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Alcoholics Anonymous Large Print Abridged-(shortened) Fourth Edition Does Not include Personal Stories paperback
This is an ABRIDGED version of the Basic Text of Alcoholics Anonymous. The personal stories are omitted.
192 pages, Paperback
First published April 10, 1939
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December 30, 2018
My sobriety date: April 21st 2007.....
January 23, 2015
I really struggled with how to rate the "Big Book." I've been sober for over 9 years now, and I stopped being a semi-regular AA probably 5 years ago. (And I was NEVER an "AA Nazi" at all. I never officially did all the Steps, and I'm pretty sure I've never even read the ENTIRE Big Book.) BUT, after I had been sober for 9 months on my own and went to my first meeting out of just a desperation to be around SOMEONE who might understand all the emotions I was going through, it meant so much to be able to share my sobriety and my struggles with other sober and struggling people. Having the Big Book and the "12 & 12" to pore over AT THAT TIME absolutely made a difference, and I will always treasure AA. However, I never could get totally comfortable with the god part of the program even then, and I have grown TOTALLY beyond all of that now. In fact, I know now that AA is no better at getting and keeping people sober than just quitting cold-turkey or any other recovery program. So, with my rating I tried to balance the importance of AA in my early recovery with the criticism of it that I eventually developed.
July 16, 2024
How does one rate a book which changed your life? You don’t “rate” it. Normal considerations—style, organization, even your personal opinions of its content—fall away in the face of life change.
When I came into recovery in 2012, the book Alcoholics Anonymous did not impress me. I was seeking help for a different addiction, not alcoholism. I learned that Alcoholics Anonymous was the first twelve step program from which all others sprung. Ok, fine, that’s nice historical information, I thought. But I failed to see why some meetings had us read so much from “The Big Book,” as people in recovery circles colloquially call the book titled Alcoholics Anonymous. I preferred the books which addressed my addiction specifically.
Time passed, I got sober, I worked the steps, my depression lifted, shame guilt and anxiety too became all much much less. My relations with other people got a lot better and I became able to see, whenever I got into self-pity, resentment, or control, how whenever I am disturbed, there is somewhere inside me that I have a part to play, that even when I truly am a victim of circumstance, that healing only comes about by focusing on my part, not other people’s. I could write a lot about my experiences finally getting free of resentment towards people I thought I could never forgive, or the various epiphanies I had on the road surrounding things like powerlessness, willingness, surrender, what the heck is up with this Higher Power thing, openmindedness, control, self pity, and forgiveness. But there are already so many written accounts of the life change people have experienced, and in fact, that’s what most of this book is.
The point is, after a few years of progress, I began to struggle quite a bit. I finally bit the bullet and asked someone to be my sponsor who really intimidated me—not because their personality was intimidating, mind you—but just because they had so much sobriety and wisdom, they were what people call “old timers.” I was always really afraid to ask a true old-timer to sponsor me (“sponsor” means “mentor”, essentially). But when I finally did ask one of them and he said yes, I started to work through the steps again in a much deeper, more meaningful way than with the 10 sponsors I had had prior. It was so good.
And one of the surprising things was, he taught me the 12 steps not through the texts that are specific to my (our) addiction, but instead through the text known as Alcoholics Anonymous. I had ignored it for years, thinking it didn’t apply to me. But when we really dug into it, I discovered just how deep and rich it is.
The first 20% of AA (the Alcoholics Anonymous book) is “the program,” explaining what addiction is (alcoholism specifically, but you can translate in your head to your own disease of choice), and explaining the solution, how to work the steps. There is a chapter called “We Agnostics,” specifically for those who really struggle with the whole Higher Power thing. The path toward believing in God is made as broad as possible to invite in even died-in-the-wool agnostics and atheists. It really is amazing how many people I have met in recovery rooms who were before totally shut off to the concept of God, and yet discovered in these rooms a faith they thought they would never have. How did they come there?
In short, it’s this: you come in desperate. “No one comes into their first meeting on a winning streak.” Not a person on the planet wants to admit to being an addict. All of us come in after some kind of bottoming out experience.
And that bottoming out doesn’t have to be going to prison or being divorced or having a near death experience. For some of us it’s being fired, or being found out by a spouse. For others, it’s seeing the consequences on children or other family members. For some of us, the event itself was not of such enormous dramatic significance, it was more of a last straw, it was more just that we were sick and tired of being sick and tired: filled with anxiety, depression, toxic shame, deep-seated guilt.
Or for me, it was finally getting the clarity that, despite all I had ever said to the contrary, that the reality was that my disease was in fact progressive, and realizing with dead certainty that it was going to get a lot worse if I didn’t get outside help, and quick, too. I got to what AA calls “the jumping off point,” that place where you can’t imagine life without alcohol (or whatever your drug is), and you also can’t imagine a life with it either. If you’ve never been there, it’s impossible to describe the utter despair that sets in. But thankfully, along with that despair comes the “gift of desperation.”
Through most of my life, I had been able to do anything I set my mind to. At school or with jobs or with personal relationships or other goals, I could do it! Just apply my willpower and creativity and intellect, and I could figure anything out.
But then I ran into this one area of my life where that didn’t work: my addiction. After dozens of ways of trying to not do it or to manage and control doing it, I finally came to that place of realizing with dead certainty that nothing I could do would make any difference. I was trapped.
I have to laugh at myself right now; I intended to review a book and instead this is turning into a memoir. Maybe that’s ok. But for the sake of getting on to the book, suffice it to say: I considered myself hopeless before walking into a twelve step program. I had tried a psychiatrist and drugs, legal and illegal, I had tried counseling and exorcisms and all manners of trying to outsmart myself and set boundaries and have accountability…none of that made a dent. The twelve steps is what got me free.
To clarify, when I got into recovery I also did some other things that helped. I did a lot of more targeted therapy as well, which I believe helped in a supplemental sort of way: it gave me clarity as to why I “needed” my drug. But in-and-of-itself, all that self knowledge did not get me sober. And without establishing sobriety, I was going nowhere fast.
What did get me sober was a moment a couple of years into the program where I finally got desperate, sick and tired of being sick and tired, and I prayed a prayer. I had had a great deal of difficulty with believing that even if there was a God, how could I ever know if I was being guided by God? I certainly couldn’t trust the voices in my head: I was extremely delusional! So I prayed: “God, you know I have trouble hearing your voice. So here’s what I’m going to do. I am just going to do whatever the hell my sponsor tells me to do, no matter what—short of jumping off a bridge—and trust that that is your will for me.”
I most certainly did NOT tell my sponsor that I had prayed that prayer. But here’s what happened. My sponsor told me to go to seven meetings a week and make five phone calls a day and work the steps regularly. I gasped with horror—“I don’t have enough time to do that!”—but I had said I would go to ANY lengths. So I committed to doing it. On top of that, he would give me random one-off assignments all the time, as if the meeting and five phone calls a day weren’t enough, the son of a bitch! But I did it.
And something miraculous happened. I had never been able to string two or three sober days together before, but finally I did. I got sober for a week before relapsing. Some more time passed, and I got sober for a month. And then longer and longer. For me it was a progressive victory thing, but eventually I got to where I was going years at a time. And even more important, recovering in a deeper sense than mere sobriety.
Why does the twelve steps work? Part of the explanation is pretty simple. There’s research to back up the idea that the opposite of addiction is connection. Going to all those meetings and making all those calls forced me to finally actually be known by others instead of isolating.
The other part was working the steps. That’s where, for me, the more lasting life change comes in so that I don’t relapse and get myself into worse trouble than before. That’s where the book Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) comes in.
What are the steps?
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
The foundation of the program is steps one through three, which can be summarized as: “I can’t; God can; I think I’ll let Him.” The rest of the program can only be done meaningful if relying on God to help; because we addicts are in no position to be able to do the rest on our own.
But for most of us, the first three steps are insanely difficult. Admitting you’re completely powerless over your addiction is really hard, and admitting that you aren’t fit to manage your life at all is even harder. And then there’s the second step: so many people just can’t get down with the God business. And then the third step, also known as surrender? What does that even mean? I struggled with all of these.
People will have all kinds of arguments about these concepts and hate them for a variety of reasons, one of which being the reliance on God. All of these arguments, however, actually meant nothing in the face of death. If you are drowning in addiction, you no longer care about whether something “makes sense” to you: you get to a place where you realize that if there is a solution out there, it’s going to by definition be something that doesn’t make sense to you, because if it did make sense, you would have tried it already! And because I was drowning, I became willing to try anything, to go to any lengths.
So I turned to working these steps not out of logic but out of a necessity to try anything that might possibly work for me. It felt like the last house on the block—there was nothing else left but to kill myself. Yes I was in a dark place. But if you’re going to kill yourself anyways, what do you have to lose? So I threw myself into it.
The first part of this book (after the forewards) is a chapter titled “The Doctor’s Opinion.” I skipped this the first time, not realizing how critical that it is to getting me to understand the true nature of my disease. It’s an open letter from a leading doctor at a hospital for the treatment of alcoholism, someone who had seen thousands of cases and knew right off the bat which ones were helpless cases: it didn’t matter how many second chances they were given, they were helpless to stop themselves from drinking again. He admits frankly that everything science had thrown at cases like these had very little effect. And then he goes on to detail how now hundreds of such cases (the “hopeless variety” of alcoholic, as he calls them) have come to recover, and are changed men. The mere existence of this letter is incredible: you have a very prominent doctor putting his reputation on the line, putting it in print that he absolutely recommends a SPIRITUAL program as an actual treatment for something recognized by the medical profession as a disease (alcoholism).
After that we have Bill’s story, the founder of AA. He was a crazy SOB before recovery, not someone you would have wanted to know. His story is remarkable. Then we have chapters titled There Is a Solution and More About Alcoholism. These outline the problem in stark lines.
Then you have a chapter We Agnostics, that helps address those who are atheistic and agnostic and shares the stories of many people who began with that belief system but were then able to progress slowly into having faith. Everyone is free to define their Higher Power in whatever matter works for them. For many agnostics, the first evidence they have of God is the fact that they are hearing the stories of all the other alcoholics in meetings who have gotten sober, and watching some of those transformations happen before their very eyes. And so their first basic conception of a Higher Power is the group, or whatever power it is that is miraculously causing the alcoholics in their group to get sober.
That was my experience as well. As I got to know people in my program who had been really hopeless, who had done awful, terrible things, and yet here they were telling me they were sober—and the thing is, you can sniff out bullshit to a certain level, and these people did not smell like bullshit. And there is no way that the person who they are describing in the past is the same person that they are now, that I’m witnessing them being. Not everyone in recovery is a saint, but I zoned in on a handful of people whose lives had undoubtedly changed. Since then, I’ve gotten to witness firsthand some pretty incredible stories, too, been at someone’s first meeting and then seen them go from depressed, sure of impending divorce, a self-centered self-pitying wreck unable to go a few days sober, to becoming such a transformed person, a person that people go to for spiritual life advice—you can’t make this stuff up.
So anyways, that made me pay attention. That did something for my faith that no amount of logic or theology or philosophy could have ever touched a hair of.
Next are the chapters titled How It Works, Into Action, and Working With Others, which outline the whole program, all twelve steps, in just 45 pages. How It Works alone covers most of what the program is. It’s a really hard program, but it’s also a very simple program and in fact the only reason it’s 45 pages and not much less than that is that there are plenty of examples and time spent on objections. These chapters are where the meat is, the life change. I have underlined and annotated the mess out of this section and come back to it again and again; you start to know the page numbers by heart, and I find myself telling others “go read pages 60-62, that deals with exactly where you are, and let me tell you my experience with applying those pages to my life…” Yes, I have become one of THOSE people. But hopefully not in a bad way.
After that there are chapters To Wives, The Family Afterward, To Employers. Honestly these feel dated but they still have nuggets.
Then there’s A Vision for You, supremely helpful for vision-casting. This takes us up through page 164.
The remaining 400 pages of the book are the personal stories. One after another, alcoholics from every kind of walk of life share their stories. The first third of them are founders, the next third are people in the second wave, and the final third are people who came into AA after it was well established. The stories seem to have been picked for diversity of experiences: being a minority, being a woman, various careers and experiences like homelessness, co-addictions, codependence, divorce, prison, death of loved ones. All of them follow a general format of first sharing their story, letting you see just how bad it gets, then showing what changed, and then finally, sharing what wisdom or advice has helped them the most.
I love that some of these stories have so much meat on them. I have underlined and annotated many of these stories, some of them just as heavily as How It Works.
The style of writing is rather bare bones. It doesn’t always SEEM to be profound, and it’s written in a slightly different vernacular. Sometimes things seem common sense, or I didn’t understand why they were making a big deal about different points…but now I do, because when I’ve gotten stuck in recovery I’ve discovered that the old timers that I turn to for advice invariably point me back to the big book for the answers. In short, even with all the quibbles, it’s impossible to rate this book as anything other than five stars because it has helped me profoundly to change at the deepest levels of how I operate, of how I do life. And because all the other recovery books that I get a lot out of are derived from this book.
No one will ever convince me that the twelve steps “don’t work.” I’ve seen hundreds of people come into the recovery rooms. The vast majority flake out: either they never come back at all or they work a half-hearted program for a couple months and then quit. Some people come to meetings regularly but never actually work the steps. Of all the people I’ve seen come into these rooms, I have yet to see someone really roll up their sleeves and work the program and NOT see life-changing results.
This stuff works: it works too well for people to believe. I’ve heard some people criticize and say “it doesn’t work,” but as soon as you ask them some basic questions it invariably becomes obvious they have never worked it at all. And I was one of those for a while; I didn’t think I needed to work something like that because I was smart and it insulted my intelligence. I was too smart for my own good.
When I struggle it’s usually for that reason. It doesn’t make sense to me that the twelve steps have anything to do with establishing sobriety, much less any of the other advice that’s been given to me by sponsors throughout the years. But I realize that whatever the solution is, it has to be something that doesn’t make sense to me, otherwise I wouldn’t have the problem that I do.
I’m just grateful that this program exists because without it I’d still be deep in my delusion, or worse yet I’d probably be dead—for when I’m in my disease I get suicidal.
Thank God I’m not there today. This program gave me hope, gave me examples of people just as bad off as me who actually recovered, and gave me freedom from toxic guilt and shame. Those issues are molehills today compared to the mountains they used to be.
So yeah, I’m a believer. And I can’t apologize for it. Some things are worth believing in.
When I came into recovery in 2012, the book Alcoholics Anonymous did not impress me. I was seeking help for a different addiction, not alcoholism. I learned that Alcoholics Anonymous was the first twelve step program from which all others sprung. Ok, fine, that’s nice historical information, I thought. But I failed to see why some meetings had us read so much from “The Big Book,” as people in recovery circles colloquially call the book titled Alcoholics Anonymous. I preferred the books which addressed my addiction specifically.
Time passed, I got sober, I worked the steps, my depression lifted, shame guilt and anxiety too became all much much less. My relations with other people got a lot better and I became able to see, whenever I got into self-pity, resentment, or control, how whenever I am disturbed, there is somewhere inside me that I have a part to play, that even when I truly am a victim of circumstance, that healing only comes about by focusing on my part, not other people’s. I could write a lot about my experiences finally getting free of resentment towards people I thought I could never forgive, or the various epiphanies I had on the road surrounding things like powerlessness, willingness, surrender, what the heck is up with this Higher Power thing, openmindedness, control, self pity, and forgiveness. But there are already so many written accounts of the life change people have experienced, and in fact, that’s what most of this book is.
The point is, after a few years of progress, I began to struggle quite a bit. I finally bit the bullet and asked someone to be my sponsor who really intimidated me—not because their personality was intimidating, mind you—but just because they had so much sobriety and wisdom, they were what people call “old timers.” I was always really afraid to ask a true old-timer to sponsor me (“sponsor” means “mentor”, essentially). But when I finally did ask one of them and he said yes, I started to work through the steps again in a much deeper, more meaningful way than with the 10 sponsors I had had prior. It was so good.
And one of the surprising things was, he taught me the 12 steps not through the texts that are specific to my (our) addiction, but instead through the text known as Alcoholics Anonymous. I had ignored it for years, thinking it didn’t apply to me. But when we really dug into it, I discovered just how deep and rich it is.
The first 20% of AA (the Alcoholics Anonymous book) is “the program,” explaining what addiction is (alcoholism specifically, but you can translate in your head to your own disease of choice), and explaining the solution, how to work the steps. There is a chapter called “We Agnostics,” specifically for those who really struggle with the whole Higher Power thing. The path toward believing in God is made as broad as possible to invite in even died-in-the-wool agnostics and atheists. It really is amazing how many people I have met in recovery rooms who were before totally shut off to the concept of God, and yet discovered in these rooms a faith they thought they would never have. How did they come there?
In short, it’s this: you come in desperate. “No one comes into their first meeting on a winning streak.” Not a person on the planet wants to admit to being an addict. All of us come in after some kind of bottoming out experience.
And that bottoming out doesn’t have to be going to prison or being divorced or having a near death experience. For some of us it’s being fired, or being found out by a spouse. For others, it’s seeing the consequences on children or other family members. For some of us, the event itself was not of such enormous dramatic significance, it was more of a last straw, it was more just that we were sick and tired of being sick and tired: filled with anxiety, depression, toxic shame, deep-seated guilt.
Or for me, it was finally getting the clarity that, despite all I had ever said to the contrary, that the reality was that my disease was in fact progressive, and realizing with dead certainty that it was going to get a lot worse if I didn’t get outside help, and quick, too. I got to what AA calls “the jumping off point,” that place where you can’t imagine life without alcohol (or whatever your drug is), and you also can’t imagine a life with it either. If you’ve never been there, it’s impossible to describe the utter despair that sets in. But thankfully, along with that despair comes the “gift of desperation.”
Through most of my life, I had been able to do anything I set my mind to. At school or with jobs or with personal relationships or other goals, I could do it! Just apply my willpower and creativity and intellect, and I could figure anything out.
But then I ran into this one area of my life where that didn’t work: my addiction. After dozens of ways of trying to not do it or to manage and control doing it, I finally came to that place of realizing with dead certainty that nothing I could do would make any difference. I was trapped.
I have to laugh at myself right now; I intended to review a book and instead this is turning into a memoir. Maybe that’s ok. But for the sake of getting on to the book, suffice it to say: I considered myself hopeless before walking into a twelve step program. I had tried a psychiatrist and drugs, legal and illegal, I had tried counseling and exorcisms and all manners of trying to outsmart myself and set boundaries and have accountability…none of that made a dent. The twelve steps is what got me free.
To clarify, when I got into recovery I also did some other things that helped. I did a lot of more targeted therapy as well, which I believe helped in a supplemental sort of way: it gave me clarity as to why I “needed” my drug. But in-and-of-itself, all that self knowledge did not get me sober. And without establishing sobriety, I was going nowhere fast.
What did get me sober was a moment a couple of years into the program where I finally got desperate, sick and tired of being sick and tired, and I prayed a prayer. I had had a great deal of difficulty with believing that even if there was a God, how could I ever know if I was being guided by God? I certainly couldn’t trust the voices in my head: I was extremely delusional! So I prayed: “God, you know I have trouble hearing your voice. So here’s what I’m going to do. I am just going to do whatever the hell my sponsor tells me to do, no matter what—short of jumping off a bridge—and trust that that is your will for me.”
I most certainly did NOT tell my sponsor that I had prayed that prayer. But here’s what happened. My sponsor told me to go to seven meetings a week and make five phone calls a day and work the steps regularly. I gasped with horror—“I don’t have enough time to do that!”—but I had said I would go to ANY lengths. So I committed to doing it. On top of that, he would give me random one-off assignments all the time, as if the meeting and five phone calls a day weren’t enough, the son of a bitch! But I did it.
And something miraculous happened. I had never been able to string two or three sober days together before, but finally I did. I got sober for a week before relapsing. Some more time passed, and I got sober for a month. And then longer and longer. For me it was a progressive victory thing, but eventually I got to where I was going years at a time. And even more important, recovering in a deeper sense than mere sobriety.
Why does the twelve steps work? Part of the explanation is pretty simple. There’s research to back up the idea that the opposite of addiction is connection. Going to all those meetings and making all those calls forced me to finally actually be known by others instead of isolating.
The other part was working the steps. That’s where, for me, the more lasting life change comes in so that I don’t relapse and get myself into worse trouble than before. That’s where the book Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) comes in.
What are the steps?
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
The foundation of the program is steps one through three, which can be summarized as: “I can’t; God can; I think I’ll let Him.” The rest of the program can only be done meaningful if relying on God to help; because we addicts are in no position to be able to do the rest on our own.
But for most of us, the first three steps are insanely difficult. Admitting you’re completely powerless over your addiction is really hard, and admitting that you aren’t fit to manage your life at all is even harder. And then there’s the second step: so many people just can’t get down with the God business. And then the third step, also known as surrender? What does that even mean? I struggled with all of these.
People will have all kinds of arguments about these concepts and hate them for a variety of reasons, one of which being the reliance on God. All of these arguments, however, actually meant nothing in the face of death. If you are drowning in addiction, you no longer care about whether something “makes sense” to you: you get to a place where you realize that if there is a solution out there, it’s going to by definition be something that doesn’t make sense to you, because if it did make sense, you would have tried it already! And because I was drowning, I became willing to try anything, to go to any lengths.
So I turned to working these steps not out of logic but out of a necessity to try anything that might possibly work for me. It felt like the last house on the block—there was nothing else left but to kill myself. Yes I was in a dark place. But if you’re going to kill yourself anyways, what do you have to lose? So I threw myself into it.
The first part of this book (after the forewards) is a chapter titled “The Doctor’s Opinion.” I skipped this the first time, not realizing how critical that it is to getting me to understand the true nature of my disease. It’s an open letter from a leading doctor at a hospital for the treatment of alcoholism, someone who had seen thousands of cases and knew right off the bat which ones were helpless cases: it didn’t matter how many second chances they were given, they were helpless to stop themselves from drinking again. He admits frankly that everything science had thrown at cases like these had very little effect. And then he goes on to detail how now hundreds of such cases (the “hopeless variety” of alcoholic, as he calls them) have come to recover, and are changed men. The mere existence of this letter is incredible: you have a very prominent doctor putting his reputation on the line, putting it in print that he absolutely recommends a SPIRITUAL program as an actual treatment for something recognized by the medical profession as a disease (alcoholism).
After that we have Bill’s story, the founder of AA. He was a crazy SOB before recovery, not someone you would have wanted to know. His story is remarkable. Then we have chapters titled There Is a Solution and More About Alcoholism. These outline the problem in stark lines.
Then you have a chapter We Agnostics, that helps address those who are atheistic and agnostic and shares the stories of many people who began with that belief system but were then able to progress slowly into having faith. Everyone is free to define their Higher Power in whatever matter works for them. For many agnostics, the first evidence they have of God is the fact that they are hearing the stories of all the other alcoholics in meetings who have gotten sober, and watching some of those transformations happen before their very eyes. And so their first basic conception of a Higher Power is the group, or whatever power it is that is miraculously causing the alcoholics in their group to get sober.
That was my experience as well. As I got to know people in my program who had been really hopeless, who had done awful, terrible things, and yet here they were telling me they were sober—and the thing is, you can sniff out bullshit to a certain level, and these people did not smell like bullshit. And there is no way that the person who they are describing in the past is the same person that they are now, that I’m witnessing them being. Not everyone in recovery is a saint, but I zoned in on a handful of people whose lives had undoubtedly changed. Since then, I’ve gotten to witness firsthand some pretty incredible stories, too, been at someone’s first meeting and then seen them go from depressed, sure of impending divorce, a self-centered self-pitying wreck unable to go a few days sober, to becoming such a transformed person, a person that people go to for spiritual life advice—you can’t make this stuff up.
So anyways, that made me pay attention. That did something for my faith that no amount of logic or theology or philosophy could have ever touched a hair of.
Next are the chapters titled How It Works, Into Action, and Working With Others, which outline the whole program, all twelve steps, in just 45 pages. How It Works alone covers most of what the program is. It’s a really hard program, but it’s also a very simple program and in fact the only reason it’s 45 pages and not much less than that is that there are plenty of examples and time spent on objections. These chapters are where the meat is, the life change. I have underlined and annotated the mess out of this section and come back to it again and again; you start to know the page numbers by heart, and I find myself telling others “go read pages 60-62, that deals with exactly where you are, and let me tell you my experience with applying those pages to my life…” Yes, I have become one of THOSE people. But hopefully not in a bad way.
After that there are chapters To Wives, The Family Afterward, To Employers. Honestly these feel dated but they still have nuggets.
Then there’s A Vision for You, supremely helpful for vision-casting. This takes us up through page 164.
The remaining 400 pages of the book are the personal stories. One after another, alcoholics from every kind of walk of life share their stories. The first third of them are founders, the next third are people in the second wave, and the final third are people who came into AA after it was well established. The stories seem to have been picked for diversity of experiences: being a minority, being a woman, various careers and experiences like homelessness, co-addictions, codependence, divorce, prison, death of loved ones. All of them follow a general format of first sharing their story, letting you see just how bad it gets, then showing what changed, and then finally, sharing what wisdom or advice has helped them the most.
I love that some of these stories have so much meat on them. I have underlined and annotated many of these stories, some of them just as heavily as How It Works.
The style of writing is rather bare bones. It doesn’t always SEEM to be profound, and it’s written in a slightly different vernacular. Sometimes things seem common sense, or I didn’t understand why they were making a big deal about different points…but now I do, because when I’ve gotten stuck in recovery I’ve discovered that the old timers that I turn to for advice invariably point me back to the big book for the answers. In short, even with all the quibbles, it’s impossible to rate this book as anything other than five stars because it has helped me profoundly to change at the deepest levels of how I operate, of how I do life. And because all the other recovery books that I get a lot out of are derived from this book.
No one will ever convince me that the twelve steps “don’t work.” I’ve seen hundreds of people come into the recovery rooms. The vast majority flake out: either they never come back at all or they work a half-hearted program for a couple months and then quit. Some people come to meetings regularly but never actually work the steps. Of all the people I’ve seen come into these rooms, I have yet to see someone really roll up their sleeves and work the program and NOT see life-changing results.
This stuff works: it works too well for people to believe. I’ve heard some people criticize and say “it doesn’t work,” but as soon as you ask them some basic questions it invariably becomes obvious they have never worked it at all. And I was one of those for a while; I didn’t think I needed to work something like that because I was smart and it insulted my intelligence. I was too smart for my own good.
When I struggle it’s usually for that reason. It doesn’t make sense to me that the twelve steps have anything to do with establishing sobriety, much less any of the other advice that’s been given to me by sponsors throughout the years. But I realize that whatever the solution is, it has to be something that doesn’t make sense to me, otherwise I wouldn’t have the problem that I do.
I’m just grateful that this program exists because without it I’d still be deep in my delusion, or worse yet I’d probably be dead—for when I’m in my disease I get suicidal.
Thank God I’m not there today. This program gave me hope, gave me examples of people just as bad off as me who actually recovered, and gave me freedom from toxic guilt and shame. Those issues are molehills today compared to the mountains they used to be.
So yeah, I’m a believer. And I can’t apologize for it. Some things are worth believing in.
October 19, 2018
This book was a huge part in saving my life!
August 19, 2010
WOW! This is going to be a hard review to write.
When I told my husband that I planned to review this book, he laughed.
"Isn't that like saying I'm going to review The Holy Bible?"
"Why, yes, yes it is."
In fact, this book is much like The Holy Bible.
Like my daughter's 6th grade math teacher has his students create A Math Bible with math notes in a composition book,
this is a Bible that was written by Alcoholics.
Funny, the alcoholics familiar with AA, affectionately call this book "The Blue Bible" or "The Big Blue Book".
This book is jam-packed with wisdom. JAM PACKED! It starts with bits of wisdom from the founders of AA with their reveal of the 12 steps and how to work the AA program. But, the bits of wisdom I enjoyed best were the bits I gleaned from all the personal stories. I was left feeling totally enlightened. The honesty of the storytellers was a breathe of fresh air. They gave me a greater understanding and love for alcoholics and all addicts. They somehow helped me have a respect for alcoholics, especially a respect for the ones brave enough to break free. Most of all, I, now, after finishing the book, have a greater appreciation for human life, and the fragility of the human. It is so vital that we as humans help each other to learn how to affectively deal with our issues.
And, in one sentence, that is how I would describe AA and it's mighty Bible: It's a place where people go to help each other learn and deal with issues. Because all people have issues and lots of people don't know how to deal with them. Unfortunately, instead of learning how to get happy, people give themselves permission to live drunk, which isn't living at all.
If you think that you could live a happier life, read this book, I promise it will leave you with a greater understanding of yourself and what you need to do to resolve your issues and to have self-respect, serenity, peace, happiness, and joy. I personally feel much more humble yet powerful, peaceful yet productive, happy yet thoughtful and most of all in touch with myself and who I am, who God wants me to be, and how He is going to help me get there.
I decided shortly into the book that in my review, I would just share the bits that I loved. Writing a review is like writing a review of The Holy Bible. You can't communicate the power by stating your opinion. You can share the verses and hope the reader will feel its power. So, here are the words (verses) that communicated to me in the order I read them:
p. 100 ALCOHOLICS ARE SICK AND SHOULD BE HANDLED WITH CARE "When working with a man and his family, you should take care not to participate in their quarrels. You may spoil your chance of being helpful if you do. But urge upon a man's family that he has been a very sick person and should be treated accordingly. You should warn against arousing resentment or jealously. You should point out that his defect of character are not going to disappear over night. Show them that he has entered upon a period of growth. Ask them to remember, when they are impatient, the blessed fact of his sobriety."
p. 178 EVERYONE NEEDS SUPPORTIVE FAMILY MEMBERS "My wife became deeply interested and it was her interest that sustained mine, though I at no time sensed that it might be an answer to my liquor problem. How my wife kept her faith and courage during all those years, I'll never know, but she did. If she had not, I know I would have been dead a long time ago. For some reason, we alcoholics seem to have the gift of picking out the world's finest women. Why they should be subjected to the tortures we inflict upon them, I cannot explain."
p. 180 HERE IS THE POWER OF AA - GLEANING KNOWLEDGE FROM THOSE WHO HAVE WALKED IN OUR MOCCASINS BEFORE US "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 regard to alcoholism from actual experience. In other words, he talked my language."
p. 197 DON'T AVOID & PROCRASTINATE - IT BUILDS UP AND MAKES YOU WANNA GET DRUNK "About this period, too, came increasing procrastination and the avoidance of responsibilities. I would put off doing anything that I could until the next day, and consequently, everything would pile up and then there would be this blackout."
p. 214 ADMIT YOU HAVE A PROBLEM AND USE THE FAITH YOU HAVE TO HELP YOURSELF "The thought simply never occurred to me that through the exercise of what I had I might find the answer to my problem, simply because I wouldn't admit that I had a problem."
p. 226 STAY IN TOUCH WITH THIS GLORIOUS WORLD AND FIND YOUR PLACE IN IT INSTEAD OF HIDING " I wanted help, and I tried to cooperate. As the treatment progressed I began to get a picture of myself, of the temperament that had caused me so much trouble. I had been hypersensitive, shy, idealistic. My inability to accept the harsh realities of life had resulted in a disillusioned cynic, clothed in a protective armor against the world's misunderstanding. That armor had turned into prison walls, locking me in loneliness - and fear. All I had left was an iron determination to live my own life in spite of alien world - and here I was an inwardly frightened, outwardly defiant woman, who desperately need a prop to keep going. Alcohol was that prop and I didn't see how I could live without it."
p.228 GOD SPEAKS TO US "Then the miracle happened - to me! It isn't always so sudden with everyone, but I ran into a personal crisis which filled me with a raging and righteous anger. And as I fumed helplessly and planned to get good and drunk and show them, my eye caught a sentence in the book lying upon my bed: 'We cannot live with anger.' The walls crumpled - and the light streamed in. I wasn't trapped. I wasn't helpless. I was free, and I didn't have to drink to 'show them'. This wasn't religion - this was freedom! Freedom from anger and fear, freedom to know happiness and love."
p. 275 FIGHT THE FEAR "For eighteen years, from the age of twenty-one to thirty-nine, fear governed my life. By the time I was thirty I had found that alcohol dissolved fear. For a little while. In the end I had two problems instead of one: Fear and alcohol."
p. 279 ANSWERS ARE WAITING TO BE FOUND - YOU JUST HAVE TO ASK - PERHAPS MY FAVORITE PAGE OF THE WHOLE BOOK "I could no longer relieve the pressure of fear by starting home, as was once my habitual solution to the problem, because I no longer had a home. Finally, and I shall never know how much later it was, one clear thought came to me: Try prayer. You can't lose, and maybe God will help you - just maybe, mind you. Having no one else to turn to, I was willing to give Him a chance, although with considerable doubt. I got down on my knees for the first time in thirty years. The prayer I said was simple. It went something like this: 'God, for eighteen years I have been unable to handle this problem. Please let me turn it over to you.' Immediately a great feeling of peace descended upon me, intermingled with a feeling of being suffused with a quiet strength. I lay down and slept like a child. An hour later I awoke to a new world. Nothing had changed and yet everything had changed. The scales had dropped from my eyes and I could see life in its proper perspective. I had tried to be the center of my own little world, whereas God was the center of a vast universe of which I was perhaps an essential, but a very tiny, part. I have never had a drink since."
p. 320 BE GENTLE WITH YOURSELF AND LIVE FOR NOW "Once I did have a slip - tried drinking again - but the AA's tell me not to worry about yesterday, because nobody can change it, and not to worry about tomorrow because it hasn't come yet. Live twenty-four hours at a time, they say. And it works. I'm sober for today. Like I said, I'm a twenty-four-yea-old alcoholic and I'm happy."
p. 325 HEALING CAN HAPPEN FOR INDIVIDUALS AND FAMILIES "WE have only been in A.A. a few years, but now we're trying to make up for lost time. Twenty-seven years of confusion is what my early married life was. Now, the picture has changed completely. We have faith in each other, trust in each other, and understanding. A.A. has given us that. It has taught me so many things. It has changed my thinking entirely, about everything I do. I can't afford resentments against anyone, because they are the build-up of another drunk. I must live and let live. And "Think" - that one important word means so much to me. My life was always act and react. I never stopped to think. I just didn't give a whoop about myself or anyone else.
p, 352 POWER COMES FROM GOD AND FROM OTHERS WHO ARE RECEIVING HELP FROM GOD "What is this power that A.A. possessed?? This curative power? I don't know what it is. I suppose the doctor might say, "This is psychosomatic medicine." I suppose the psychiatrist might say, "This is benevolent interpersonal relations." I suppose others would say, "This is group psychotherapy." To me it is God.
p. 418 HEALING IS UP TO YOUR HONESTY WITH YOURSELF "No one could have told me then that I had not earned all my success, nor could anyone have told me that I was an alcoholic and a drug addict. The only thing that bothered me was a queasy feeling I had in the pit of my stomach. It hinted to me that everything was phony. I had accomplished all the right things that our society expected, and I had no real peace of mind nor gratitude. I was nothing more than a spoiled, indulged, and talented brat."
p. 504 GOD WILL GRANT YOU PEACE IF YOU SURRENDER "I get out of bed and go to the man's room. He is reading, 'I must ask you a question,' I say to the man. 'How does prayer fit into this thing.' 'Well," he answers, 'you've probably tried praying like I have. When you've been in a jam you've said, 'God, please do this or that,' and if it turned out to be your way that was the last of it, and if it didn't you've said 'THere isn't any God' or 'He doesn't do anything for me'. Is that right?' 'Yes,' I reply. 'That isn't the way,' he continued. 'The thing I do is say 'God here I am and here are my troubles. I've made a mess of things and can't do anything about it. You take me, and all my troubles, and do anything you want with me.' 'Does that answer your question?' "
p. 542 LOVE IS EVERYTHING " For me, A.A. is a synthesis of all the philosophy I've ever read, all the positive, good philosophy, all of it based on love. I have seen that there is only one law, the law of love, and there are only two sins; the first is to interfere with the growth of another human being, and the second is to interfere with one's own growth."
p. 544 GET TO THE ROOT "The mental twists that led up to my drinking began many years before I ever took a drink for I am one of those whose history proves conclusively that my drinking was a 'symptom of a deeper trouble.' Through my efforts to get down to 'causes and conditions,' I stand convinced that my emotional illness has been present from my earliest recollection. I never did react normally to any emotional situation.
p. 547 DON'T RUN FROM YOUR FEARS OR RATIONALIZE THEM AWAY " I wasn't afraid of anything or anybody after I learned about drinking, for it seemed right from the beginning that with liquor I could always retire to my little private world where nobody could get at me to hurt me.....I was immersed in self-pity and resentment...It became more and more necessary to escape from myself, for my remorse and shame and humiliation when I was sober were almost unbearable. The only way existence was possible was through rationalizing every sober moment and drinking myself into oblivion as often as I could.
p.552 BLESS THOSE THAT CURSE YOU - IT WILL GIVE YOU PEACE "'IF you have a resentment you want to be free of, if you will pray for the person or the thing that you resent, you will be free. If you will ask in prayer for everything you want for yourself to be given to them, you will be free. Ask for their health, their prosperity, their happiness, and you will be free. Even when you don't really want if for them, and you prayers are only words that you don't mean, go ahead and do it anyways. Do it every day for two weeks and you will find you have come to mean it and to want it for them, and you will realize that where you used to feel bitterness and resentment and hatred you now feel compassionate understanding and love.' 'The only real freedom a human being ever know is doing what you ought to do because you want to do it.' "
p. 560 REALITY IS AWESOME WHEN YOU'VE FOUND AND WORKED FOR PEACE "Above all, we reject fantasizing and accept reality. The more I drank, the more I fantasized everything. I imagined getting even for hurt and rejections. In my mind's eye, I played and replayed scenes in which I was plucked magically from the bar where I Stood nursing a drink, and was instantly exalted to some position of power and prestige. I lived in a dream world. A.A. led me gently from this fantasizing to embrace reality with open arms. And I found it beautiful! For, at last, I was at peace with myself. And with others. And with God."
When I told my husband that I planned to review this book, he laughed.
"Isn't that like saying I'm going to review The Holy Bible?"
"Why, yes, yes it is."
In fact, this book is much like The Holy Bible.
Like my daughter's 6th grade math teacher has his students create A Math Bible with math notes in a composition book,
this is a Bible that was written by Alcoholics.
Funny, the alcoholics familiar with AA, affectionately call this book "The Blue Bible" or "The Big Blue Book".
This book is jam-packed with wisdom. JAM PACKED! It starts with bits of wisdom from the founders of AA with their reveal of the 12 steps and how to work the AA program. But, the bits of wisdom I enjoyed best were the bits I gleaned from all the personal stories. I was left feeling totally enlightened. The honesty of the storytellers was a breathe of fresh air. They gave me a greater understanding and love for alcoholics and all addicts. They somehow helped me have a respect for alcoholics, especially a respect for the ones brave enough to break free. Most of all, I, now, after finishing the book, have a greater appreciation for human life, and the fragility of the human. It is so vital that we as humans help each other to learn how to affectively deal with our issues.
And, in one sentence, that is how I would describe AA and it's mighty Bible: It's a place where people go to help each other learn and deal with issues. Because all people have issues and lots of people don't know how to deal with them. Unfortunately, instead of learning how to get happy, people give themselves permission to live drunk, which isn't living at all.
If you think that you could live a happier life, read this book, I promise it will leave you with a greater understanding of yourself and what you need to do to resolve your issues and to have self-respect, serenity, peace, happiness, and joy. I personally feel much more humble yet powerful, peaceful yet productive, happy yet thoughtful and most of all in touch with myself and who I am, who God wants me to be, and how He is going to help me get there.
I decided shortly into the book that in my review, I would just share the bits that I loved. Writing a review is like writing a review of The Holy Bible. You can't communicate the power by stating your opinion. You can share the verses and hope the reader will feel its power. So, here are the words (verses) that communicated to me in the order I read them:
p. 100 ALCOHOLICS ARE SICK AND SHOULD BE HANDLED WITH CARE "When working with a man and his family, you should take care not to participate in their quarrels. You may spoil your chance of being helpful if you do. But urge upon a man's family that he has been a very sick person and should be treated accordingly. You should warn against arousing resentment or jealously. You should point out that his defect of character are not going to disappear over night. Show them that he has entered upon a period of growth. Ask them to remember, when they are impatient, the blessed fact of his sobriety."
p. 178 EVERYONE NEEDS SUPPORTIVE FAMILY MEMBERS "My wife became deeply interested and it was her interest that sustained mine, though I at no time sensed that it might be an answer to my liquor problem. How my wife kept her faith and courage during all those years, I'll never know, but she did. If she had not, I know I would have been dead a long time ago. For some reason, we alcoholics seem to have the gift of picking out the world's finest women. Why they should be subjected to the tortures we inflict upon them, I cannot explain."
p. 180 HERE IS THE POWER OF AA - GLEANING KNOWLEDGE FROM THOSE WHO HAVE WALKED IN OUR MOCCASINS BEFORE US "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 regard to alcoholism from actual experience. In other words, he talked my language."
p. 197 DON'T AVOID & PROCRASTINATE - IT BUILDS UP AND MAKES YOU WANNA GET DRUNK "About this period, too, came increasing procrastination and the avoidance of responsibilities. I would put off doing anything that I could until the next day, and consequently, everything would pile up and then there would be this blackout."
p. 214 ADMIT YOU HAVE A PROBLEM AND USE THE FAITH YOU HAVE TO HELP YOURSELF "The thought simply never occurred to me that through the exercise of what I had I might find the answer to my problem, simply because I wouldn't admit that I had a problem."
p. 226 STAY IN TOUCH WITH THIS GLORIOUS WORLD AND FIND YOUR PLACE IN IT INSTEAD OF HIDING " I wanted help, and I tried to cooperate. As the treatment progressed I began to get a picture of myself, of the temperament that had caused me so much trouble. I had been hypersensitive, shy, idealistic. My inability to accept the harsh realities of life had resulted in a disillusioned cynic, clothed in a protective armor against the world's misunderstanding. That armor had turned into prison walls, locking me in loneliness - and fear. All I had left was an iron determination to live my own life in spite of alien world - and here I was an inwardly frightened, outwardly defiant woman, who desperately need a prop to keep going. Alcohol was that prop and I didn't see how I could live without it."
p.228 GOD SPEAKS TO US "Then the miracle happened - to me! It isn't always so sudden with everyone, but I ran into a personal crisis which filled me with a raging and righteous anger. And as I fumed helplessly and planned to get good and drunk and show them, my eye caught a sentence in the book lying upon my bed: 'We cannot live with anger.' The walls crumpled - and the light streamed in. I wasn't trapped. I wasn't helpless. I was free, and I didn't have to drink to 'show them'. This wasn't religion - this was freedom! Freedom from anger and fear, freedom to know happiness and love."
p. 275 FIGHT THE FEAR "For eighteen years, from the age of twenty-one to thirty-nine, fear governed my life. By the time I was thirty I had found that alcohol dissolved fear. For a little while. In the end I had two problems instead of one: Fear and alcohol."
p. 279 ANSWERS ARE WAITING TO BE FOUND - YOU JUST HAVE TO ASK - PERHAPS MY FAVORITE PAGE OF THE WHOLE BOOK "I could no longer relieve the pressure of fear by starting home, as was once my habitual solution to the problem, because I no longer had a home. Finally, and I shall never know how much later it was, one clear thought came to me: Try prayer. You can't lose, and maybe God will help you - just maybe, mind you. Having no one else to turn to, I was willing to give Him a chance, although with considerable doubt. I got down on my knees for the first time in thirty years. The prayer I said was simple. It went something like this: 'God, for eighteen years I have been unable to handle this problem. Please let me turn it over to you.' Immediately a great feeling of peace descended upon me, intermingled with a feeling of being suffused with a quiet strength. I lay down and slept like a child. An hour later I awoke to a new world. Nothing had changed and yet everything had changed. The scales had dropped from my eyes and I could see life in its proper perspective. I had tried to be the center of my own little world, whereas God was the center of a vast universe of which I was perhaps an essential, but a very tiny, part. I have never had a drink since."
p. 320 BE GENTLE WITH YOURSELF AND LIVE FOR NOW "Once I did have a slip - tried drinking again - but the AA's tell me not to worry about yesterday, because nobody can change it, and not to worry about tomorrow because it hasn't come yet. Live twenty-four hours at a time, they say. And it works. I'm sober for today. Like I said, I'm a twenty-four-yea-old alcoholic and I'm happy."
p. 325 HEALING CAN HAPPEN FOR INDIVIDUALS AND FAMILIES "WE have only been in A.A. a few years, but now we're trying to make up for lost time. Twenty-seven years of confusion is what my early married life was. Now, the picture has changed completely. We have faith in each other, trust in each other, and understanding. A.A. has given us that. It has taught me so many things. It has changed my thinking entirely, about everything I do. I can't afford resentments against anyone, because they are the build-up of another drunk. I must live and let live. And "Think" - that one important word means so much to me. My life was always act and react. I never stopped to think. I just didn't give a whoop about myself or anyone else.
p, 352 POWER COMES FROM GOD AND FROM OTHERS WHO ARE RECEIVING HELP FROM GOD "What is this power that A.A. possessed?? This curative power? I don't know what it is. I suppose the doctor might say, "This is psychosomatic medicine." I suppose the psychiatrist might say, "This is benevolent interpersonal relations." I suppose others would say, "This is group psychotherapy." To me it is God.
p. 418 HEALING IS UP TO YOUR HONESTY WITH YOURSELF "No one could have told me then that I had not earned all my success, nor could anyone have told me that I was an alcoholic and a drug addict. The only thing that bothered me was a queasy feeling I had in the pit of my stomach. It hinted to me that everything was phony. I had accomplished all the right things that our society expected, and I had no real peace of mind nor gratitude. I was nothing more than a spoiled, indulged, and talented brat."
p. 504 GOD WILL GRANT YOU PEACE IF YOU SURRENDER "I get out of bed and go to the man's room. He is reading, 'I must ask you a question,' I say to the man. 'How does prayer fit into this thing.' 'Well," he answers, 'you've probably tried praying like I have. When you've been in a jam you've said, 'God, please do this or that,' and if it turned out to be your way that was the last of it, and if it didn't you've said 'THere isn't any God' or 'He doesn't do anything for me'. Is that right?' 'Yes,' I reply. 'That isn't the way,' he continued. 'The thing I do is say 'God here I am and here are my troubles. I've made a mess of things and can't do anything about it. You take me, and all my troubles, and do anything you want with me.' 'Does that answer your question?' "
p. 542 LOVE IS EVERYTHING " For me, A.A. is a synthesis of all the philosophy I've ever read, all the positive, good philosophy, all of it based on love. I have seen that there is only one law, the law of love, and there are only two sins; the first is to interfere with the growth of another human being, and the second is to interfere with one's own growth."
p. 544 GET TO THE ROOT "The mental twists that led up to my drinking began many years before I ever took a drink for I am one of those whose history proves conclusively that my drinking was a 'symptom of a deeper trouble.' Through my efforts to get down to 'causes and conditions,' I stand convinced that my emotional illness has been present from my earliest recollection. I never did react normally to any emotional situation.
p. 547 DON'T RUN FROM YOUR FEARS OR RATIONALIZE THEM AWAY " I wasn't afraid of anything or anybody after I learned about drinking, for it seemed right from the beginning that with liquor I could always retire to my little private world where nobody could get at me to hurt me.....I was immersed in self-pity and resentment...It became more and more necessary to escape from myself, for my remorse and shame and humiliation when I was sober were almost unbearable. The only way existence was possible was through rationalizing every sober moment and drinking myself into oblivion as often as I could.
p.552 BLESS THOSE THAT CURSE YOU - IT WILL GIVE YOU PEACE "'IF you have a resentment you want to be free of, if you will pray for the person or the thing that you resent, you will be free. If you will ask in prayer for everything you want for yourself to be given to them, you will be free. Ask for their health, their prosperity, their happiness, and you will be free. Even when you don't really want if for them, and you prayers are only words that you don't mean, go ahead and do it anyways. Do it every day for two weeks and you will find you have come to mean it and to want it for them, and you will realize that where you used to feel bitterness and resentment and hatred you now feel compassionate understanding and love.' 'The only real freedom a human being ever know is doing what you ought to do because you want to do it.' "
p. 560 REALITY IS AWESOME WHEN YOU'VE FOUND AND WORKED FOR PEACE "Above all, we reject fantasizing and accept reality. The more I drank, the more I fantasized everything. I imagined getting even for hurt and rejections. In my mind's eye, I played and replayed scenes in which I was plucked magically from the bar where I Stood nursing a drink, and was instantly exalted to some position of power and prestige. I lived in a dream world. A.A. led me gently from this fantasizing to embrace reality with open arms. And I found it beautiful! For, at last, I was at peace with myself. And with others. And with God."
December 5, 2017
This edition differs from the previous ones only in an extra introduction & some updating of the stories at the end - as usual. The basic text & page numbers of that text remain unchanged. Good news for those with a 'Little Red Book' or other guide/index to the Big Book.
For those unfamiliar with the Big Book, it's the instruction set for the AA program. The wording is a little dated, but it is the instruction set for the most widespread self-help program in the world. AA is the basis of all other 12 step programs, most of whom changed the program only slightly to fit the addiction of choice - narcotics, cocaine, gambling, sex, etc..
Many have problems with the 'God' concept, swearing AA is a religious program. They have a point, although it doesn't have to be, as many have proved. AA tends to pick up the 'religious flavor of the group - people have trouble separating spirituality from religion. The book was written by Christians & loosely based on the tenets of an earlier Christian organization (the Oxford Group, now defunct). Non-Christians should read & come to terms with the chapter, "To the Agnostic" before jumping to conclusions. Those with an open mind can work the AA program without a belief in the Christian or any 'God'.
While most chapters are devoted exclusively to the alcoholic, there are chapters to the family & employer of the alcoholic, as well. Anyone who knows an alcoholic or anyone who suffers from an addiction, would do well to read this book. It offers an insight into the mind of the alcoholic both before & after sobriety is achieved, as well as practical advice to those that live with him/her.
For those unfamiliar with the Big Book, it's the instruction set for the AA program. The wording is a little dated, but it is the instruction set for the most widespread self-help program in the world. AA is the basis of all other 12 step programs, most of whom changed the program only slightly to fit the addiction of choice - narcotics, cocaine, gambling, sex, etc..
Many have problems with the 'God' concept, swearing AA is a religious program. They have a point, although it doesn't have to be, as many have proved. AA tends to pick up the 'religious flavor of the group - people have trouble separating spirituality from religion. The book was written by Christians & loosely based on the tenets of an earlier Christian organization (the Oxford Group, now defunct). Non-Christians should read & come to terms with the chapter, "To the Agnostic" before jumping to conclusions. Those with an open mind can work the AA program without a belief in the Christian or any 'God'.
While most chapters are devoted exclusively to the alcoholic, there are chapters to the family & employer of the alcoholic, as well. Anyone who knows an alcoholic or anyone who suffers from an addiction, would do well to read this book. It offers an insight into the mind of the alcoholic both before & after sobriety is achieved, as well as practical advice to those that live with him/her.
February 17, 2008
Terribly sexist, and not spiritually inclusive.(a lot of words are just plain crossed out or edited in my copy) The revolution is not so much in this book as it's in the network of people who've read this book and then lived funner, happier, sexier lives than before.
June 2, 2021
Let me be clear: I know this book has helped lots of people and I don't want to discount that. I'm leery of giving it 2 stars in the off chance that someone who needs help might see a two star review and write it off, when it might indeed be able to help them. I could suspend my judgment on how bad the writing was. I get it. Testimonials aren't meant to be art. The stories and perspectives, though, are dated. If you're a liberal feminist, this is a hard book to get through on a gender/sexuality/race/class level. I also believe there are other options for people struggling with alcoholism/problem drinking, and that some of the aspects of this method of attaining a healthy relationship to alcohol can be irresponsible/inappropriate depending on a particular person's situation. This book, though, need only concern itself with this particular solution, and I think only you can decide if it's the right course of action for you. I think there are ways that it could be updated to make it stronger, more credible, more inclusive. A shot of fallibility and broad-mindedness might go a long way. In the end, this reminded me a little too much of a catechism.
February 24, 2008
One of the great spiritual works produced by humanity, and a book that has probably saved more lives than any other ever written. This is the owner's manual for the most effective system for overcoming addictions and achieving peace of mind that has yet been found. The authors make it clear that they are not saying or implying that they have the only thing that works, and encourage the reader to do whatever works, including working with professional treatment providers; this is a good adjunct to treatment, not an either-or alternative.
June 30, 2014
Confession: I am a Christian, but I'm not an alcoholic (even though it runs in my family). As someone who grew up around an alcoholic, watched the destruction and the duality of life that alcohol can cause, this book was incredibly enlightening. To see the hidden doubts and struggles behind the alcoholic lifestyle.
As a Christian, I think that this is the first book that I've ever read that really takes sin seriously. It is the first book that really "gets" Romans 7:15 - "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." That is the cry of every Christian about every sin. I would actually recommend this book to any Christian. Just make a few strategic replacements, "alcohol" for "sin" and "spiritual experience" for "Jesus".
Here are a few of my favorite quotes:
Once in a while he may tell the truth. And the truth, strange to say, is usually that he has no more idea why he took that first drink than you have. Some drinkers have excuses with which they are satisfied part of the time. But in their hearts they really do not know why they do it. Once this malady has a real hold, they are a baffled lot. There is the obsession that somehow, someday, they will beat the game. But they often suspect they are down for the count.
At a certain point in the drinking of every alcoholic, he passes into a state where the most powerful desire to stop drinking is of absolutely no avail. This tragic situation has already arrived in practically every case long before it is suspected. The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink. Our so-called will power becomes practically nonexistent. We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without defense against the first drink.
The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death.
Faith without works was dead, he said. And how appallingly true for the alcoholic! For if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, he could not survive the certain trials and low spots ahead. If he did not work, he would surely drink again, and if he drank, he would surely die. Then faith would be dead indeed. With us it is just like that.
That the man who is making the approach has had the same difficulty, that he obviously knows what he is talking about, that his whole deportment shouts at the new prospect that he is a man with a real answer, that he has no attitude of Holier Than Thou, nothing whatever except the sincere desire to be helpful; that there are no fees to pay, no axes to grind, no people to please, no lectures to be endured–these are the conditions we have found most effective. After such an approach many take up their beds and walk again. None of us makes a sole vocation of this work, nor do we think its effectiveness would be increased if we did. 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 homes, occupations and affairs.
If a mere code of morals or a better philosophy of life were sufficient to overcome alcoholism, many of us would have recovered long ago. But we found that such codes and philosophies did not save us, no matter how much we tried. We could wish to be moral, we could wish to be philosophically comforted, in fact, we could will these things with all our might, but the needed power wasn’t there. Our human resources, as marshalled by the will, were not sufficient; they failed utterly. Lack of power, that was our dilemma. We had to find a power by which we could live, and it had to be a Power greater than ourselves. Obviously. But where and how were we to find this Power? Well, that’s exactly what this book is about. Its main object is to enable you to find a Power greater than yourself which will solve your problem.
Even so has God restored us all to our right minds. To this man, the revelation was sudden. Some of us grow into it more slowly. But He has come to all who have honestly sought Him. When we drew near to Him He disclosed Himself to us!
As a Christian, I think that this is the first book that I've ever read that really takes sin seriously. It is the first book that really "gets" Romans 7:15 - "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." That is the cry of every Christian about every sin. I would actually recommend this book to any Christian. Just make a few strategic replacements, "alcohol" for "sin" and "spiritual experience" for "Jesus".
Here are a few of my favorite quotes:
Once in a while he may tell the truth. And the truth, strange to say, is usually that he has no more idea why he took that first drink than you have. Some drinkers have excuses with which they are satisfied part of the time. But in their hearts they really do not know why they do it. Once this malady has a real hold, they are a baffled lot. There is the obsession that somehow, someday, they will beat the game. But they often suspect they are down for the count.
At a certain point in the drinking of every alcoholic, he passes into a state where the most powerful desire to stop drinking is of absolutely no avail. This tragic situation has already arrived in practically every case long before it is suspected. The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink. Our so-called will power becomes practically nonexistent. We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without defense against the first drink.
The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death.
Faith without works was dead, he said. And how appallingly true for the alcoholic! For if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, he could not survive the certain trials and low spots ahead. If he did not work, he would surely drink again, and if he drank, he would surely die. Then faith would be dead indeed. With us it is just like that.
That the man who is making the approach has had the same difficulty, that he obviously knows what he is talking about, that his whole deportment shouts at the new prospect that he is a man with a real answer, that he has no attitude of Holier Than Thou, nothing whatever except the sincere desire to be helpful; that there are no fees to pay, no axes to grind, no people to please, no lectures to be endured–these are the conditions we have found most effective. After such an approach many take up their beds and walk again. None of us makes a sole vocation of this work, nor do we think its effectiveness would be increased if we did. 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 homes, occupations and affairs.
If a mere code of morals or a better philosophy of life were sufficient to overcome alcoholism, many of us would have recovered long ago. But we found that such codes and philosophies did not save us, no matter how much we tried. We could wish to be moral, we could wish to be philosophically comforted, in fact, we could will these things with all our might, but the needed power wasn’t there. Our human resources, as marshalled by the will, were not sufficient; they failed utterly. Lack of power, that was our dilemma. We had to find a power by which we could live, and it had to be a Power greater than ourselves. Obviously. But where and how were we to find this Power? Well, that’s exactly what this book is about. Its main object is to enable you to find a Power greater than yourself which will solve your problem.
Even so has God restored us all to our right minds. To this man, the revelation was sudden. Some of us grow into it more slowly. But He has come to all who have honestly sought Him. When we drew near to Him He disclosed Himself to us!
January 18, 2015
An incredible insight into people, addiction and those affected by alcoholism.
A good read for alcoholics or friends and family members of alcoholics.
Wonder if you have a drinking problem? This book will help you.
Know you have a drinking problem? Read this book.
A good read for alcoholics or friends and family members of alcoholics.
Wonder if you have a drinking problem? This book will help you.
Know you have a drinking problem? Read this book.
March 3, 2008
I have read this book and will continue reading this book over and over for the rest of my life.
This book holds the tools to live a great life
This book holds the tools to live a great life
January 30, 2011
I love the look of this book -- a compact blue paperback that might be mistaken for a Bible, and is to many people. The cover is blank -- that is, until you hold the book up to a light and see its title, Alcoholics Anonymous. The title is concealed, anonymous. Makes sense for obvious reasons.
What I found most interesting is the program's idea of a Higher Power. Even atheists and agnostics must give their lives over to a HP, or else the program, no matter its other merits, won't work. Or so The Big Book says...
Written on the title page of my used copy is: "To Virginia, Christmas 1986. Love ya, Elsa L. July 15, 1973 --" The book is otherwise clean except for one note on page 86 that reads: "Read regularly. Nite morning."
It would be interesting -- and moving -- to collect copies of The Big Book just to read the marginalia.
What I found most interesting is the program's idea of a Higher Power. Even atheists and agnostics must give their lives over to a HP, or else the program, no matter its other merits, won't work. Or so The Big Book says...
Written on the title page of my used copy is: "To Virginia, Christmas 1986. Love ya, Elsa L. July 15, 1973 --" The book is otherwise clean except for one note on page 86 that reads: "Read regularly. Nite morning."
It would be interesting -- and moving -- to collect copies of The Big Book just to read the marginalia.
March 2, 2008
This book has had a positive impact on my life. Originally published in 1939, the "essential recovery text" has an outdated tonal feel. This is especially apparent in the chapter "To Wives". The chapter is written from a very sexist perspective and doesn't translate well to today. Despite its untimely feel, the original text in the "Big Book" still succeeds in paving a path of recovery from the disease of alcoholism.
June 21, 2014
Working in the mental healthcare field as well as my personal acquaintances I have heard many different views of AA and other 12 Step groups, ranging from the opinion that they are a cult that provided them with zilch to being a spiritual program that was a miracle. After reading this book and talking with others I know that this book has been able to perform miracles. I would recommend it or its branch offs (NA,CA, OA, EDA, EA, Al Anon, etc.) to anybody that feels they may have an addiction problem, or friends, family members, employers and anybody else that wants to better understand addiction. I don't know whether it works for everybody, but it has worked for some.
December 19, 2007
Kind of got bored half way through and didn't finish.
Read
April 19, 2025A close friend of mine recommended this to me after we had some #deep conversations about addiction. Feels a little strange to log it on Goodreads but I’ll be damned if I read a book without counting it toward my yearly goal. I don’t know that I feel qualified to give it a rating given that I am not exactly the target audience. I read this primarily out of curiosity, and a desire to better understand and empathize with people who struggle with addiction.
The book itself is definitely outdated and repetitive at times, but for people in AA I can imagine those are secondary concerns. I’m still glad I read this because I learned a lot, and I’m very grateful that this program and others like it exist. Wouldn’t recommend to everyone of course, but for me it was a very worthwhile read.
The book itself is definitely outdated and repetitive at times, but for people in AA I can imagine those are secondary concerns. I’m still glad I read this because I learned a lot, and I’m very grateful that this program and others like it exist. Wouldn’t recommend to everyone of course, but for me it was a very worthwhile read.
July 29, 2009
This is not necessarily a book just for alcoholics. In my field of study, I look at the human condition to examine its weaknesses. One human condition, habit, is a weakness, even though when doing the right thing or obtaining productive results habit has a positive connotation. But let me explain the issue at hand first.
Addiction has become a country wide issue. It's gotten so bad that Congress has had to step in in regards to food addiction. Unfortunately, mostly due to the burgeoning fast-food industry that came about in the 70s, people have become addicted to sugars and trans-fats. But it doesn't stop there.
Our youth has been caught up in Internet addictions that include online gambling, gaming (one student spoke of how she verbally abused her parents if she missed a day), and, worst of all, pornography. The majority of those acquiring addictions are now between the ages of 14 and 27. And the porno industry is a raging machine subversively making billions--more than rock 'n roll and country music combined.
But it doesn't stop there. There are also addictions to sports, television (my daughter suffers here), shopping, sex, virtually anything that is used to avoid life's responsibilities, problems, and challenges.
Life is about problems and if you don't learn how to deal with them, handle them, big and small, then life will be difficult if not impossible for you--here, ending in suicide, also on the rise.
So how do we combat all this addiction? AA's Big Book is a good place to start. It talks addiction and helps with the tangible task of managing emotion and behavior. The cause for addiction can be manifold, and this detail needs to be addressed by a therapist. This can be done privately or in groups or both. I have done both.
Like for many, my addiction was not of the debilitating variety. There are many good, productive, successful, men and women who "manage" their addiction. However, like any unproductive behavior, in time it can, does, and will get out of control, eating into one's relationships, career, and mental health. We can only go so far in life hiding the truth and living with the lies we tell ourselves and tell others from within our addiction. After a while, if the addictive behavior is not addressed it will destroy lives, marriages, families, society.
This book is a great place to begin for any who have an inkling that they have an addictive "behavior," (unfortunately, addicts are masters of rationalizing) and want to learn how to begin to manage their life better. Begin working on it before it gets out of control.
Addiction has become a country wide issue. It's gotten so bad that Congress has had to step in in regards to food addiction. Unfortunately, mostly due to the burgeoning fast-food industry that came about in the 70s, people have become addicted to sugars and trans-fats. But it doesn't stop there.
Our youth has been caught up in Internet addictions that include online gambling, gaming (one student spoke of how she verbally abused her parents if she missed a day), and, worst of all, pornography. The majority of those acquiring addictions are now between the ages of 14 and 27. And the porno industry is a raging machine subversively making billions--more than rock 'n roll and country music combined.
But it doesn't stop there. There are also addictions to sports, television (my daughter suffers here), shopping, sex, virtually anything that is used to avoid life's responsibilities, problems, and challenges.
Life is about problems and if you don't learn how to deal with them, handle them, big and small, then life will be difficult if not impossible for you--here, ending in suicide, also on the rise.
So how do we combat all this addiction? AA's Big Book is a good place to start. It talks addiction and helps with the tangible task of managing emotion and behavior. The cause for addiction can be manifold, and this detail needs to be addressed by a therapist. This can be done privately or in groups or both. I have done both.
Like for many, my addiction was not of the debilitating variety. There are many good, productive, successful, men and women who "manage" their addiction. However, like any unproductive behavior, in time it can, does, and will get out of control, eating into one's relationships, career, and mental health. We can only go so far in life hiding the truth and living with the lies we tell ourselves and tell others from within our addiction. After a while, if the addictive behavior is not addressed it will destroy lives, marriages, families, society.
This book is a great place to begin for any who have an inkling that they have an addictive "behavior," (unfortunately, addicts are masters of rationalizing) and want to learn how to begin to manage their life better. Begin working on it before it gets out of control.
May 20, 2021
I am so lucky to be able to study and practice the suggestions in this book every single day of my life. The 12 steps included here and the suggested program of recovery literally actually saved (and continues to save) my life. For anyone struggling with addiction, for anyone who loves someone struggling, read this. Call me. "It's a way of living that has it's advantages for all." I could and will talk about this book every day, forever.
January 2, 2009
A couple of months ago, I was interacting a lot with addiction therapists at work. A lot of people in the field are recovering addicts. After asking a lot of questions about the twelve-step program, one of the therapists (brilliant guy, lived as a homeless man for two years before getting sober) gave me the "Big Book." I was vaguely familiar with the twelve steps like admitting you have a problem, making amends, etc., but I had no idea that the AA book is mostly a how to guide for a spiritual transformation. A transformation that will also get you sober. Interesting chapter to atheists pushing them towards deism, or at the very least agnosticism. Interesting insight into the nature of the "disease."
I know this isn't the only model for recovery, but this is the one that has worked best, and I was surprised to find out how it works.
I know this isn't the only model for recovery, but this is the one that has worked best, and I was surprised to find out how it works.
March 8, 2012
The language used in some of the narratives is downright archaic, and that is a compliment. The power of this book lies in the reader's connection to a desire to change their life. What stands out, is how complete the writing is. For example, "The Chapter to the Agnostic" clearly demonstrates sensitivity and respect to differing lifestyles and religious choice.
Many of the stories in the back are hard to identify with at first read, tales of long term prison visit, unspeakable violence and neglect, but the themes- selfishness and a loss of control, speak to the heart of all alcoholics.
Many of the stories in the back are hard to identify with at first read, tales of long term prison visit, unspeakable violence and neglect, but the themes- selfishness and a loss of control, speak to the heart of all alcoholics.
February 8, 2011
It'll save you, or it'll durn near kill you.
And you won't know which until you're in too deep to get out.
How about that "rocketed into a forth dimension" part?
And all that stuff about how you can go anywhere and do anything as long as your house is clean?
Not to mention "To Wives".
I could go on and on.
It's a mystical treatise intended to lead the reader to God.
Yeah.
This was written by some really messed up guys. Do the research.
And you won't know which until you're in too deep to get out.
How about that "rocketed into a forth dimension" part?
And all that stuff about how you can go anywhere and do anything as long as your house is clean?
Not to mention "To Wives".
I could go on and on.
It's a mystical treatise intended to lead the reader to God.
Yeah.
This was written by some really messed up guys. Do the research.
June 6, 2014
Sadly, the barely hidden christianity in the big book of AA caused me to feel more and more withdrawn from the message of trying to help alcoholics. It seems to me now that the book is more of a way to usher new members into christianity first, and help alcoholics second. I am disappointed, to be sure, as the people in the halls of the fellowship seem far better than the book they swear by.
Read
August 5, 2009This is a great work of literature!!! My father was alcoholic. Read it in three days a few months before jumping into the Al-anon program.
November 29, 2011
some good ideas, just extremely boring. the whole higher power crap really annoyed me too. find power in yourself, not your imaginary friend.
June 28, 2025
Fate and a now friend put The Big Book in my path and I thank the powers at be for that, and for putting a subsequent serendipitous, random, unsure step into seeing what AA was about for calcifying what a healing, hard yet transformative journey sobriety is.
Considering the first edition of this book is almost a hundred years old is rather astonishing — although some language is naturally outdated, I’ve found such profound wisdom and pain and joy in the words of these people who have bravely shared their stories within these pages.
Reading it, I felt slightly ashamed that I had ever felt too awkward to approach AA due to never being an alcoholic or religious. But, wanting to learn more generally, the support and strength of those I have met within my sobriety journey has saved and inspired me in many ways, and made my life infinitely better and more human than I could ever have imagined. I really think anyone who wishes to assess their relationship to alcohol should read this book, or use it as a workbook, or as a guide, or even a bible — as something to come back to throughout life. These pages contain such wonderful guides for a more moral life, too, and stories of struggle and salvation away from the bottle.
Reading this has cemented how much the prospect of working in addiction and recovery services is something I hope to pursue one day, and I’m so grateful for embarking on reading The Big Book for opening my eyes wider to the complexities and the many shades of nuance that contribute to alcoholism and abuse, and for opening that path on to me.
The stories about what could’ve transpired for those should they have continued drinking despite not being an alcoholic was also very eye opening.
Considering the first edition of this book is almost a hundred years old is rather astonishing — although some language is naturally outdated, I’ve found such profound wisdom and pain and joy in the words of these people who have bravely shared their stories within these pages.
Reading it, I felt slightly ashamed that I had ever felt too awkward to approach AA due to never being an alcoholic or religious. But, wanting to learn more generally, the support and strength of those I have met within my sobriety journey has saved and inspired me in many ways, and made my life infinitely better and more human than I could ever have imagined. I really think anyone who wishes to assess their relationship to alcohol should read this book, or use it as a workbook, or as a guide, or even a bible — as something to come back to throughout life. These pages contain such wonderful guides for a more moral life, too, and stories of struggle and salvation away from the bottle.
Reading this has cemented how much the prospect of working in addiction and recovery services is something I hope to pursue one day, and I’m so grateful for embarking on reading The Big Book for opening my eyes wider to the complexities and the many shades of nuance that contribute to alcoholism and abuse, and for opening that path on to me.
The stories about what could’ve transpired for those should they have continued drinking despite not being an alcoholic was also very eye opening.
August 11, 2024
GROUP OF DRUNKS (GOD)
September 1, 2023
I want to preface this by saying I’m not an alcoholic (I understand alcoholics always say this lmao hear me out) Both my mom and dads side of the family have struggled with addiction so we already own multiple copies of this book. Reading was so crazy for me because my mom straight up used it as a parenting guide. Like even down to the language they use like: thanks for the clarity, a staple in my moms vocabulary. Anywayyy I highly recommend even if you’ve never struggled with addiction it highlights how important it is to believe in something bigger than yourself no matter what that thing might be.
January 4, 2025
I fought reading this... childhood wounds from growing up with an alcoholic parent...then loving many alcoholics in my family/life to being an alcoholic myself...I could not have gotten through the first months of (choosing) sobriety, without this book. One day at a time + my higher power God, and support of people that have been personally 'walked the walk' and lived through addiction... and recovery!
December 17, 2021
God, grant me the serenity to cope with this pathetic excuse for a self-help book.
Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average.
TLDR: if this outdated and scientifically disproven method doesn't work for you, that ain't our fault, mate. You're defunct. We didn't fail you, you failed yourself. Sorry bout it!
The only section dedicated to women is entitled TO THE WIVES . It is very bold of Bill to presume that I was in any fit state to be someone's wife, or indeed, to have a wife of my own. But what does it matter? I am a woman, after all. My main focus is on supporting my addicted husband.
According to the 'Big Book' (perhaps the only factual statement about the whole thing, and even that is an informal nickname), 50 percent of members got sober right away, and another 25 percent relapsed a bit but eventually recovered. Here's the catch - it's Alcoholics Anonymous. As in, anonymous, as in, no record of members except for those court mandated.
In summary; poor plot line, implausible situations (who drinks whiskey with milk voluntarily?), unlikely characters (that doctor should have had his license revoked. Taking advice from a random bloke, fresh out the psych ward, on how to treat his patients - and, indeed, publicly endorsing it - seems to be a massive breach of several ethical codes and should have resulted in him being immediately disbarred), absolutely no scientific backing whatsoever and an overwhelming lack of diversity.
Alternative recommendations:
Research the Sinclair method
Check out This Naked Mind (it has its flaws, but compared to the Voynich manuscript that is this manual, it's actually understandable with a decent amount of scientific backing)
Understand the issues behind the problem, and try to not play the blame game. It's a neuropsychological disorder, not a spiritual failing/'allergy', and should be treated as such.
Statistically and scientifically, AA does more harm than good. I'm happy for anyone who got sober - different strokes for different folks - but this is my personal book review, and even the most die-hard AA members must recognise that the book is often contradictory and, in some places, just plain wrong. I'd recommend for it to never be taken without a prescription dosage of one container of table salt. It's often referenced as the Bible, so use it as such and cherry-pick what you can if you must use it at all.
0/10 would not read again. And after eight long years, boy does that feel good to say.
Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average.
TLDR: if this outdated and scientifically disproven method doesn't work for you, that ain't our fault, mate. You're defunct. We didn't fail you, you failed yourself. Sorry bout it!
The only section dedicated to women is entitled TO THE WIVES . It is very bold of Bill to presume that I was in any fit state to be someone's wife, or indeed, to have a wife of my own. But what does it matter? I am a woman, after all. My main focus is on supporting my addicted husband.
According to the 'Big Book' (perhaps the only factual statement about the whole thing, and even that is an informal nickname), 50 percent of members got sober right away, and another 25 percent relapsed a bit but eventually recovered. Here's the catch - it's Alcoholics Anonymous. As in, anonymous, as in, no record of members except for those court mandated.
In summary; poor plot line, implausible situations (who drinks whiskey with milk voluntarily?), unlikely characters (that doctor should have had his license revoked. Taking advice from a random bloke, fresh out the psych ward, on how to treat his patients - and, indeed, publicly endorsing it - seems to be a massive breach of several ethical codes and should have resulted in him being immediately disbarred), absolutely no scientific backing whatsoever and an overwhelming lack of diversity.
Alternative recommendations:
Research the Sinclair method
Check out This Naked Mind (it has its flaws, but compared to the Voynich manuscript that is this manual, it's actually understandable with a decent amount of scientific backing)
Understand the issues behind the problem, and try to not play the blame game. It's a neuropsychological disorder, not a spiritual failing/'allergy', and should be treated as such.
Statistically and scientifically, AA does more harm than good. I'm happy for anyone who got sober - different strokes for different folks - but this is my personal book review, and even the most die-hard AA members must recognise that the book is often contradictory and, in some places, just plain wrong. I'd recommend for it to never be taken without a prescription dosage of one container of table salt. It's often referenced as the Bible, so use it as such and cherry-pick what you can if you must use it at all.
0/10 would not read again. And after eight long years, boy does that feel good to say.
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