ShaneW

Just curious here. Im not yet 30 days, and only recently got a sponsor, so Im not trying to rush things in any way. I know everyone is on their own journey, but just curious when you guys started The Steps?

michelle01

It varies between people. I think though you can start as soon as you're ready for the first step. 'We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.'

Taking5

Joe and Charlie, a popular AA speaker duo, say that we don't take step 1 in the AA room, we take it in the bar room. I agree with them.

So if you admit you are powerless over alcohol and you life has become unmanagable, you have taken step 1. If you are ready for more, tell your sponsor.

ShaneW

thx.

I meant to title thread, "When DID you start The Steps?"

was asking for ppls experiences, but thx for those answers so far.

Sapling

I took my step one in the back of a cab on my way to detox..Steps two and three shortly after...And I didn't even know what AA was. After reading the Big Book...First 164 pages....More than a couple times...I saw what I had to do...Left rehab...Got a sponsor...Told him I was done with steps 1-3 and ready to start inventory....We talked about them..We did the third step prayer together and I was off.

P.S. I guess if you are asking for a day...I started step 4... 18 days after I stopped drinking, left rehab early and got a sponsor.

augustwest

if you want a spiritual awakening and the freedom that comes with it I suggest sooner rather than later. my experience was that meeting attendance alone had a pretty low ceiling for freedom and happiness.

keithj

I started the Steps the first day I didn't drink. Drunk and hopeless and full of desperation, I called a guy in the program I didn't like all that much, but knew he was a serious program guy. We met later that day and started going through the book. It took me a couple of weeks to get that first day of not drinking, and that was the day I followed his directions about working in the BB.

MarylandRick

I took my first step on a Saturday morning in late July at the end of what has become my last binge. My family was urging me to go to the hospital to detox and to enter a rehab program....I was adamant that I could do it alone. Sometime late that Saturday morning I decided I needed to go. I surrendered at that moment and took step 1. I spent the day in the hospital and a bed opened at a rehab the following Monday morning for me.

I had known for several years leading up to that moment that I was an alcoholic but I had not admitted the fact that I was powerless over it. I wanted to stop but I wanted to do it my way. How freeing it has been to accept that I can't. I am so grateful for that morning and the events leading up to it.

RobbyRobot

I went to my first AA meeting still drunk. I didn't drink again after that meeting. A few days later into supervised residential detox or I would have drank again. Did 30 days detox. Then did 60 days residential rehab. By the time 90 days was up I had completed the AA program and from then on right up to today I do Steps 10, 11, 12 actively, the rest are a foundational strength. I participated in hundreds of AA meetings in the first decade, not so much the last two decades. No relapses in my recovery. I am recovered.

No need to wait on the Steps. Do them as you get to them. The AA Big Book is the best handbook for detailing how the Steps work for enjoying AA sobriety.

Congrats on your almost 30 days.

sugarbear1

Days 14 + 15 out of hopeless desperation. I received the gift of relief. Second time through at 4 months, 3rd time through at 8 months and I learned the sponsor's side. At 9 months I've taken my sponsee who has almost 2 months through the steps, for her first time through. Every one is different. It is their journey. The sponsor is just the guide for the steps.

Rexfiles

You have a sponsor. Ask him, he is your guide/mentor. Follow his advice.

Personally, over 9 years of sobriety in AA over the past fourteen attending, I never got past step three.

THIS time......my sponsor has me starting IMMEDIATELY!!!!!

He is 25 years sober, and I have known him for the last decade.

I trust him completely.

I build with brick and block, I also work on my vehicles and bikes. I can only achieve what I am doing, at my best effort, a brick or bolt at a time.

Before you know it you will be starting them, that is just the way it is done.

Good Luck.

Rex

macknacat

I had been dry for a a couple months . Broke up with GF. On my bike headed to the liquor store [was conveniently right next to my dealers house] but i headed up the 4 miles of dirt to my house instead . About mile 2 i got off the bike: "God help me i cant keep doing this" . went to rehab that day.

Later, i understood this was really the first 3 steps . I began 'formal' step work within a couple weeks. have done them twice since. been thru them many times w/ sponsees ...

ShaneW

thanks for replies. Gonna connect with my Sponsor this wknd and discuss this. I see him almost nightly at meetings, but I didnt get the BB till yesterday & he wanted me to read at least first 164 pages. I had already amazon'd the BB before I got sponsored, or else he wouldve hooked me up with a copy, but F'n amazon took 12 days to mail it to me.

MemphisBlues

Hey, Shane

I've been sober for 18 months now, and I'm still working the steps. I have been procrastinating like crazy on the 8th step.

Someone shared in the rooms not long ago that the steps should be tackled immediately...at least, while the person is desperate. That spoke to me. I got sober (read abstained) and a couple weeks in the withdrawals from my benzo-booze combo just hammered me.

I went and found my BB from a decade ago and read the first 164 pages.

I think I took Step 1 there and then, and struggled with Step 2 and 3, but became willing and open-minded enough to think for the first time those steps were possible.

I got a sponsor.

My first sponsor basically knew I was a physical and mental wreck and nearly died in withdrawals, so he more or less held my hand during the stark, raving bouts of depression.

About four months sober, he left he area, so I approached a woman in the rooms with 30 years of sobriety. She is a big believer in writing, so I wrote out my first step. It was about 5,000 words on my laptop.

I then wrote whatever came into my head for Step 2 and 3.

I did my fifth step with her at about nine months sober. And, wham, I've been sitting on my ass since.

I do believe that the steps should be rushed through... after all, Step 1 is the only one we have to get perfectly...and then done repeatedly. I know my fifth step was long, deep, profound, but only touched the surface of the work to be done.

As my sponsor does, writing a fourth step is really an ongoing process, as stated in Steps 10, 11 and 12.

Sapling

I didn't do any writing for steps one,two or three....Didn't see any directions that said you needed to...I admitted something to myself...Came to believe something and made a decision....I can't...He can....I think I'll let Him. Don't forget that step 1 is a 2 part step.

This is a good little guide for reading the Big Book Shane...

Step 1 Read Doctor's Opinion and Pages 1-43
1-23 deal with the physical craving
23-43 deal with the mental obsession.

Steps 2 & 3 Pages 44-63
When you get to p 60 and you get to this
a) That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives. (2nd half of step 1)
(b) That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism.(1st half of step 1)
(c) That God could and would if He were sought. (step 2)

Bill W. originally wrote....On steps 1 and 2
If you are not convinced on these vital issues, you ought to re-read the book to this point or else throw it away!

They decided to take that out and it now reads.....A little less harsh.
Being convinced, we were at Step Three,

If you aren't convinced ...Read it again.

Steps 4-9
Very bottom of p63 to p84. 20 pages...6 steps.

Steps 10-12
Middle of p84 to p103...19 pages...With step 12 being the only step with it's own chapter.

Those are the Directions...Which they also changed...To suggestions...Little less harsh and they also knew that alkies don't like to follow directions.

Have a dictionary around..It's amazing what this guy does with words. These might come in handy also.

Text of the Big Book with a search feature...In case you need to look up phrases or words.
The text of Alcoholics Anonymous

Big Book Index....Where and how many times a word is used.
Big Book Concordance: C-D

Enjoy it Shane...Keep moving forward. I still love to read that book...Best book I ever read. The stories in the back are great...Study the first 103 pages first.

Any quotes are out the Big Book first edition.

Threshold

I took the first three after coming back to this site after 4 or 5 months. I had come here to see if I had a problem, then went out and dug a little deeper. Then I came back to investigate recovery options. I had just undergone major surgery with complications and was not allowed to drive for another three weeks. I had lots of time at home to hang out here and read recovery literature. (lots of it online)

A couple people here reached out to me, answered questions addressed my fears. I decided I would go to NA because the literature "spoke" to me and I felt that at that point I was too far gone to put my own program together, and was hoping that if my spouse saw my obvious commitment to recovery it would save the marriage.

I had a temporary online sponsor who took me through the first three steps before I ever hit my first meeting. We did those three over the course of one week.