Spiritual Seeker

What is "Step 0"

laurie6781

For this alkie and the ones I sponsor.....................it's starting at the beginning of the Big Book and reading, especially "The Doctor's Opinion" and highlighting what jumps out at you while reading "The Doctor's Opinion." Then writing about each phrase, sentence or statement that you highlighted.

This is all in preparation for the first step. I also, when the sponsee is willing, like to have them do a timeline of their drinking, which in turn shows them in black and white the PROGRESSION of what has happened to them.

This is all in preparation for Step1. The FOUNDATION STEP. To be built of concrete, not sand. This helped me and helps those that I work with to understand and accept to the very core of one's being that I (or they) am powerless over alcohol, and that while in the grips of King Alcohol my life was unmanageable.

Step 0 is what we do or have sponsees do to understand and get prepared for Step 1.

J M H O in how it works for me and those I sponsor.

Love and hugs,

barb dwyer

huh. There's news.

Tazman53

What Laurie said, basically a prepratory phase making sure there are no misgivings or doubts about taking the steps and making sure that the sponsee is really ready to go to any length to get and stay sober.

Barb every sponsor does it basically the same as thier sponsor did with them, my sponsor is a BB Natzi, he showed me and had me discover how to do every single step in the BB and follow the directions given in the BB. We did not use the 12X12 at all.

There are probably at least 100 published ways of doing the steps and 10 times the amount of ways presented in step workshops.

Every sponsor puts a little different spin on taking a sponsee through the steps and it varies every time with every sponsee and with the sponsors time. This is all according to my sponsor, because I spoke to him about taking my sponsee through the steps, he told me that and he said as long as I stuck with my ESH and the BB I would do just fine.

You know Barb this is so very true:

I am already learning more then I did working with my sponsor, he told me I would, he has been sober for 18 years, sponsored quite a few guys and also does step workshops every once in awhile and he told me more then once he had learned some thing new to him working with me. He also told me with time that parts of the BB would change in meaning to me.

laurie6781

Boy that truth should be written in GOLD in ALL CAPS on a tablet in the desert, roflmao.

I would hate to try and count over the years how many times the meaning of the BB has changed for me.

Barb, not everybody calls it Step 0. It is just prep work to get one ready for step one, sometimes makes ACCEPTANCE of Step 1 easier.

Like Taz's sponsor, I do not use the 12x12 as my sponsor did not with me. I do believe that when the first 100 wrote the BB and put it together, they put the 'Preface, Forward to First Addition, added later Forward to Second Edition, Forward to Third Addition, Forward to Fourth Edition, and The Doctors Opinion ahead of Chapter 1, to be read and studied before actually getting into the First Chapter.

Also, for me and for many others I know The Doctor's Opinion is extremely important, more so, when you take into consideration that Dr. William Silkworth was not an alcoholic and yet describes alcoholism so accurately and descriptively, and that this opinion was written in the 2nd half of the1930's long before all the "experts" we have out there now.

It is a very important part of the BB for me.

J M H O

Love and hugs,

jimhere

Hey Taz,
Use the book and your own experience and you can't go wrong. Besides you can't screw them up any worse than they already are (LOL!)
Jim