Andante

I think it's likely that the OP has left the building after 10 years, but I do appreciate the necessity of reviving old topics when new ones, sadly, don't seem to present themselves on the 12-Step Forum very often any more.

Sober369

When I started reading this thread I thought it was a new one. Was sad to see it is so old, even though it was a great read. I wish we had more posting in the 12 step forum.
I like the saying, "Keep coming back, it works if you work it." It kept me coming back over several relapses, and then got me to finally working it!
I think the Big Book says that working the steps is what keeps us sober. It's how we form a relationship with our Higher Power, which is where we get the power to not drink. That's my take on it.

Pathwaytofree

I love this old thread was revived.

My experience in Step 5 was that it brought me clarity and quiet in my mind. It wasn't a white light experience, but I didn't understand the depths of my experience until hindsight. When I got to Step 6/7 and home, I was overcome with an extremely spiritual sense of clearly seeing how my character defects worked in my life and how I was more than willing and ready to ask God to remove them. Again no white light. It almost felt like I wasn't doing it right. But I was.

My experience was that I got a great effect with Step 3. I owe that to just how low a spiritual bottom I was at, and the fact that my sponsor had such an amazing genuine peaceful energy about her that gave me hope and trust.

I have, too, In the cases I've seen, it's because they expected that "white light" experience, or for their lives to suddenly just be completely fixed just because they wrote Step 4.

I've heard this, too. But I've also known people who were on meds and they were still able to have a spiritual experience, but I guess it depends on the medication and dose. One of the women I am sponsoring now is on a lot of psych meds but I am hopeful that she will still be able to have a spiritual experience. I see moments of it.

shortstop81

Going back to the original post, I always took that mantra as a way to keep things simple for newcomers, who's heads are probably not the clearest in early sobriety. Of course there's more to it, once you start working the steps with your sponsor.

Ken33xx

Last night there was a newcomer. A woman. Her first meeting. She was given a 24-hour chip and the meeting which uses Daily Reflections reverted to a 1st step meeting. (We don't often get newcomers.)

The woman sat quietly and said nothing. The woman reminded me of myself. I walked into that same meeting years ago on a Saturday night and said nothing. I didn't want to chat with anyone after the meeting. I just wanted to leave. There was one other woman in attendance who cornered the newcomer offering her telephone #.

Offer the telephone# , say a few words but then let her be. The idea is AA by attraction! You want the woman to return! The meeting is over. The newcomer is walking out the door. Let her go.

Overall I think the group made a good showing. We don't often get someone at their first meeting. Hope to see the woman again although the Sat. night meeting has mostly men.

(Of course no AA meeting would be complete without the gossip. I sent an email thanking a member for providing the 24 chip which he offered from another meeting chip box. At which point I was told the newcomer is gay. And how did he know this? It seems the woman who spoke with the newcomer after the meeting told him. Whatever. We've got a couple of gay fellows who are regulars but remember nothing travels faster than gossip in a small AA community. )

Ken33xx

Not sure what you're trying to say but if it works right on with the right on..


Ps: I like the Johnnyquest handle.

Watch the cartoon every Saturday when I was a kid.

August252015

Exactly. IME and IMO some of your analogies (like the expensive biker shorts) are not really accurate.

Working the steps- learning the program and living it, while mere SUGGESTIONS by AA - are absolutely why I am sober (and live a rich life in recovery) and I sure did rail against the program, the semantics, the .... everything for a long time.

Analyzing, dissecting, overthinking got me absolutely nowhere except sicker - following the program and creating my own well-supported life of recovery have gotten me more than I ever thought my life would have.

Just my $0.02 +

Gottalife

I think you are saying people that just don’t drink and go to meetings succeed. And I think that is a fair observation up to a point. That approach does not work with an alcoholic of my type, I tried it. It may give temporary relief, even up to twenty years or more as long as life goes reasonably smooth. But there will come a day where something will happen, and the old solution will present itself. I have seen it many times.

And for alcoholics not of my type, like those who wake up each day and choose not to drink, it is a perfectly adequate solution it seems. The only problem is when one of those tells me that because they didn’t need to do the work, then I don’t need to either. I am the type of alcoholic the big book describes, the one who must have a spiritual experience in order to recover.

The other thing I have observed about the Ddgtm approach is a phenomenon I call saw tooth sobriety. The best they are gonna feel is right after a meeting. From there everything starts to unravel until they get the next motivation shot at the next meeting. If you drew a graph it would look like a saw blade with the peaks being the end or a meeting and the troughs being the start. If they miss a few meetings things really start to fall apart and sometimes they drink.

Db1105

Well, those sayings saved my sorry ass. There is also another saying, “Take what you need and leave the rest.”
Step number two says “ CAME to believe that a Power Greater than yourself can restore you to sanity”. I sure as hell wasn’t ready to accept a Power Greater than myself could restore me to sanity. Thank “God” I kept hearing don’t think, don’t drink, get a Homegroup and a Sponsor until I could begin my journey through the Twelve Step. White knuckle sobriety is better than being drunk.
We are many and varied. What I may think is bull crap may be fertilizer for someone else.