Comments on: Three Views of Recovery

By: Butch R

Butch R — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:17:43 +0000

Dick B- I agree wholeheartedly……22yrs sober and I couldn’t agree more.

By: ninja7

ninja7 — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 07:50:22 +0000

I wonder if I can ask your question. There are a lot of agnostics here in Japan. Even Buddhists do not think their God in general. What do you think about your HP in AA? Or you do not follow AA?

By: Ken C

Ken C — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 23:38:20 +0000

I really enjoyed this article. It really clarifies a lot of things. The one place it falls short is a failure to mention our Traditions. A Twelve Step fellowship only has one message: “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps…” It is the goal of our Program. The purpose of our fellowship should be to support each other and hold each other accountable in that goal.

Though the goals of psychology/psychiatry are noble, it is an outside issue to Twelve Step Fellowships. Though their methods are effective for many ailments, they are not effective in bringing about a spiritual awakening necessary for the recovery of true addicts/alcoholics.

By definition, if someone can stop by human power (including meetings and psychology) they are a hard drinker/user. A real addict/alcoholic can only stop by accessing a Power Greater than human power.

By: Ken C

Ken C — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 15:44:38 +0000

The very definition of alcoholic/addict is one who cannot stop w/o a spiritual experience/awakening.

By: Ken C

Ken C — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 15:40:44 +0000

I believe the Big Book says that we only need to be WILLING to believe. It does not actually require us to believe. Someone who is not willing will not have a conversion experience. It is just the open-mindedness to accept the possibility that I may not know everything. Among the things I don’t know could there exist a Power greater than myself?

By: JimGrinham

JimGrinham — Fri, 28 May 2010 15:03:12 +0000

“In all probability, we shall never be able to touch more than a fair fraction of the alcohol problem in all it’s ramifications. Upon therapy for the alcoholic himself, we surely have no monopoly.” Big Book forward pg. xi

In my opinion this appears to summarize the contents of this article!

By: justincbenedict

justincbenedict — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 05:01:59 +0000

I got sober through “fellowship recovery” which I guess is the middle one, and then I picked up some of the psychological help along the way…I didn’t really learn about the spiritual aspect…meaning I didn’t know that there was an “original” way to do the program until recently. At my AA club, the Westside Club in DC, there’s a group of “Recovered” alcoholics who have a small meeting on Friday nights, and they don’t raise hands, they just discuss the steps, and they are not fans of the 12X12(which I understand Wilson wrote for income to support his mistress) or “Living Sober” I am much more interested in this way of recovery now, and I listen to Chris Raymer’s tapes regularly. What I learned from one of these guys today is, actually, the Big book doesn’t really mention sponsorship at all. You can have a sponsor, or not. Chuck C. author of “A New Pair of Glasses” didn’t…that’s interesting. I am quite attracted to the “Spiritual/Original” way, but I do enjoy my (sick) discussion meetings and the crazy fellowship as well.

By: andrew hobby

andrew hobby — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:58:40 +0000

I hope this gets to chris: You told us once that when you get to A.A. you don’t have much time–presumably before something bad happens and you can’t change it. Time ran out for a friend of mine last week and an innocent kid was killed.
As for my friend, he watches the circle of people he hurt grow larger every day and the stain grow deeper. The on ly difference between me and him is that I read these words tonight–good for me, right?–before I go out and kill someone. My friend can only reread this stuff. We both were told.
His life is enough like mine to be a mirror. Right now I stay sober by sheer terror. I think I also remember you saying something about bopp till you drop. Thanks-andrew

By: bill m

bill m — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:56:38 +0000

The problem with all this is simple. If you are ALCOHOLIC you may want to pocket your pride and do the work out of the BB, otherwise not doing so will more than likely eventually kill you. There are a lot of non alcoholics in AA saying you don’t have to do anything but “just don’t drink and go to meetings”. If I say I am a butcher, baker or candlestick-maker it does not make me one. Yet I can say I am an alcoholic. There are two things that make an alcoholic, a physical allergy coupled with the mental obsession. Just because I puked, blacked out, cracked up a car(s), lost a job(s), got diviorced(s), got arrested, etc., does not make me an alcoholic. The courts have funneled a lot on non-alcoholics into AA who have stayed and enjoyed the fellowship, fine, God Bless. But there is alot of blood on our seats from non alcoholics telling real alcoholics you don’t have to do the steps (out of the BB). Telling someone to do the steps won’t kill them, telling them they don’t have to, more than likley will. I was one of them, God Bless the man who stopped me from killing myself (14yrs sober) and told me what my problem was-ME, and what I was suffering from- untreated alcoholism. In hindsight, putting the plug in the jug was the easy part, doing the work changed who I was and saved me from myself. Thanks you AA
Bill M

By: Carl B.

Carl B. — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:21:08 +0000

I really appreciate the comments concerning meetings and “the program”. I absolutely, positively was “reborn”. Americans are notoriously lazy. (Easier softer way)I was as the book says, “violently anti religious”. But, because of continuous study of the big book, with a man who had this program as his life, I was convinced. We alcoholics must have invented loopholes and justification. They are all closed in that Book. As any who have “recovered” know, the Power, or “psychic change”, is truly what I call a miracle.