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Freefly
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966 Posts |
 Posted - 10/06/2008 : 08:29:12 AM
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AA Thought for the Day
October 6, 2008
Growing Up
Sooner or later, by practicing the principles of the Twelve Steps,
we find in ourselves a very precious thing, something we can be comfortable with
regardless of whether we are at home by ourselves
or anywhere else that life takes us.
AA members are not emotional cripples who need someone
to hold their hands every moment of the day and night to prevent their falling.
We grow up with the help of God, as we understand Him,
and the fellowship of the group, and by applying the Twelve Steps to our lives.
© 1973 AAWS, Came To Believe . . ., p. 109
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
Take a walk with God. He will meet you at the Steps.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
Achieve Anything.
Day by Day is the only way.... |
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Pamela7030
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800 Posts |
Posted - 10/06/2008 : 08:51:47 AM
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Monday, October 6, 2008
"I know I have another drunk in me, but I don't know if I have another recovery."
A shiver shot down my spine when I first heard this quote. I know how easy it would be for me to pick up a cold Heineken or glass of cabernet sauvignon at a nice restaurant. And my disease even tries to convince me I could handle it. "It's been years since you've had a drink," it whispers. "You can drink normally now," it says.
As I think those first drinks through, I know I might get away with them, but inevitably I'd end up drunk. I know myself well enough to know that I've easily got another drunk in me. I can't say the same thing about recovery, though, and that's why my spine still tingles when I read this quote.
Getting sober and taking the steps was a lot of work. Good work, to be sure, but it took countless surrenders, unparalleled willingness, and a humbling of my ego that only the desperation of the drowning can understand. If the fires of alcoholism were lit again, I don't know if I'd ever be able to contain them. That why I pray to God in the morning to keep me sober another day, and thank Him at night for doing so. Because I know I have another drunk in me, but I don't know if I have another recovery.
From the web site Wisdom of The Rooms
www.theWisdomoftheRooms.com
"Reach for the stars...You will at least end up among the clouds"
Share your experience, strength, and hope with another and see the miracles transform your life!
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Freefly
Administrator
966 Posts |
Posted - 10/07/2008 : 08:57:54 AM
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AA Thought for the Day
October 7, 2008
Isolation
Isolation is bad for new people, old people, and in-between people
if they are alcoholic people. Isolation sneaks up on us.
We can mask it with familiar props that are not in themselves bad. . .
We can use family, sweethearts, compulsive working, television. The list is long.
The nicest way to end it is the way you and I do: together.
Reach out -- people can't read your mind. Say ouch!. Someone hears. Always.
Reprinted from The Best of the Grapevine (Vol. 1), pp. 84-85, from the Grapevine. Reprinted with permission of The A.A. Grapevine, Inc.
Thought to Ponder....
An alcoholic is someone who wants to be held while isolating.
Recovery Related Acronym
You Are Not Alone.
Day by Day is the only way.... |
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Freefly
Administrator
966 Posts |
Posted - 10/08/2008 : 08:14:35 AM
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AA Thought for the Day
October 8, 2008
The Gift of Choice
When I am willing to do the right thing, I am rewarded
with an inner peace no amount of liquor could ever provide.
When I am unwilling to do the right thing,
I become restless, irritable, and discontent. It is always my choice.
Through the Twelve Steps, I have been granted the gift of choice.
I am no longer at the mercy of a disease that tells me the only answer is to drink.
If willingness is the key to unlock the gates of hell,
it is action that opens those doors so that we may walk freely among the living.
© 2001 AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 317
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust our sails.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
Honesty, Open-mindedness, Willingness.
Day by Day is the only way.... |
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Freefly
Administrator
966 Posts |
Posted - 10/09/2008 : 08:17:28 AM
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AA Thought for the Day
October 9, 2008
Raising the Bottom
In the first years, those of us who sobered up in AA
had been grim and utterly hopeless cases, almost without exception.
But now younger folks began to appear.
Lots of people turned up who still had good jobs and homes
and health and even good social standing. . .
Of course it was necessary for these types of newcomers
to hit bottom emotionally.
But we found they did not have to hit every possible bottom there was
in order to admit they were licked.
We began to develop a conscious technique of "raising the bottom"
and hitting them with it.
When one of these mild cases arrived at the conviction that he already had
the principal symptoms of alcoholism, that was usually enough.
He "hit bottom" then and there and so was spared years of anguish.
© 1985 AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, p. 199
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
If I think I am an alcoholic, chances are I am.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
Hope, Encouragement, Love, Patience.
Day by Day is the only way.... |
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Freefly
Administrator
966 Posts |
Posted - 10/10/2008 : 08:55:46 AM
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AA Thought for the Day
October 10, 2008
Resistance
Accepting my Higher Power did not fully change my attitude of resistance.
It just made yielding to instruction a more rational and acceptable
mode of behavior.
For each Step, I still had to go through the process of recognizing
that I had no control over my drinking.
I had to understand that the Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous
had helped others and could help me.
© 2001 AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 541
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
We are in charge of our attitudes.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
Attitude Adjustment.
Day by Day is the only way.... |
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Freefly
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966 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2008 : 08:13:04 AM
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AA Thought for the Day
October 11, 2008
Anonymity
Moved by the spirit of anonymity,
we try to give up our natural desires for personal distinction as AA members
both among fellow alcoholics and before the general public.
As we lay aside these very human aspirations, we believe that each of us
takes part in the weaving of a protective mantle which covers our whole Society
and under which we may grow and work in unity.
We are sure that humility, expressed by anonymity,
is the greatest safeguard that Alcoholics Anonymous can ever have.
© 1953 AAWS, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 187
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
Together we can do what we could never do alone.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
Adventurers Anonymous.
Day by Day is the only way.... |
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Pamela7030
Moderator
800 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2008 : 08:43:17 AM
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Saturday, October 11, 2008
"When I'm alone and by myself, I'm out numbered."
I remember the first time I heard about the committee. Someone shared that when she went to sleep, the committee in her head got together and started going over all the things that were wrong and why her life was never going to work out. They collected evidence, put solid cases together, and then reached their decisions. When she woke up in the morning, they handed her their verdict - guilty and sentenced to a miserable life!
Boy could I relate. I have my own committee of voices that constantly tell me things aren't going to work out, that my past mistakes are insurmountable, and that no matter how hard I try I will never be happy. When I'm alone, the committee is especially active and after a few days of listening to their decrees, I'm easily overwhelmed and defeated.
In recovery I've learned that being alone and listening to my own thinking almost always leads to trouble. I was taught early on that my thinking is distorted by the disease of alcoholism, and that my best hope for right action and happiness is to run my thoughts by my sponsor and others in the program. Once I let others in, the committee disappears, and I am restored to sanity.
Today I recognize the danger of being alone and out numbered.
From the web site Wisdom of The Rooms
www.theWisdomoftheRooms.com
When the committee starts in my head, I say to myself, "We have a nice way of closing," and I say the Serenity Prayer, followed by the Lords Prayer.
"Reach for the stars...You will at least end up among the clouds"
Share your experience, strength, and hope with another and see the miracles transform your life!
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Freefly
Administrator
966 Posts |
Posted - 10/12/2008 : 09:46:05 AM
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AA Thought for the Day
October 12, 2008
Pride
I suspect that pride kills as many alcoholics as liquor does.
I could very easily have been one of the victims,
because my reaction to fast-progressing alcoholism
was chiefly a frantic effort to hide it. Ask for help? What an idea!
The day came when my pride was squashed flat (temporarily)
and I did call for help. I called on people -- strangers.
But my pride, expanding as health returned, blocked my first approaches to AA. . .
After one more failure to regain my skill as a social drinker, I was convinced,
and I began my AA membership in earnest.
© 1973 AAWS, Came To Believe . . ., pp. 83-84
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
Swallowing my pride will not get me drunk.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
Pretty Ridiculous Individual Directing Everything.
Day by Day is the only way.... |
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Freefly
Administrator
966 Posts |
Posted - 10/13/2008 : 09:24:39 AM
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AA Thought for the Day
October 13, 2008
Adolescent Urges
Those adolescent urges that so many of us have for top approval,
perfect security, and perfect romance
-- urges quite appropriate to age seventeen --
prove to be an impossible way of life when we are at age forty-seven or fifty-seven.
Since AA began, I've taken immense wallops in all these areas
because of my failure to grow up, emotionally and spiritually.
My God, how painful it is to keep demanding the impossible,
and how very painful to discover, finally,
that all along we have had the cart before the horse!
- Bill W., January 1958
© 1988 The AA Grapevine, Inc., The Language of the Heart, p. 236
Thought to Ponder . . .
Growing old is inevitable, growing up is optional,
growing spiritually is up to you.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
Try Relying Upon Steps and Traditions.
Day by Day is the only way.... |
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Pamela7030
Moderator
800 Posts |
Posted - 10/13/2008 : 12:55:58 PM
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Monday, October 13, 2008.................Chapter One, Who Is An Addict?
Pages 3 & 4, Narcotics Anonymous Basic Text
Most of us do not have to think twice about this question. We know! Our whole life and thinking was centered in drugs in one form or another - the getting and using and finding ways and means to get more. We lived to use and used to live. Very simply, an addict is a man or woman whose life is controlled by drugs. We are people in the grip of a continuing and progressive illness whose ends are always the same: jails, institutions and death.
Those of us who have found the Program of Narcotics Anonymous do not have to think twice about the question: Who is an addict: We know! The following is our experience.
As addicts, we are people whose use of any mind-altering, mood-changing substance causes a problem in any area of life. Addiction is a disease that involves more than the use of drugs. Some of us believe that our disease was present long before the first time we used.
Most of us did not consider ourselves addicted before coming to the Narcotics Anonymous Program. The information available to us came from misinformed people. As long as we could stop using for a while, we thought we were all right. We looked at the stopping, not the using. As our addiction progressed, we thought of stopping less and less. Only in desperation did we ask ourselves, “Could it be the drugs?”
We did not choose to become addicts. We suffer from a disease that expresses itself in ways that are anti-social and that makes detection, diagnosis and treatment difficult.
Our disease isolated us from people except when we were getting, using and finding ways and means to get more. Hostile, resentful, self-centered and self-seeking, we cut ourselves off from the outside world. Anything not completely familiar became alien and dangerous. Our world shrank and isolation became our life. We used in order to survive. It was the only way of life that we knew.
Some of us used, misused and abused drugs and still did not consider ourselves addicts. Through all of this, we kept telling ourselves, “I can handle it.” Our misconceptions about the nature of addiction included visions of violence, street crime, dirty needles and jail.
When our addiction was treated as a crime or moral deficiency, we became rebellious and were driven deeper into isolation. Some of the highs felt great, but eventually the things that we had to do to continue using reflected desperation. We were caught in the grip of our disease. We were forced to survive any way that we could. We manipulated people and tried to control everything around us. We lied, stole, cheated and sold ourselves. We had to have drugs regardless of the cost. Failure and fear began to invade our lives.
From the Basic Text of Narcotics Anonymous, Fifth Edition,
Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc., Chatsworth, California
(Chapter One will continue next post)
"Reach for the stars...You will at least end up among the clouds"
Share your experience, strength, and hope with another and see the miracles transform your life!
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Freefly
Administrator
966 Posts |
Posted - 10/14/2008 : 07:42:26 AM
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AA Thought for the Day
October 14, 2008
Giving
The most important lesson I have ever learned in my entire life
is that AA doesn't need me, but I need AA.
Very desperately, very sincerely, very humbly.
Not all at once, because you can't get it all at once,
just a little bit at a time. They told me,
"You've got to get out and work a little; you've got to give."
They told me that giving was living, and living was loving, and loving was God.
And you don't have to worry about God,
because He's sitting right in front of your eyes.
© 2003 AAWS, Experience, Strength and Hope, p. 201
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
Remove the worry from your mind.
Remove the anger from your heart.
Give a lot. Expect little.
Keep it simple.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
God Is Forever There.
Day by Day is the only way.... |
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Pamela7030
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800 Posts |
Posted - 10/14/2008 : 11:42:53 AM
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Tuesday, October 14, 2008.................Chapter One, Who Is An Addict? (Continued)
Pages 4 thru 6, Narcotics Anonymous Basic Text
One aspect of our addiction was our inability to deal with life on life’s terms. We tried drugs and combinations of drugs to cope with a seemingly hostile world. We dreamed of finding a magic formula that would solve our ultimate problem - ourselves. The fact was that we could not use any mind-altering or mood-changing substance, including marijuana and alcohol, successfully. Drugs ceased to make us feel good.
At times, we were defensive about our addiction and justified our right to use, especially when we had legal prescriptions. We were proud of the sometimes illegal and often bizarre behavior that typified our using. We “forgot” about the times when we sat alone and were consumed by fear and self-pity. We fell into a pattern of selective thinking. We only remembered the good drug experiences. We justified and rationalized the things that we did to keep from being sick or going crazy. We ignored the times when life seemed to be a nightmare. We avoided the reality of our addiction.
Higher mental and emotional functions, such as conscience and the ability to love, were sharply affected by our use of drugs. Living skills were reduced to the animal level. Our spirit was broken. The capacity to feel human was lost. This seems extreme, but many of us have been in this state of mind.
We were constantly searching for the answer - that person, place or thing that would make everything all right. We lacked the ability to cope with daily living. As our addiction progressed, many of us found ourselves in and out of institutions.
These experiences indicated that there was something wrong with our lives. We wanted an easy way out. Some of us thought of suicide. Our attempts were usually feeble and only helped to contribute to our feelings of worthlessness. We were trapped in the illusion of “what if,” ”if only” and “just one more time.” When we did seek help, we were only looking for the absence of pain.
We had regained good physical health many times, only to lose it by using again. Our track record shows that it is impossible for us to use successfully. No matter how well we may appear to be in control, using drugs always brings us to our knees.
Like other incurable diseases, addiction can be arrested. We agree that there is nothing shameful about being an addict, provided we accept our dilemma honestly and take positive action. We are willing to admit without reservation that we are allergic to drugs. Common sense tells us that it would be insane to go back to the source of our allergy. Our experience indicates that medicine cannot cure our illness.
Although physical and mental tolerance play a role, many drugs require no extended period of use to trigger allergic reactions. Our reaction to drugs is what makes us addicts not how much we use.
Many of us did not think that we had a problem with drugs until the drugs ran out. Even when others told us that we had a problem, we were convinced that we were right and the world was wrong. We used this belief to justify our self-destructive behavior. We developed a point of view that enabled us to pursue our addiction without concern for our own well-being or the well-being of others. We began to feel that the drugs were killing us long before we could ever admit it to anyone else. We noticed that if we tried to stop using, we couldn’t. We suspected that we had lost control over the drugs and had no power to stop.
Certain things followed as we continued to use. We became accustomed to a state of mind that is common to addicts. We forgot what it was like before we started using; we forgot about social graces. We acquired strange habits and mannerisms. We forgot how to work; we forgot how to play; we forgot how to express ourselves and how to show concern for others. We forgot how to feel.
From the Basic Text of Narcotics Anonymous, Fifth Edition,
Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc., Chatsworth, California
(Chapter One will continue next post)
"Reach for the stars...You will at least end up among the clouds"
Share your experience, strength, and hope with another and see the miracles transform your life!
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Pamela7030
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800 Posts |
Posted - 10/15/2008 : 06:43:45 AM
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Wednesday, October 15, 2008.................Chapter One, Who Is An Addict? (Continued)
Pages 6 & 7, Narcotics Anonymous Basic Text
While using, we lived in another world. We experienced only periodic jolts of reality or self-awareness. It seemed that we were at least two people instead of one, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. We ran around and tried to get our lives together before our next run. Sometimes we could do this very well, but later, it was less important and more impossible. In the end, Dr. Jekyll died and Mr. Hyde took over.
Each of us has a few things that we never did. We cannot let these things become excuses to use again. Some of us feel lonely because of differences between us and other members. This feeling makes it difficult to give up old connections and old habits.
We all have different tolerances for pain. Some addicts needed to go to greater extremes than others. Some of us found that we had enough when we realized that we were getting high too often and it was affecting our daily lives.
At first, we were using in a manner that seemed to be social or at least controllable. We had little indication of the disaster that the future held for us. At some point, our using became uncontrollable and anti-social. This began when things were going well, and we were in situations that allowed us to use frequently. This was usually the end of the good times. We may have tried to moderate, substitute or even stop using, but we went from a state of drugged success and well-being to complete spiritual, mental and emotional bankruptcy. This rate of decline varies from addict to addict. Whether it occurs in years of days, it is all downhill. Those of us who don’t die from the disease will go on to prison, mental institutions or complete demoralization as the disease progresses.
Drugs had given us the feeling that we could handle whatever situation might develop. We became aware, however, that drug usage was largely responsible for some of our worst predicaments. Some of us may spend the rest of our lives in jail for a drug-related crime.
We had to reach our bottom, before we were willing to stop. We were finally motivated to seek help in the latter stage of our addiction. Then it was easier for us to see the destruction, disaster and delusion of our using. It was harder to deny our addiction when problems were staring us in the face.
From the Basic Text of Narcotics Anonymous, Fifth Edition,
Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc., Chatsworth, California
(Chapter One will continue next post)
"Reach for the stars...You will at least end up among the clouds"
Share your experience, strength, and hope with another and see the miracles transform your life!
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Freefly
Administrator
966 Posts |
Posted - 10/15/2008 : 11:35:38 AM
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AA Thought for the Day
October 15, 2008
Keeping It Simple
Dr. Bob tells about keeping it simple and not to louse it up.
It's the last thing I ever heard him say, and I think there are some of us
who, at times, try to read extra messages and complexities into the Steps.
To me, AA is within reach of every alcoholic,
because it can be achieved in any walk of life
and because the achievement is not ours but God's.
I feel that there is no situation too difficult, none too desperate,
no unhappiness too great to be overcome in this great fellowship --
Alcoholics Anonymous.
© 2003 AAWS, Experience, Strength and Hope, p. 342
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
While it isn't always easy, if I keep it simple, it works.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
Keeping It Simple, Spiritually.
Day by Day is the only way.... |
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