kinghank

Hope everyone is have a good day! Just wanted to share a moment lately and hear your thoughts!

So I am still struggling with my sobriety, but after months of haphazardly going to meetings and continuing to hide, then coming clean, then sober up, then back to all day drinking, I finally picked up the big book. Holy Hell! So far I feel like it was written specifically to/for/about me. No wonder people swear by this program.

Just curious did anyone else ever have that Ah ha moment, specifically with working AA, in believing that it might actually work, and what that realization was like/how you came to that realization?

Sapling

I asked God for help saving my life and I ended up there. That was enough for me. And I felt the same way..."Damn...This book is about me!".

Sapling

I heard a speaker once talk about the directions for these 12 steps and it helped me. Maybe it will help you. The directions are in the first 103 pages of the book. 103 pages....Study it. It goes like this...

Read the Doctor's Opinion first (8 additional pages) and then Pages 1-43. This is about Step One. Almost half of what you have to read is step One.
Pages 1-23 is about the Physical Craving
Pages 23-43 is about the Mental Obsession.
Step one...The only step you have to get 100% right.

Then you have 19 pages on steps two and three. Two critical steps in 19 pages.

Now you have the directions for six steps....Four through nine.....In 20 pages. It's not like you have this huge textbook to lug around....20 pages....Six steps.
Read it till you understand it...Study it.

That leaves three steps...Ten through twelve...Step twelve has it's own chapter...And you still have all you need for those three steps in 19 pages.

It's not that much to take in...It just takes a little effort and a lot of willingness to make this work. It's real easy to find ways to say this doesn't work for you...Because it doesn't. You want it...You work for it. I did...And it works for me. Good luck getting sober....And changing your life.

omegasupreme

If reading it gave you an "ah ha" moment...could doing it give you an "ah ha" life?

It did for me. Welcome, welcome, welcome!

DayTrader

Good for you King. I feel the same way now but I couldn't see that when I was getting started......so you're a lot more open/honest with yourself than I was.

FYI, there's a 12-Step area here on SR that you'll enjoy. Lots of Big Book / AA stuff down there.

tomsteve

i have to laugh because i can relate. sometime when i was reading it, i stopped to look at when it was published. 28 years before i was even born!!! "they" knew i was comin!!
i have a 1st edition reprint and theres a story in there titled" fired again!" i had to read that because i knew that feeling. i couldnt believe it!! the man was me! the only difference was his drinking career started in 1918.

i am 7 years sober and i still get them ah ha!! moments. it comes from being openminded and willing to learn.

sugarbear1

When I was willing to believe that anything other than what I was doing would work, I attempted to stay stopped. I soon worked the 12 steps of recovery with someone with 25+ years of experience. Not only did it make my original "Ah ha! My way ISN'T working, but the results of working those steps helped me to believe fully that there are powers out there that are greater than I!

bryangt

I was scared to stop drinking & change my life. Early in recovery, the Big Book offered me 'shelter from the storm' of my life at the time. A comfortable chair in a quiet room reading the Big Book gave me peace from the craziness I was feeling.

MentalLoop

You all are wrong!!!!!! The book was written about me!!

Dee74

I'm really pleased you found something thats working for you kinghank

D

desertsong

When I first entered AA and got a Big Book, my sponsor told me to read The Doctor's Opinion before I read anything else. Wow. It was an eye-opener. I definitely saw myself in those pages. If I ever had any doubts I was an alcoholic when I read that, I definitely had no doubts afterwards.

kinghank

I never realized so many people felt the same way the first time picking it up! Amazing.

Hope everyone is doing well and thanks for the feedback

Ranger

KH - The first time I read the BB, I remember feeling incredible relief in knowing the alcoholic script I'd followed for the previous 15 years was written long, long before me.

I also remember feeling that since the BB was so balls-on in its description of my problem, there's probably a little somethun-somethun to its proposed solution.

eJoshua

That's great to hear. It's always encouraging to read something you can identify with.

To be honest, I couldn't completely relate to the stories in the BB, but some of the resonated with me. I got a much bigger impact from the stories I hear in the meetings I go to. It really depends on the meeting though, so if you haven't had that "A-ha" moment in a meeting then maybe you want to try a different meeting. I went to a bunch before I found one where I felt like I fit in and the people were like me, but once I did find that I actually started looking forward to meetings instead of feeling obligated to go.

ChapterTwo

That's wonderful to hear. I was fortunate enough to attend a few meetings to support my mother about seven years ago, and when I finally decided to do something about my own alcoholism I knew the BB was going to be helpful.

Keep it up!

DisplacedGRITS

I didn't have an "Ah ha!" moment so much as the realization settled on me like a warm blanket. After a few meetings, reading a couple of chapters of the big book and my first 12&12 meeting, i realized that i was going not because i had to but because i wanted to and that it was working deep within me. The desire to drink, the deep desire to drink due to my fears, my insecurities, because it was all i knew, because it was what i had become and all i could hope to be, because i wanted to kill something inside me, was gone. Instead of that desire, i wanted to be around these people. To listen, to share, to learn, to read and work and serve. To find the value in my life that i'd misplaced. I am so happy that i finally opened myself to AA. When i approached it in the past it was as an outsider determined to stay on the outside because i didn't feel that i could connect with people. Now, i go to meetings with an open mind, open ears and open heart. I don't care if it's men, women, young, old, country, city or where in the world. We're addicts. We want to quit. If we have that in common, that's enough for me.

KissMyTiara

Good for you! I also got the ah ha after getting my BB. Reading it and doing the 12 steps. I wish you the very best of luck. It has saved so many people.

For myself, I bored of the initial rush. Thinking this is it, finally. I ended up getting sober with AVRT.