When I came into A.A., I found men and women who had been through the same things I had been through. But now they were thinking more about how they could help others than they were about themselves. They were a lot more unselfish than I ever was. By coming to meetings and associating with them, I began to think a little less about myself and a little more about other people. I also learned that I didn't have to depend on myself alone to get out of the mess I was in. I could get a greater strength than my own. Am I now depending less on myself and more on God?
Meditation for the Day ~
You cannot help others unless you understand the person you are trying to help. To understand the problems and temptations of others, you must have been through them yourself. You must do all you can to understand others. You must study their backgrounds, their likes and dislikes, their reactions and their prejudices. When you see their weaknesses, do not confront the person with them. Share your own weaknesses, sins, and temptations and let other people find their own convictions.
Prayer for the Day ~
I pray that I may serve as a channel for God's power to come into the lives of others. I pray that I may try to understand them.
Hazelden
(Let it be a God or Higher Power of your own understanding)
-- Edited by Sobrietyspell at 01:48, 2008-04-05
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Progress not perfection.. & Practice makes Progress!
Where does it say that, BR? I continue to come back to AA on the premise that the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. It says in the BB that many will not consider themselves to be in that class of 'the real alcoholic' & that the illusion that we may 'presently maybe' able to drink like normal men & women needs to be smashed, that in the promises we can get off at any level. AA is not a competition for how far down the scale we have gone. Speaking for myself I have suffered grave mental & emotional & physical disorders. Not so much the physical though that would be a matter of time I believe, through listening to others & seeing with my own eyes, before that rot started to set in the way I drank. I have been happy to accept that my craving for alcohol is what sets me apart from other drinkers. That one is too many & 1000 never enough. I was & can still be afflicted with the mental obsession & spiritual malady & I believe, for me, to drink is to die, whether spiritually, emotionally & eventually at great risk, physically. Yes, I struggle with having not been a low bottom drunk but for me it was bad & humiliating enough to want to try for a better life & the AA way.
It took me awhile to diagnose, admit & accept myself as alcoholic & one of the things that helped was another woman sharing honestly about how she behaved after a drink. I got complete identification & it allowed me to shift deeper into the folds of the fellowship. I understand your point BR but I think it a dangerous one to make in view of the newcomer who may be looking for reasons &/or excuses to go back out there. Everyone who walks through our doors who feels & fears they may have a 'drink problem' is most likely to be right & they have earned their seat. For me, having had such an inferiority complex for long enough the last thing I needed was to feel that I wasn't even a good enough alcoholic. We all have our ES&H to share regarding where we've been & all of this combined as a collective offers something for everyone. I hope I haven't misunderstood what you meant. I've not meant any offence or cross share but I did feel it important for me to add my feelings on this too. I enjoyed the meditation for this day & it helps me to think of others & less of myself. Thanks for being here, BR. I always appreciate your contributions, Danielle x
-- Edited by Sobrietyspell at 01:50, 2008-04-05
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Progress not perfection.. & Practice makes Progress!
Hey, sorry for the late response. I'd say the "qualification" for alcoholism is as put in the first page of We Agnostics "If, when you honestly want to, you find you cannot quit entirely, or if when drinking, you have little control over the amount you take, you are probably alcoholic." BUT I'd say any problem you have with drinking which could be defined as powerlessness over alcohol could be defined by you. Im not saying anything about an amount you have to have drank or the consequences youve paid. Im just saying alcoholism as defined by the physical craving and/or the mental obsession.
The genuine alcoholic history deal is in the pamphlet "Problems Other Than Alcohol". here is a copy of the text of that pamphlet at http://www.silkworth.net/grapevine/other_problems.html.
I dont think this really has to do with high or low bottom. In fact I would say that the Big Book contradicts its self when talking about what an alcoholic is and then talking about potential alcoholics. I dont see where its description of potential alcoholics make them anything other than real alcoholics. They seem to want to believe that early stage alcoholics could stop if they wanted to and are therefore potential rather than real but they go ahead give the potential alcoholics the peculiar mental twist which dooms them to drink.
