If you were somehow cured tomorrow and knew for certain that you'd never touch alcohol again would you be finished with AA or would you continue to come to meeting and share and sponsor?
From the AMA definition of alcoholism and just for me, "...it can never be cured only arrested by total abstinence" and "it is progressive in that if the alcoholic were to stop drinking for some period of time and then return to drinking; often it would be worse as if no period of abstinence existed". So just for this alcoholic your wish doesn't compute and is moot. I've been in the rooms since 2/8/79 and maybe a bit before that however before that I stood face to face with the fatal and insane nature of my disease and have arrived at many truths; one being that I live on borrowed time and what I do with that time is the will of a power greater than myself or yourself or anyone else dreaming of a way out they haven't yet found with their own best thinking. Your condition isn't about us. It is your consequence from your own best thinking. When I got sober I lost the fear of staying sober and for today I am both...without fear and sober. My Sunday morning version of AA by the Bay in Hilo HI., is at 8:30AM tomorrow. I am one of the orginal founders and I do service in it. The greatest miracle I have ever witness in my life is the miracle of surrender and the sobriety that follows it. I am beyond grateful to have had my own and still to have participated in thousands of others. In the end we get to accept responsibility for the consequences of our lives...drunk or sober...pick one and then do what is necessary to get it.
Yup...Its that ISM stuff....Im a drunk asshole when Im drinking...and a sober asshole...when Im not....Got to fix the asshole part...and keep it fixed daily..
Need to go to meetings to hang around my buddies :)
If you were somehow cured tomorrow and knew for certain that you'd never touch alcohol again would you be finished with AA or would you continue to come to meeting and share and sponsor?
To me AA and it's principles stand for a different 'way of life' ... to stop AA means to take back my old life ... why would I want that pain and suffering ? ...
You see, the AA way of life is sooooo much more than just 'not drinking' ... it's freedom from self ... it's learning to live with 'love' as a priority ... this usually occurs when the desire to drink has been lifted ...
We are told in the BB that we will make 'lifelong friends' here ... why would one even consider putting an end to all that ???
__________________
'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
I went to my Sunday morning meeting this morning, same as I have for almost 25 yrs.
I haven't been bothered by the thought of drinking for decades, I attended this morning to practice my program and to grow mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
I am also there for the newcomer. It is best for me at all levels to attend my meetings. To leave the meetings would short-change God, the others and myself.
I don't have to short-change myself today. I know what's good for me and I'm worth it.
I think I understand. It's not the way I've viewed AA. Perhaps I need to change the way I've chosen to look at things.
This is exactly what is written about in the book called "A New Pair of Glasses" ... an AA book from long ago ...
To sincerely work the steps as laid out in the AA BB is to literally see the world in a new way, through a new pair of glasses , if you will ... when our whole attitude changes, then our whole outlook on life does as well ... some call it spiritual enlightenment, some call it a spiritual awakening, ... and I don't think that matters as much as the fact that it is a cleansing of all the garbage that has accumulated in our lives, starting off on a new foot, like putting on a new suit, you look and feel different ... it's the same as choosing to get out of the frickin' 'rut' we find ourselves in after many years of selfish behavior ... it's a beginning ... and it does require work ... and IT'S WORTH IT ...
__________________
'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
They call it recovered in the Big Book. I believe I'm recovered. This is what Dr. Bob said about Bill W. in his own story.
But this was a man who had experienced many years of frightful drinking, who had had most all the drunkards experiences known to man, but who had been cured by the very means I had been trying to employ, that is to say the spiritual approach.
If I was still fighting this stuff....I'd be drinking. As they say...The problem has been removed...As long as I stay in fit spiritual condition. That's a lot easier for me to do than drinking.
-- Edited by Stepchild on Sunday 24th of November 2013 09:21:04 PM
If the queen had balls, she'd be king.
It will be 36 years for me next month. It's just part of my life. I would no more not got to meetings than I would the grocery store. It's where I get my spiritual necessities.
A physical,mental and spiritual illness.....Putting down the substance is only the beginning of the healing..And a primary purpose of being maximum service to God(of my own understanding) and others doesn't end with just putting down the substance. And just one aspect of our Spiritual awakening comes through that new understanding of our Higher Power that WE develop by sharing in another's recovery.WE DO become Visions of HOPE, WE are examples of THE program working and OUR joy in living FREE from active addiction is truly an attraction to those still suffering..What WE have is daily reprieve through a fit spiritual condition(pg 85 BB 3rd edition) guided by our Higher Power(God's will) and the application of the Solution, the STEPS applied in all areas of our lives.. Based on my own evidence and once thoughts of a cure, I know ,Just For Today ,my thoughts in recovery(recovered for the day) are always on my new associations, those who are not using and have found a new way of LIFE,as long as I follow that way I have nothing to fear... I remember asking my chiropractor how long I had to keep coming back....He looked at me and said"How long do you want to be well? Its not a LIFE sentence ,it is the JOY of LIFE......(my stuff)
__________________
Selfishness-self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles.
I would keep going to meetings. To work with others, to be a part of, to not lose my seat... or maybe just for entertainment purposes. But I would be in the rooms because that is where my real life began... why would I want to give it up?
Jerry D
The association is the word "IF". Anytime asked a question starting with the word "IF", I would get that wondeful saying about the queen from my sponsor. He got it from his sponsor.
I Sooner learned that "IF" really had not place in recovery. AA is a plan of action. "If" does not deal in reality. There is no "IF" in my alcoholism. I only know that the AA plan of action gives me a daily reprieve from this disease. There is no cure so I don't have to waste my precious time wondering about the "IF"s. Therefore, if the queen had balls, she'd be king.
If I were "cured" of my alcoholism, I would wake up the next morning and realize it was in a dream I had. I love AA and the fellowship in the meetings and on this board and have been through so many positive changes in such a short amount of time of sobriety, I don't really want to be cured of it anyway. I want to be cured of my broken thinking and I haven't found anything to do that like AA has for me--not several therapists, self-help books, exercise, positive affirmations, nada.
Funny you should mention the self-help books BTY ... my sponsor and I met at a coffee shop/book store once and he walked up while I was standing in front of the 'self-help' book section ... he asked what are you doing? ... I said I'm just looking at some of these books ... He asked, you got many of those at home? ... I said yeah, a lot of them ... He said, my God man, go home and get rid of all those books ... I asked why? ... He said you're trying to build up the very person you need to get rid of ... he said the AA BB and the 12 & 12 are all the self-help books you'll ever need ...
He was Right!!!
__________________
'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
