keithj

Whether I've been given the power to choose not to drink as the result of a spiritual awakening through taking the 12 Steps, or simply the problem has been removed as the result of the same actions, is largely a matter of personal experience with how that spiritual experience unfolded in my life. I've shared about my own experience with being unable to take a drink even when I chose to. But that's just my personal experience. As recovered alcoholics, I'm not sure it makes much difference how I view that particular phenomenon.

But to the newcomer, who has not yet been relieved of the alcoholic obsession, it makes a world of difference. The sum total experience laid out in the BB, and in my own life, is that choosing not to drink is absolutely futile and doomed to failure. It's acceptance of that concept that is the heart of Step 1 which funnels me into Step 2.

20 people walk into AA. 10 of them are alcoholics as described in the BB (lost the power of choice in drink). 10 of them qualify as 'hard drinkers' and can stop if they have a strong enough reason to stop. Half of the alcoholic group take the 12 Steps and recover. The other group has no motivation to take the 12 Steps, because they have nothing to recover from. They can choose not to drink. At the end of the day, there are 5 recovered alcoholics and 10 people who choose not to drink. The 5 alcoholics who didn't find a spiritual solution are long since gone.

But when they return, they find 10 people talking about how they chose not to drink and it worked for them. And they find these 5 guys talking about a spiritual experience as being the only hope for them. And those 5, left over alcoholics try once again to choose not drink and fail miserably once again at that, listening all the while to the message in the room about choosing not to drink.

At least, that's what I see in a lot of AA.