AA is All About Abstinence!

AA is All About Abstinence!

I’ve been sitting in AA meetings for decades and often become engrossed in the discussion, losing sight of AA’s point. The point, and the solution that the AA program offers, is complete and total abstinence from alcohol and non-prescription medicine. That is The Solution that alcoholics anonymous offers. It is just that simple. So if…

Step 1 – Self Diagnosing Alcoholism Successfully

Step 1 – Self Diagnosing Alcoholism Successfully

This will be a series on working the steps. My opinions and experience here. I hope you find them helpful. Step 1 – Diagnosis Step There are many cliches you’ll hear in meetings about step 1, “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol, and our lives had become unmanageable.” Like most cliches, while they may…

Alcoholics Anonymous – New Comers Guide

Alcoholics Anonymous – New Comers Guide

People walking into AA are all over the map in terms of experience and expectations. Some are frequent attendees. Others are first-timers. Part of the challenge for AA is meeting the expectations of these very different audiences. Succeeding at this is a very tall order and is rarely accomplished. This article will address what first-timers…

A Power Greater Than Yourself
| |

A Power Greater Than Yourself

A core tenant (some would even describe as a requirement) of the AA program is “finding a power greater than yourself.” Not only is this idea explicitly called out in the second step, “Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity,” but, is also implicitly referenced throughout the Big…

Getting Focused on “My Number One Problem”

Getting Focused on “My Number One Problem”

Life has vexed Philosophers, Artists, and the Common Man since the dawn of humanity. Consciousness, with its seemingly endless capacity for nuanced semi-reflective, thought, socialized man and continues to capture his imagination.  Language, culture, and religion followed. Later, math, science, medicine, and the arts followed. Several thousand years later, we’ve become the diverse and often…

Communicating Better in AA

Communicating Better in AA

A recurring theme on this website is an encouragement to making your communication better. Be it in meetings, with other AAs, or the world at large, when what you are trying to say is heard in the way it’s intended, everyone wins. This strategy goes for writing as well as speaking. Some Refinement But, communicating…