Currently viewing the category: "The Big Book of AA"

Tell friends why alcohol disagrees with you.

On August 4, 2010 By

“At a proper time and place explain to all your friends why alcohol disagrees with you. If you do this thoroughly, few people will ask you to drink. While you were drinking, you were withdrawing from life little by little. Now you are getting back into the social life of this world. Don’t start to [...]

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Our problems were of our own making.

On August 4, 2010 By

“Some day we hope that Alcoholics Anonymous will help the public to a better realization of the gravity of the alcohol problem, but we shall be of little use if our attitude is one of bitterness or hostility. Drinkers will not stand for it. After all our problems were of our own making. Bottles were [...]

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A craving beyond their mental control.

On May 12, 2010 By

“I do not hold with those who believe that alcoholism is entirely a problem of mental control. I have had many men who had, for example, worked a period of months on some problem or business deal which has to be settled on a certain date, favorably to them. They took a drink a day [...]

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A manifestation of an allergy.

On May 12, 2010 By

“We believe, and so suggested a few years ago, that the action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy; that the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class and occurs in the average temperate drinker. These allergic types can never safely use alcohol in any form at all; and [...]

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Restless, irritable and discontented.

On May 12, 2010 By

“Men and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol. The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after time differentiate the true from the false. To them their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. They are restless, irritable and discontented, unless they can again [...]

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We absolutely insist on enjoying life.

On May 12, 2010 By

“We have been speaking to you of serious, sometimes tragic things. We have been dealing with alcohol in its worst aspect. But we aren’t a glum lot. If newcomers could see no joy or fun in our existence, they wouldn’t want it. We absolutely insist on enjoying life. We try not to indulge in cyanism [...]

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I feel sorry for you.

On May 12, 2010 By

“If you think you are an atheist, an agnostic, a skeptic, or have any other form of intellectual pride which keeps you from accepting what is in this book, I feel sorry for you. If you still think you are strong enough to beat the game alone, that is your affair. But if you really [...]

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Insurance against a slip.

On May 12, 2010 By

“I spend a great deal of time passing on what I learned to others who want and need it badly. I do it for four reasons:

Sense of duty. It is a pleasure. Because in doing so I am paying my debt to the man who took time to pass it on to me. Because [...]

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Thanks to another drunk.

On May 12, 2010 By

Of far more importance was the fact that he was the first living human with whom I had ever talked, who knew what he was talking about in regards to alcoholism from actual experience.”

“Doctor Bob’s nightmare”, The Big Book. Reprinted with permission of AA World Service, Inc.

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A spiritual structure.

On May 11, 2010 By

“We needed to ask ourselves but one short question. “Do I believe, or am I even willing to believe, that there is a Power greater than myself?” As soon as a man can say that he does believe, or is willing to believe, we emphatically assure him that he is on his way. It has [...]

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