.
The following pages
contain the basic material for the
discussion meetings for alcoholics
only.
These meetings are held for
the purpose of acquainting both old
and new members with the 12 steps on
which our program is based.
So that
all twelve steps may be covered in a
minimum of time they are divided into
four classifications and one evening
each week will be devoted to each of
the four subdivisions. Thus, in one
month, a new man can get the basis of
our 12 suggested steps.
Discussion
No. 1---The admission, Step No.
1.
Discussion
No. 2---The spiritual phase,
Steps 2,3,5,6,7, and 11.
Discussion No. 3---The
inventory and restitution, Steps No.
4, 8, 9 and 10.
Discussion No. 4---The
active work, which is Step No. 12.
DISCUSSION NO. 1
THE ADMISSION
The material
contained herein is merely an
outline of the admission phase of
the program and is not intended to
replace or supplant-
a. The careful reading and
re-reading of the Big Book.
b.
Regular attendance at weekly group
meetings.
c. Study of the
Program.
d. Daily practice of
the program.
e. Reading of
approved printed matter on
Alcoholism.
f. Informal
discussion with other members.
This meeting covers Step No. 1.
"We admitted we were powerless
over alcohol-that our lives had
become unmanageable."
This
instruction is not a short-cut to
A.A. It is an introduction-a help-a
brief course in the fundamentals.
In
order to determine whether or not a
person has drifted from "social
drinking" into pathological
drinking it is well to check over a
list of test questions, which each
member may ask himself and answer
for himself.
We must
answer once and for all these three
puzzling questions-
What is an Alcoholic?
Who is
an Alcoholic?
Am I an Alcoholic?
To get the right answer the
prospective member must start this
course of instruction with-
1. A willingness to learn. We
must not have the attitude that
"you've got to show me."
2.
An open mind. Forget any and all
ideas or notions we already have.
Set our opinions aside.
3.
Complete honesty. It is
possible-not at all probable-that
we may fool somebody else. But we
MUST be honest with ourselves, and
it is a good time to start being
honest with others.
SUGGESTED TEST QUESTIONS
1. Do you require a drink the
next morning?
2. Do you prefer to
drink alone?
3. Do you lose time
from work due to drinking?
4. Is
your drinking harming your family
in any way?
5. Do you crave a
drink at a definite time daily?
6.
Do you get the inner shakes unless
you continue drinking?
7. Has
drinking made you irritable?
8.
Does drinking make you careless of
your family's welfare?
9. Have
you harmed your husband or wife
since drinking?
10. Has drinking
changed your personality?
11.
Does drinking cause you bodily
complaints?
12. Does drinking
make you restless?
13. Does
drinking cause you to have
difficulty in sleeping?
14. Has
drinking made you more impulsive?
15.
Have you less self-control since
drinking?
16. Has your initiative
decreased since drinking?
17. Has
your ambition decreased since
drinking?
18. Do you lack
perseverance in pursuing a goal
since drinking?
19. Do you drink
to obtain social ease? (In shy,
timid, self-conscious individuals.)
20.
Do you drink for
self-encouragement? (In persons
with feelings of inferiority.)
21.
Do you drink to relieve marked
feeling of inadequacy?
22. Has
your sexual potency suffered since
drinking?
23. Do you show marked
dislikes and hatreds since
drinking?
24. Has your jealousy,
in general, increased since
drinking?
25. Do you show marked
moodiness as a result of drinking?
26.
Has your efficiency decreased since
drinking?
27. Has your drinking
made you more sensitive?
28. Are
you harder to get along with since
drinking?
29. Do you turn to an
inferior environment since
drinking?
30. Is drinking
endangering your health?
31. Is
drinking affecting your peace of
mind?
32. Is drinking making your
home life unhappy?
33. Is
drinking jeopardizing your
business?
34. Is drinking
clouding your reputation?
35. Is
drinking disturbing the harmony of
your life?
If you have answered YES to any
one of the Test Questions, there is
a definite warning that you may be
alcoholic. If you have answered YES
to any two of the Test Questions the
chances are that you are an
alcoholic.
If you
answered YES to three or more of the
Test Questions you are definitely AN
ALCOHOLIC.
NOTE: The Test
Questions are not A.A. Questions but
are the guide used by Johns Hopkins
University Hospital in deciding
whether a patient is alcoholic or
not.
In addition to the
Test Questions we in A.A. would ask
even more questions. Here are a few-
36. Have you ever had a complete
loss of memory while, or after
drinking?
37. Have you
ever felt, when or after drinking,
an inability to concentrate?
38.
Have your ever felt
"remorse" after drinking?
39.
Has a physician ever treated you
for drinking?
40. Have
you ever been hospitalized for
drinking?
Many other questions could be
asked but the foregoing are
sufficient for the purpose of this
instruction.
.
.
WHY DOES AN ALCOHOLIC DRINK?
Having decided
that we are alcoholics, it is well
to consider what competent mental
doctors consider as the REASONS why
an Alcoholic drinks.
1. As an escape from situations
of life which he cannot face.
2.
As evidence of a maladjusted
personality (including sexual
maladjustments)
3. As a
development from social drinking to
pathological drinking.
4. As a
symptom of a major abnormal mental
state.
5. As an escape from
incurable physical pain.
6. As a
symptom of constitutional
inferiority-a psychopathic
personality. For example, an
individual who drinks because he
likes alcohol, knows he cannot
handle it, but does not care.
7.
Many times one cannot determine any
great and glaring mechanism as the
basis of why the drinker drinks;
but the revealing fact may be
elicited that alcohol is taken to
relieve a certain vague
restlessness in the individual
incident to friction between his
biological and emotional make-up
and the ordinary strains of life.
The above reasons are general
reasons. Where the individuality or
personality of the alcoholic is
concerned these reasons may be
divided as follows-
1. A self-pampering tendency
which manifests itself in refusal
to tolerate, even temporarily,
unpleasant states of mind such as
boredom, sorrow, anger,
disappointment, worry, depression,
dissatisfaction, and feelings of
inferiority and inadequacy. "I
want what I want when I want
it" seems to express the
attitude of many alcoholics toward
life.
2. An instinctive urge for
self-expression, unaccompanied by
determination to translate the urge
into creative action.
3. An
abnormal craving for emotional
experiences which calls for removal
of intellectual restraint.
4.
Powerful hidden ambitions, without
the necessary resolve to take
practical steps to attain them and
with resultant discontent,
irritability, depression,
disgruntled ness and general
restlessness.
5. A tendency to
flinch from the worries of life and
to seek escape from reality by the
easiest means available.
6. An
unreasonable demand for continuous
happiness or excitement.
7. An
insistent craving for the feeling
of self-confidence, calm and poise
that some obtain temporarily from
alcohol.
WE ADMIT
If, after
carefully considering the foregoing,
we ADMIT we are an alcoholic we must
realize that-
Once a person
becomes a pathological drinker, he
can never again become a controlled
drinker; and-from that point on, is
limited to just two alternatives:
1. Total permanent abstinence.
2.
Chronic alcoholism with all of the
handicaps and penalties it implies.
In other words-we have gone past
the point where we HAD A CHOICE.
All we have left is a DECISION to
make.
WE RESOLVE TO DO
SOMETHING ABOUT IT
1. WE MUST CHANGE OUR WAY OF
THINKING. (This is such an
important matter that it will have
to be discussed more fully in a
later discussion.)
2. We must
realize that each morning, when you
wake, you are a potential drunkard
for that day.
3. We resolve that
we will practice A.A. for the 24
hours of that day.
4. We must
study the other eleven Steps of the
Program and practice each and every
one.
5. Attend the regular Group
Meeting each week without fail.
6.
Firmly believe that by practicing
A.A. faithfully each day, we will
achieve sobriety.
7. Believe that
we can be free from alcohol as a
problem.
8. contact another
member BEFORE taking a drink-not
AFTER. Tell him what bothers
you-talk it over with him freely.
9.
Work the Program for ourselves
alone-NOT for our wife, children,
friends or for our job.
10. Be
absolutely honest and sincere.
11.
Be fully open minded-no mental
reservations.
12. Be fully
willing to work the Program.
Nothing good in life comes without
work.
CONCLUSION
1. Alcoholics are suffering from
a MENTAL DISEASE-not a physical
illness. Fortunately we in A.A.
have learned how it may be
controlled (this will be shown in
the next eleven Steps of the
Program.)
2. We can also learn to
be FREE from alcohol as a problem.
3.
We can achieve a full and happy
life without recourse to alcohol.
ASK QUESTIONS
No question pertaining
to drinking-or stopping drinking-is
silly or irrelevant. The matter is
TOO SERIOUS.
Any questions we ask
may help some one else.
This is
not a short-cut to A.A. It is an
introduction-a help-a brief course
in fundamentals.
In A.A. we learn
by question and answer.
We learn
by exchanging our thought and our
experience with each other.
Any
question you ask may help some one
else. To cover as many questions as
possible in the short time available
all answers must be limited to three
(3) minutes.
DISCUSSION NO. 2
THE SPIRITUAL PHASE
The material
contained herein is merely an
outline of the spiritual phase of
the program and is not intended to
replace or supplant
a. The careful reading and
re-reading of the Big Book.
b.
Regular attendance at weekly group
meetings.
c. Study of the
Program.
d. Daily practice of the
program.
e. Reading of approved
printed matter on Alcoholism.
f.
Informal discussion with other
members.
This instruction is not a
short-cut to A.A. It is an
introduction-a help-a brief course
in the fundamentals.
This meeting
covers Steps 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 11. We
will take them in order.
STEP
NO. 2-"Came to believe that
a Power greater than ourselves could
restore us to sanity."
Our
drinking experience has shown-
1. That as we strayed away from
the normal SOCIAL side of life, our
minds became confused and we
strayed away from the normal MENTAL
side of life.
2. An abnormal
MENTAL condition is certainly not
SANITY in the accepted sense of the
word. We have acquired or developed
a MENTAL DISEASE. Our study of A.A.
shows that-
a. In the MENTAL or tangible
side of life we have lost touch
with, or ignored, or have
forgotten the SPIRITUAL values
that give us the dignity of MAN as
differentiated from the ANIMAL. We
have fallen back upon the MATERIAL
things of life and these have
failed us. We have been groping in
the dark.
b. No HUMAN agency, no
SCIENCE or ART has been able to
solve the alcoholic problem, so we
turn to the SPIRITUAL for
guidance.
Therefore, we "Came to
believe that a Power greater than
ourselves could restore us to
sanity."
1. We must believe with a great
FAITH.
STEP NO. 3-"Made
a decision to turn our will and our
lives over to the care of GOD as we
understand Him." In the first
step we learned that we had lost the
power of CHOICE and had to make a
DECISION.
1. What DECISION could we make
better than to
a. Turn our very WILL over to
GOD, realizing that our own use of
our own will had resulted in
trouble.
b. As in the Lord's
Prayer you must believe and
practice THY WILL BE DONE.
2. GOD as we understand Him.
3.
RELIGION is a word we do not use in
A.A. We refer to a member's
relation to GOD as the SPIRITUAL. A
religion is a FORM of worship-not
the worship itself.
4. If a man
cannot believe in GOD he can
certainly believe in SOMETHING
greater than himself. If he cannot
believe in a POWER greater than
himself he is a rather hopeless
egoist.
STEP NO. 5-"Admitted
to GOD, to ourselves, and to another
human being the exact nature of our
wrongs."
1. There is nothing new in this
step. There are many sound reasons
for "talking over our troubles
out loud with others."
2.
The Catholic already has this
medium readily available to him in
the Confessional.
But-the Catholic is at a
disadvantage if he thinks his
familiarity with confession permits
him to think his part of A.A. is
thereby automatically taken care
of. He must, in confession,
seriously consider his problems in
relation to his alcoholic thinking.
3.
The non-Catholic has the way open
to work this step by going to his
minister, his doctor, or his
friend.
4. Under this step it is
not even necessary to go to a
priest or minister. Any
understanding human being, friend
or stranger will serve the purpose.
5.
The purpose and intent of this step
is so plain and definite that it
needs little explanation. The point
is that we MUST do EXACTLY what the
Fifth Step says, sooner or later.
We must not be in a rush to get
this step off our chest. Consider
it carefully and calmly. Then get
about it and do it.
6.
"Wrongs" do not
necessarily mean "crime. It
can well be wrong
thinking-selfishness-false
pride-egotism-or any one of a
hundred such negative faults.
STEP NO. 6-"We
are entirely ready to have God
remove all these defects of
character."
1. After admitting our wrong
thinking and wrong actions in Step
5 we now do something more than
"admit" or
"confess."
2. We now
become READY and WILLING to have
God remove the defects in our
CHARACTER.
3. Remember it is OUR
character we are working on. Not
the other fellow's. Here is a good
place to drop the CRITICAL attitude
toward others-the SUPERIOR attitude
toward others.
4. We must clean
our mind of wrong thinking-petty
jealousy-envy-self pity-remorse,
etc.
5. Here is the place to drop
RESENTMENTS, one of the biggest
hurdles the alcoholic has to get
over.
6. What concerns us here is
that we drop all thoughts of
resentment-anger-hatred-revenge.
7.
We turn our WILL over to God and
let HIS WILL direct us how to
patiently remove, one by one, all
defects in our character.
STEP NO. 7-"Humbly
asked Him to remove our
shortcomings." The meaning of
this step is clear. Prayer-Humility.
1. Prayer. No man can
tell another HOW to pray. Each one
has, or works out for himself, his
own method.
If we cannot pray, we
just talk to God and tell Him our
troubles.
Meditate-think clearly
and cleanly-and ask God to direct
our thoughts. Christ said "ask
and ye shall receive." What
method is simpler-merely
"ask."
If you cannot
pray ask God to teach you to pray.
2.
Humility. This, simply, is
the virtue of being ourselves and
realizing how small we are in a big
world full of its own trouble.
Drop
all pretense. We must not be Mr.
Big Shot-bragging, boasting. Shed
false pride. Tell the simple,
plain, unvarnished truth. Act, walk
and talk simply. See the little bit
of good that exists in an evil man.
Forget the little bit of evil that
exists in the good man. We must not
look down on the very lowest of
GOD'S creatures or man's mistakes.
Think clearly, honestly, fairly,
generously.
3. The shortcomings
we ask GOD to remove are the very
defects in character that make us
drink. The same defects we drink to
hide or to get away from.
STEP NO. 11-"Sought
through prayer and meditation to
improve our conscious contact with
GOD as we understood HIM praying
only for knowledge of His will for
us and the power to carry that
out."
1. We pray each night-every
night-a prayer of thanks.
2. We
pray each morning-every morning-for
help and guidance.
3. When we are
lonely-confused-uncertain-we pray.
Most of us find it well
to:
1. Choose, for each day, a
"quite time" to meditate
on the program, on your progress in
it.
2. Keep conscious contact
with GOD and pray to make that
contact closer.
3. Pray that our
will be laid aside and that God's
will direct us.
4. Pray for
calmness-quiet-relaxation-rest.
5.
Pray for strength and courage to
enable us to do today's work today.
6.
Pray for forgiveness for
yesterday's errors.
7. Ask for
HOPE for better things tomorrow.
8.
Pray for what we feel we need. We
will not get what we
"want." We will get what
we "need"-what is good
for us.
CONCLUSION
We find that no
one need have difficulty with the
spiritual side of the program.
WILLINGNESS-HONESTY and OPEN
MINDEDNESS are the ESSENTIALS OF
RECOVERY. BUT THESE ARE
INDISPENSABLE.
ASK QUESTIONS
No question
pertaining to drinking-or stopping
drinking-is silly or irrelevant. The
matter is too SERIOUS. In A.A. we
learn by question and answer.
We
learn by exchanging our thought and
our experience with each other.
Any
question you ask may help someone
else. To cover as many questions as
possible in the short time available
all answers must be limited to three
(3) minutes.
GOD
grant me the serenity to accept
things I cannot change, courage to
change things I can, and wisdom to
know the difference.
DISCUSSION NO. 3
INVENTORY AND RESTITUTION
The material contained
herein is merely an outline of the
inventory and restitution steps and
is not intended to replace or
supplant-
a. The careful reading and
re-reading of the Big Book.
b.
Regular attendance at weekly group
meetings.
c. Study of the
Program.
d. Daily practice of the
program.
e. Reading of approved
printed matter on Alcoholism.
f.
Informal discussion with other
members.
This instruction is not a
short-cut to A.A. It is an
introduction-a help-a brief course
in the fundamentals.
This meeting
covers Steps 4-8-9-10-We will take
them in order.
STEP 4-"Make
a searching and fearless moral
inventory of ourselves." The
intent and purpose of this step is
plain. All alcoholics have a
definite need for a good
self-analysis-a sort of
self-appraisal. Other people have
certainly analyzed us, appraised us,
criticized us and even judged us. It
might be a good idea to judge
ourselves, calmly and honestly. We
need inventory because-
1. Either our faults,
weaknesses, defects of
character-are the cause of our
drinking OR
2. Our drinking has
weakened our character and let us
drift into all kinds of wrong
action, wrong attitudes, wrong
viewpoints. In either event we
obviously need an inventory and the
only kink of inventory to make is a
GOOD one.
Moreover, the job is up to US. WE
created or WE let develop all the
anti-social actions that got US in
wrong. So WE have got to work it
out. WE must make out a list of our
faults and then We must do something
about it.
The inventory must be
four things-
1. It must be HONEST. Why waste
time fooling ourselves with a phony
list. We have fooled ourselves for
years. We tried to fool others and
now is a good time to look
ourselves squarely in the eye.
2.
It must be SEARCHING. Why skip over
a vital matter lightly and quickly.
Our trouble is a grave mental
disease, confused by screwy
thinking. Therefore, we must SEARCH
diligently and fearlessly to get at
the TRUTH of what is wrong with
us-just dig in and SEARCH.
3. It
must be FEARLESS. We must not be
afraid we might find things in our
heart, mind and soul that we will
hate to discover. If we do find
such things they may be the ROOT of
our trouble.
4. It must be a
MORAL inventory. Some, in error,
think the inventory is a lot of
unpaid debts, plus a list of unmade
apologies. Our trouble goes much
deeper. We will find the root of
our trouble lies in-
resentments-False
Pride-Envy-Jealousy-Selfishness and
many other things. Laziness is an
important one. In other words we
are making an inventory of our
character-our attitude toward
others-our very way of living. We
are not preparing a financial
statement. We will pay our bills
all right, because we cannot even
begin to practice A.A. without
HONESTY.
STEP 8-"Made
a list of all persons we had harmed,
and became willing to make amends to
them all." Under this step we
will make a list (mental or written)
of those we have harmed.
We ask
GOD to let His Will be done, not OUR
will, and ask for the strength and
courage to become willing to forget
resentments and false pride and make
amends to those we have harmed. We
must not do this step grudgingly, or
as an unpleasant task to be rid of
quickly. We must do it WILLINGLY,
fairly and humbly-without
condescension.
STEP 9-"Made
direct amends to such people
wherever possible, except when to do
so would injure them or
others."
Here is where we
make peace with ourselves by making
peace with those we have hurt.
The
amends we make must be direct. We
must pay in kind for the hurt we
have done them.
If we have cheated
them we must make restitution.
If
we have hurt their feelings we must
ask forgiveness from them.
The
list of harms done may be long but
the list of amends is equally long.
For
every "wrong" we have
done, there is a "right"
we may do to compensate.
There is
only one exception. we must develop
a sense of justice, a spirit of
fairness, an attitude of common
sense. If our effort to make amends
would create further harm or cause a
scandal we will have to skip the
"direct amends" and clean
the matter up under STEP 5.
HUMILITY
A state of complete
humility is very difficult to
attain, but the goal is well worth
the effort, considering the serenity
that is achieved.
DISCUSSION NO. 4
ACTIVE WORK
The material contained
herein is merely an outline of the
inventory and restitution steps and
is not intended to replace or
supplant-
a. The careful reading and
re-reading of the Big Book.
b.
Regular attendance at weekly group
meetings.
c. Study of the
Program.
d. Daily practice of the
program.
e. Reading of approved
printed matter on Alcoholism.
f.
Informal discussion with other
members.
This instruction is not a
short-cut to A.A. It is an
introduction-a help-a brief course
in the fundamentals.
THIS MEETING COVERS THE TWELFTH
STEP
"Having had a
spiritual experience as the result
of these steps, we tried to carry
this message to other alcoholics,
and to practice these principles in
all our affairs."
This STEP
logically separates into 3 parts.
1. The SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE.
The
terms "spiritual
experience" and
"spiritual awakening"
used here and in the book
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, mean, upon
careful reading, that the
personality change sufficient to
bring about recovery from
alcoholism has manifested itself
among us in many forms.
Do NOT
get the impression that these
personality changes, or spiritual
experiences, must be in the nature
of sudden and spectacular
upheavals. Happily for everyone,
this conclusion is erroneous.
Among
our rapidly membership of thousands
of alcoholics such transformations,
though frequent, are by no means
the rule. Most of our experiences
are what the psychologist William
James calls the "educational
variety" because they develop
slowly over a period of time. Quite
often friends of the newcomer are
aware of the difference long before
he is himself.
The new man
gradually realizes that he has
undergone a profound alteration in
his reaction to life; that such a
change could hardly have been
brought about by himself alone.
What often takes place in a few
months could seldom have been
accomplished by years of
self-discipline. With few
exceptions our members find that
they have tapped an unsuspected
inner resource which they presently
identify with their own conception
of a Power greater than themselves.
Most
emphatically we wish to say that
any alcoholic capable of honestly
facing his problem in the light of
our experience can recover provided
he does no close his mind to all
spiritual concepts. He can only be
defeated by an attitude of
intolerance or belligerent denial.
We
find that no one need have
difficulty with the spiritual side
of the program. Willingness,
Honesty and Open Mindedness are the
Essentials of Recovery. But these
are indispensable.
2.
CARRY THE MESSAGE TO OTHERS.
This
means exactly what it says. Carry
the message actively. Bring it to
the man who needs it. We do it in
many ways.
a. By attending EVERY meeting
of our own group
b. By making
calls when asked.
c. By speaking
at Group Meetings when asked.
d.
By supporting our Group
financially to make group meetings
possible.
e. By assisting at
Meetings when asked.
f. By
setting a good example of complete
sobriety.
g. By owning, and
loaning to new men, our own copy
of the big A.A. Book.
h. By
encouraging those who find the way
difficult.
I. By serving as an
officer or on group committees or
special assignment when asked.
j.
By doing all of the foregoing
cheerfully and willingly.
k. We
do any or all of the foregoing at
some sacrifice to OURSELVES WITH
DEFINITE THOUGHT OF DEVELOPING
unselfishness in our own
character.
3. WE PRACTICE THESE
PRINCIPLES IN ALL OUR AFFAIRS.
This
last part of the TWELFTH STEP is
the real purpose that all of the
twelve steps lead to-a new
"way of life"; a
"design for living." It
shows how to live rightly, think
rightly and to achieve happiness.
HOW
DO WE GO ABOUT IT?
a. We resolve to live our life,
one day at a time-just 24 hours.
b.
We pray each day for guidance that
day.
c. We pray each
night-thanks for that day.
d. We
resolve to keep our heads and to
forego any anger, no matter what
situation arises.
e. We are
patient.
f. We keep
calm-relaxed.
g. Now, and most
important, whatever LITTLE
ordinary situation as well as BIG
situations arise, we look at it
calmly and fairly, with an open
mind. Then act on it in exact
accordance with the simple true
principles that A.A. has taught
and will teach us.
In other words, our SOBRIETY is
only a correction of our worst and
most evident faults. Our living each
day according to the principles of
A.A. will also correct all of our
other lesser faults and will
gradually eliminate, one by one, all
of the defects in our character that
cause frictions, discontent, and
unhappy rebellious moods that lead
right back to our very chief fault
of drinking.
ASK QUESTIONS
No question
pertaining to drinking-or stopping
drinking is silly or irrelevant. The
matter is too SERIOUS. In A.A. we
learn by question and answer.
We
learn by exchanging our thought and
experience with each other.
Any
question we may ask may help someone
else.
Answers must be limited to
three (3) minutes.
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