God intended for our lives to be difficult. I still find that a little odd Difficult in that we face obstacles every day and are challenged to overcome them. But it’s OK that I find it odd because I don’t have to understand why God chose the way He did. I just have to accept that He has a plan, and it is not my will.
I didn’t figure that out until like years into my sobriety. I thought life was supposed to be easy, and if it wasn’t, something was wrong.
“There is the obsession that somehow, someday, they will beat the game.”
The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, Fourth Edition, p. 23, There is a Solution.
“He may be one of the finest fellows in the world. Yet let him drink for a day, and he frequently becomes disgustingly, and even dangerously anti-social.”
The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, Fourth Edition, p. 21, There is a Solution.
“Our very lives, as ex-problem drinkers, depend upon our constant thought of others and how we may help meet their needs.”
The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, Fourth Edition, p. 20, There is a Solution
“We feel that elimination of our drinking is but a beginning. A much more important demonstration of our principles lies before us in our respective home, occupations and affairs.”
[The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, Fourth Edition, p. 19, There is a Solution.]
The word “drink” is last mentioned on page 51 of the Big Book. After that, it’s a book on how to live.
“I, who had thought so well of myself and my abilities, of my capacity to surmount obstacles, was cornered at last.”
[The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, Fourth Edition, p. 8, Bills Story.]
I remember the day I realized I was cornered. I could not keep drinking -and- I could not stop drinking. I needed help.
“The only relief we have to suggest is entire abstinence.”
[The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, Fourth Edition, p. xxx, The Doctor’s Opinion.]
I have a mental obsession and a physical allergy. Before I was recovered, I constantly thought about when and where I could get drunk again. I also have a physical allergy to alcohol. Once alcohol enters my body, the phenomenon of craving sets in. A craving so strong that most of the time, regardless of how much willpower, I lose control of my ability to say no to the next drink, and the next…
If I had an allergy to peanuts, causing swelling and potentially death, why would I eat that first peanut?
“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 a time differentiate the from the false. To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. They are Restless, Irritable and discontented, unless they can again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks – drinks which they see others taking with impunity.”
[The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, Fourth Edition, p. 21, There is a Solution.]
“Each day, somewhere in the world, recovery begins when one alcoholic talks with another alcoholic, sharing experience, strength, and hope.”
The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, Fourth Edition, p. xxii, Forward to Third Edition.
Alcoholism was declared a disease by the American Medical Association in 1956
rulesixtytwo 