Book Discussion - Big Book of AA
I decided to reread what I started in The BB, and this time with a highligher. I began with "There Is A Solution"
"Our very lives, as ex-problem drinkers, depend upon constant thought of others and how we may help their needs". Drinking, in itself, is a selfish act. And when we begin to think of others and what we have to offer them, we are not so caught up in our own inabilities. We begin to focus on the positive outcome of sobriety as a whole.
"Why can't he stay on the water wagon? What has become of the common sense and will power that he still sometimes displays with respect to other matters?" In other aspects of our lives, this is so simple. And yet for the alcoholic, common sense goes out the window!!
"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." So true!! The suffering and humiliation usually come at the wee hours of the morning, when we wake up, unable to go back to sleep, with that feeling of remorse eating away at our insides.
"So many want to stop but cannot." That's self explanatory!
"Our Creator has commenced to accomplish those things for us which we could never do by ourselves....If you are a serious alcoholic...there is no middle-of-the-road solution." We alcoholics always like to compromise our drinking. Put limitations on our drinking. Or attach rules to our drinking. As the book said, "There is no middle-of-the-road solution!"
I decided to reread what I started in The BB, and this time with a highligher. I began with "There Is A Solution"
"Our very lives, as ex-problem drinkers, depend upon constant thought of others and how we may help their needs". Drinking, in itself, is a selfish act. And when we begin to think of others and what we have to offer them, we are not so caught up in our own inabilities. We begin to focus on the positive outcome of sobriety as a whole.
"Why can't he stay on the water wagon? What has become of the common sense and will power that he still sometimes displays with respect to other matters?" In other aspects of our lives, this is so simple. And yet for the alcoholic, common sense goes out the window!!
"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." So true!! The suffering and humiliation usually come at the wee hours of the morning, when we wake up, unable to go back to sleep, with that feeling of remorse eating away at our insides.
"So many want to stop but cannot." That's self explanatory!
"Our Creator has commenced to accomplish those things for us which we could never do by ourselves....If you are a serious alcoholic...there is no middle-of-the-road solution." We alcoholics always like to compromise our drinking. Put limitations on our drinking. Or attach rules to our drinking. As the book said, "There is no middle-of-the-road solution!"
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