What's the 12 steps?
Member
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: The Basement
Posts: 724
Hi Newstart,
Welcome to the Recovery Forums. It's a great place for fellowship and support.
For some people AA is extreme and it has to be because if they drink, they die. There is a saying in AA that says "take what you need and leave the rest" When I first started going to meetings, I really didn't know what I believed about god or if I believed. It was in the steps and I thought in order to be in AA my higher power had to be god, but it didn't. I was told to make the group my higher power for now if that makes me more comfortable as long as it wasn't me.
For me, in the beginning, the only thing I was very diligent about was going to the meetings and taking suggestions from a sponsor. As an addict and an alcoholic it is in my nature to question anything I feel that has authority over me and I questioned everything in AA until I realized how much it was working in my life and that I was staying sober.
For now, if you choose, you can just show up to meetings and listen, but don't be surprised if you decide you want to stick around. That is if you want to stay sober.
Good luck and keep posting
Welcome to the Recovery Forums. It's a great place for fellowship and support.
For some people AA is extreme and it has to be because if they drink, they die. There is a saying in AA that says "take what you need and leave the rest" When I first started going to meetings, I really didn't know what I believed about god or if I believed. It was in the steps and I thought in order to be in AA my higher power had to be god, but it didn't. I was told to make the group my higher power for now if that makes me more comfortable as long as it wasn't me.
For me, in the beginning, the only thing I was very diligent about was going to the meetings and taking suggestions from a sponsor. As an addict and an alcoholic it is in my nature to question anything I feel that has authority over me and I questioned everything in AA until I realized how much it was working in my life and that I was staying sober.
For now, if you choose, you can just show up to meetings and listen, but don't be surprised if you decide you want to stick around. That is if you want to stay sober.
Good luck and keep posting
Member
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: land of 10,000 lakes
Posts: 261
Newstart,
Not quite as extreme as you think. There is
something that goes along with the program. Called
willingness, till I found that it looked extreme too.
Thanks fro the post. Jump in anytime. Lots
of really great people here!!!
Blessings,
Vinnnie
Not quite as extreme as you think. There is
something that goes along with the program. Called
willingness, till I found that it looked extreme too.
Thanks fro the post. Jump in anytime. Lots
of really great people here!!!
Blessings,
Vinnnie
Guest
Posts: n/a
Quote from the Big Book, under "How it Works", and usually read at the beginning of a meeting.............
......."Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery"...............
If I knew how to underline the "suggested" I would.
Doug
......."Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery"...............
If I knew how to underline the "suggested" I would.
Doug
Member
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 41
AA may seem extreme, but then Alcoholism is an extreme illness. It will rob the sufferer of their self respect, honesty, decency, compassion, love, tolerance and judgement. It will replace love with hate, honesty with deceit, peace of mind with anger, guilt and jealousy. Fear will eventually dominate the sufferers whole life.
Alcoholism will destroy them and maim or kill those around them. When the sufferer eventually dies or is locked up for good they will leave behind people who genuinely loved them, but who’s lives have been shattered by behaviour they simply do not understand.
If you were diagnosed with a malignant tumour you would not expect to cure it with a couple of aspirin. You would undergo radical surgery, or accept that you were going to die from your condition.
These are the ONLY two options an alcoholic has.
Another quote from the beginning of the Chapter 5 How it Works.
"Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly
followed our path. Those who do not recover
are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves
to this simple program..."
Yes the 12 steps are "...suggested as a program of recovery", but if you do not do them in the manner outlined in the Big Book you will not get the recovery the book promises.
A bit later "Half measures availed us nothing..."
The complete Chapter 5 can be read at
http://www.healingresource.org/book.cgi?Page_58
Take care,
Michael
Alcoholism will destroy them and maim or kill those around them. When the sufferer eventually dies or is locked up for good they will leave behind people who genuinely loved them, but who’s lives have been shattered by behaviour they simply do not understand.
If you were diagnosed with a malignant tumour you would not expect to cure it with a couple of aspirin. You would undergo radical surgery, or accept that you were going to die from your condition.
These are the ONLY two options an alcoholic has.
Another quote from the beginning of the Chapter 5 How it Works.
"Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly
followed our path. Those who do not recover
are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves
to this simple program..."
Yes the 12 steps are "...suggested as a program of recovery", but if you do not do them in the manner outlined in the Big Book you will not get the recovery the book promises.
A bit later "Half measures availed us nothing..."
The complete Chapter 5 can be read at
http://www.healingresource.org/book.cgi?Page_58
Take care,
Michael
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