world in the eye. (75:2)

7. We can be alone at perfect peace and ease. (75:2)

8. Our fears fall from us. (75:2)

9. We begin to feel the nearness of our Creator. (75:2)

10. We may have had certain spiritual beliefs, but now we begin to have a spiritual experience. (75:2)

11. The feeling that the drink problem has disappeared will often come strongly. (75:2)

12. We feel we are on the Broad Highway, walking hand in hand with the Spirit of the Universe. (75:2)

There won’t be any next month – there aren’t any Sixth Step Promises

[Edited and brought into the now, 2008]

Post from: Blisstree

Fifth Step Promises

1. Though our decision was a vital and crucial step, it could have little permanent effect unless at once followed by a strenuous effort to face, and to be rid of, the things in ourselves which had been blocking us. (64:0)

2. Our liquor was but a symptom. (64:0)

3. Resentment is the “number one” offender. It destroys more alcoholics than anything else. From it stem all forms of spiritual disease, for we have been not only mentally and physically ill, we have been spiritually sick. (64:3)

4. When the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally and physically. (64:3)

5. Nothing counted but thoroughness and honesty. (65:3)

6. But the more we fought and tried to have our own way, the worse matters got. As in war, the victor only seemed to win. Our moments of triumph were short-lived. (66:0)

7. It is plain that a life which includes deep resentment leads only to futility and unhappiness. To the precise extent that we permit these (resentments), do we squander the hours that might have been worth while. (66:1)

8. But with the alcoholic, whose hope is the maintenance and growth of a spiritual experience, this business of resentment is infinitely grave. We found that it (resentment) is fatal. For when harboring such feelings we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the Spirit. The insanity of alcohol returns and we drink again. And with us, to drink is to die. (66:1)

9. If we were to live, we had to be free of anger. (66:2)

10. We turned back to the list, for it held the key to the future. (66:3)

11. We began to see that the world and its people really dominated us. In that state, the wrong-doing of others, fancied or real, had power to actually kill. (66:3)

12. This was our course: We realized that the people who wronged us were perhaps spiritually sick.

13. Though we did not like their symptoms and the way these disturbed us, they, like ourselves, were sick too. (66:4)

14. We cannot be helpful to all people, but at least God will show us how to take a kindly and tolerant view of each and every one. (67:4)

15. “Fear” This short word somehow touches about every aspect of our lives. It was an evil and corroding thread; the fabric of our existence was shot through with it. It set in motion trains of circumstances which brought us misfortune. (67:3)

16. Just to the extent that we do as we think He would have us, and humbly rely on Him, does He enable us to match calamity with serenity. (68:2)

17. We ask Him to remove our fear and direct our attention to what He would have us be. At once, we commence to outgrow fear. (68:3)

18. If we are sorry for what we have done, and have the honest desire to let God take us to better things, we believe we will be forgiven and will have learned our lesson. (70:1)

19. If we are not sorry, and our conduct continues to harm others, we are quite sure to drink. (70:1)

20. If we have been thorough about our personal inventory, we have written down a lot. (70:3)

21. We have listed and analyzed our resentments. (70:3)

22. We have begun to comprehend their futility and their fatality. (70:3)

23. We have commenced to see their terrible destructiveness. (70:3)

24. We have begun to learn tolerance, patience and good will toward all men, even our enemies, for we look on them as sick people. (70:3)

25. We have listed the people we have hurt by our conduct, and are willing to straighten out the past if we can. (70:3)

Post from: Blisstree

Fourth Step Promises

I was 5 months away from my last drink (thru today) and still angry as he**. Of course, I was still pretty smart too, ya’ know? The anger tore at my insides though, so I went to Fr. Tom and asked him why I was still so angry. First word – First Step, I’d learned to ask for help.

This is simply my personal experience. I’d been going to one meeting a week, at a group that had that sign posted on the basement wall “One meeting a week makes one weak.” Hey. What did I know? I thought I was doing something about my alcoholism, rank greenpea that I was.

Sponsor? Naaah, Ill get around to it if I decide to stick around. I’m not drinking. Isn’t that good enough for you?

So I ask Fr. Tom the question “How come I’m still so angry?” I thought I’d get an answer I could understand, you know, something practical? Fr. Tom began by asking me a question. He said “How many meetings are you making?” All proud and cocky, I answered “I’m making a meeting every week!” Fr. Tom followed that answer with another question – “Do you have a sponsor?” As I was beginning to offer my rationalization after I said “No” he cut me off. “So, one meeting a week and no sponsor? You’re still angry because you’re not working a program of recovery. Get a sponsor and start making meetings!” And he pi**ed me off. That surely wasn’t the answer…

But I’d found something. I wasn’t certain about it, but somehow I knew. The next Saturday, at Blue Point, I asked Matt M. to be my sponsor. He answered with a stare and a snide remark: “Yeah – I know you, you’re the guy who shows up for the 7 pm meeting at 7 pm and leaves right after the meeting ends.” Well, you miserable oldtimer! Who the f do you think you are??? Let me tell you something, he said, “There’s a meeting before the meeting and a meeting after the meeting. Start showing up early and stay after.” Damn… “You got a Twelve and Twelve?”

And that’s where my personal journey with our Twelve Steps began.

I’m not here to attempt to out intellectualize newcomers though I imagine it will never end that newcomers will attempt to out intellectualize those who’ve been around for some time. What I know without doubt is my experience and you, newcomer, cannot remove that from me as much as you might try. So, Mr. Nicely, you’re not very nice but that’s to be understood based on how long you’ve had the opportunity to practice these principles in all your affairs. What step are you on?

[As for you Micky/David/Patrick - you are about to be reported for harassment to your ISP. I know who provides your Internet service and how to contact them by phone. Continue with your name-calling and I will do whatever it takes to gather the forces here at b5 to have your connection ended. You have also been reported as a spammer to Akismet a few hundred times over. That is another option and I will begin to gather my Blogger buddies' reports in order to make it known that you are a spammer that needs to be stopped. Your hateful, hurtful, harassment is about to end. And no, you are not the Holy One of God! Idiot...]

Post from: Blisstree

We Understand – You Want It Your Way

From “Living Sober“ we are given some insight into what might be wise things to spend a few dollars/cents on in early sobriety…

In the first few weeks without a drink

When the wolf is at the door,

And the sheriff’s at the window

And you’re sleeping on the floor,

And life looks bleak and hopeless

From a monetary angle,

It’s time to spend, in certain ways,

To solve the awful tangle:

That token or that bus fare

To get you to a meeting,

That dime (?) to use the telephone

For that necessary greeting,

That nickel (?) for “expenses”

That makes you feel you matter,

That dollar for the coffee shop

For after-meeting chatter.

All these are wise investments

For the neophyte to make.

This “bread,” when cast upon the waters,

Always comes back cake.

The question marks were added by me… this has almost, not quite, withstood the test of time lol…

Post from: Blisstree

Investment Counsel?

No, it doesn’t work that way.

I’m reading another Blog whereon someone takes great pains to decide for a lot of folks whether they truly are or are not real alcoholics, apparently in some mis-guided attempt to weed out some level of our membership by the use of the unaided will.

Disturbing as that may be, fortunately I find myself referring to the same literature this person refers to – The Big Book. Here, I must admit, I take words very literally. So, when I read page 31 and it says “We do not like to pronounce any individual as alcoholic, but you can quickly diagnose yourself,” I begin to wonder why, why, why, someone would put so much effort into attempting to pronounce any individual non-alcoholic?

Perhaps it is fear? Are you afraid AA will disappear in your lifetime? Are you afraid some non-alcoholic member of AA is going to kill another? Perhaps you? Then I’d ask – how about your Third Step? Your Eleventh Step?

“When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing or situation – some fact of my life – unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment.”

Gotta learn to practice what I preach

I do not have a degree which entitles me to diagnose. Neither did our founders and they knew it, thankfully. Where does “but you can quickly diagnose yourself” say “oh, by the way, if you’re not coming up with your own diagnosis, I’ll be more than happy to pronounce you one way or the other.” Better yet – “Your self-diagnosis is wrong and I want you to leave right now because I’m right.” And – I have the right to do this because my understanding of the words in the Book is pure and perfect.

I’ll stick to what my lamea** sponsor taught me, thank you. He taught me that any day someone, anyone, who admits to having this disease doesn’t take the first drink it is a victory over death! Yes, I have known those who most definitely are not real alkies who have died as a result of alcohol! Haven’t you?

Whether any of us wants to believe this or not, this is still the world according to God and guess what? You and I are not God!

Post from: Blisstree

AA According To…

“… the group in New York was composed of about twelve men who were working on the principle of every drunk for himself; we had no real formula and no name. We would follow one man’s ideas for a while, decide he was wrong, and switch to another’s method. But we were staying sober as long as we kept and talked together. There was one meeting a week at Bill’s home in Brooklyn, and we all took turns there spouting off about how we had changed our lives overnight, how many drunks we had saved and straightened out, and last but not least, how God had touched each of us personally on the shoulder. Boy, what a circle of confused idealists!”

I take the time to point this out because it sounded so familiar. It goes on to mention: “Yet we all had one sincere purpose in our hearts, and that was not to drink. At our weekly meeting I was a menace to serenity those first few months, for I took every opportunity to lambaste that ’spiritual angle,’ as we called it, or anything else that had any tinge of theology.”

A short couple of months later this newcomer was drinking again and “couldn’t get drunk and couldn’t get sober.” Finally, “I saw for the first time that those who really believed, or at least honestly tried to find a Power greater than themselves, were much more composed and contented than I had ever been, and they seemed to have a degree of happiness I had never known.”

His sobriety date – June 16, 1938.

Post from: Blisstree

A Circle Of Confused Idealists?

Self pity. See how many you can identify with;

Pg. 8 – “No words can tell of the loneliness and despair I found in that bitter morass of self-pity. Quicksand stretched around me in all directions. I had met my match. I had been overwhelmed. Alcohol was my master.” – Bill W.

Pg. 15 – “My wife and I abandoned ourselves with enthusiasm to the idea of helping other alcoholics to a solution of their problems. It was fortunate, for my old business associates remained skeptical for a year and a half. during which I found little work. I was not too well at the time, and was plagued by waves of self-pity and resentment.” – Bill W.

Pg. 61 – “He begins to think life doesn’t treat him right.” “He becomes angry, indignant, self-pitying.”

Pg. 62 – “Whatever our protestations, are not most of us concerned with ourselves, our resentments, or our self-pity?” “Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate.”

Pg. 84 – “That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.”

Pg. 86 – “Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives.”

Pg. 88 – “humbly saying to ourselves many times each day ‘Thy will be done.’ We are then in much less danger of excitement, fear, anger, worry, self-pity, or foolish decisions.”

Pg. 104 – “We have had long rendezvous with hurt pride, frustration, self-pity, misunderstanding and fear.”

Pg. 105 – “Their self-pity made them killjoys.”

Pg. 116 – “We wives found that, like everybody else, we were afflicted with pride, self-pity, vanity and all the things which go to make up the self-centered person; and we were not above selfishness or dishonesty.”

Pg. 127 – “These family talks will be constructive if they can be carried on without heated argument, self-pity, self-justification or resentful criticism.”

I’ve been told hundreds of times to get over myself and I understand how it might feel if you haven’t grown a thick skin yet (i.e. you’re fairly new sober). But I believe the deal is we must get over ourselves and begin practicing letting go and letting God. I may have said it before but I’m happy to say it again. The God I understand today runs a truly magnificent show, even though, at times, it doesn’t feel that way. When it doesn’t feel that way, usually it’s because He isn’t doing it “my way.”

Post from: Blisstree

Poor Me, Poor Me,