Alcoholism is a disease, a hopeless state of mind and body that only a spiritual solution can overcome. A problem in the body causes the loss of control; a problem in the mind takes away the power of choice. Alcoholism is a two-part disease. (Page numbers refer to the 'big book' -- “Alcoholics Anonymous - The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered From Alcoholism”, 4th Ed.) 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. (p. 24:1)

• The physical part – an allergy produces a craving – When alcohol enters my body, an allergic reaction produces a craving—my body wants more and more. The [poorly understood] phenomenon of craving is limited to [alcoholics] and never occurs in the average temperate drinker (Dr. Silkworth, p. xxviii). Moderate drinkers and the hard drinker do not have this allergic reaction; the hard drinker… given sufficiently strong reason, can stop or moderate… but at some stage of his drinking career [the real alcoholic] begins to lose all control of his liquor consumption, once he starts to drink. (p.20-21)

Our stories disclose in a general way, what we were like (what we were like and how drinking seemed to make us feel complete), what happened (how we were fortunate enough to find Alcoholics Anonymous, how we learned what alcoholism is what we did to survive) and what we are like now (having adopted the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous as our guide for living, what life is like with a well defined purpose for living and the freedom we have been granted.) The prospect now has the facts and can make a decision to either follow the Path or return to their best efforts.

— Cliff B., Dallas, Texas

Most people with a serious disease understand the problem. Those with chronic diseases like diabetes usually understand the most effective treatment and they can explain it to others. Why is the message of recovery lacking in so many A.A. meetings?

• If it is true that alcoholism is one of the deadliest maladies known to mankind; and
• If the only requirement for membership in Alcoholics Anonymous is a desire to stop drinking; and
• If the only known Solution for recovery is a spiritual experience as the result of having taken the Steps; and
• If every Alcoholics Anonymous Group has but one primary purpose – to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers; and
• If sobriety – freedom from alcohol – comes through both teaching and practicing the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, and
• If the main purpose of the book Alcoholics Anonymous is “to show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered”,

Then why are so many so-called “A.A. meetings” devoid of the message contained in the Big Book? (It says we suffered from a spiritual malady; we have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body because we had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps and because we try to carry this message to other (real) alcoholics and because we strive to practice these principles in all our affairs!)

"Step 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."

What is the message and how do we carry it?

Here are a collection of essays, papers, quotes, and thoughts on the message we carry.

This passage states the essence of the program:

"I was to test my thinking by the new God-consciousness within. Common sense would thus become uncommon sense. I was to sit quietly when in doubt, asking only for direction and strength to meet my problems as He would have me. Never was I to pray for myself, except as my requests bore on my usefulness to others. Then only might I expect to receive. But that would be in great measure. "

"My friend [Ebby] promised when these things were done I would enter upon a new relationship with my Creator; that I would have the elements of a way of living which answered all my problems. Belief in the power of God, plus enough willingness, honesty and humility to establish and maintain the new order of things, were the essential requirements."

Over the past several months, I have had this type of question asked more than a couple of times.

"We usually have OK results, but sometimes they walk out when we get into "The God Stuff". If you have any suggestions or materials that would aid us in bringing this life saving message to the people who are detoxing, heavily medicated, and sometimes very belligerent, It would be greatly appreciated."

For those have only recently been blessed with our Solution, it is sometimes difficult to remember that the majority of those suffering from alcoholism and various addictions are atheists or agnostics. We were studying that part of "Bill's Story" last night where Ebby told Bill of his release from the bottle (pgs 10, 11 & 12). Some of our kids started getting heavy on God. We had a number of newcomers in that meeting and I noticed several getting a little restless as the talk about God continued. I tried to quiet them down with some realism by getting a little ahead of where we were in the Big Book to remind them that while Ebby gave Bill the HOPE we all need at the beginning of "coming to believe", that was all it did and that hope dissolved as Bill continued to drink. The fact that Ebby was sober and Bill couldn't stay sober was driving Bill further into the bottle. But two weeks later, as Bill recognized he was going into DTs and remembered Dr. Silkworth told him he would probably die of a heart attack during a bout with DTs, he returned to the hospital for medical attention. After beginning to regain some awareness, and with the desperation of a drowning man, he called Ebby and asked him to come visit him one more time. Ebby did and now Bill was ripe and ready. He was now willing to do anything to survive. And so it is with all of us who are real, chronic, hopeless alcoholics.

An Apologia for my Life
By Rev. Sam Shoemaker

I stand by the door.
I neither go to far in, nor stay too far out.
The door is the most important door in the world -
It is the door through which men walk when they find God.
There is no use my going way inside and staying there,
When so many are still outside and they, as much as I,
Crave to know where the door is.
And all that so many ever find
Is only the wall where the door ought to be.

The Monday Nite
AA Meeting at ANMC
6:30pm - 8:00pm

There is an unpublished meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage. Here is why people come:

● Attend an AA meeting focused on learning the AA 12-Step Program of Recovery presented in the Basic Text of Alcoholics Anonymous - everything from the Foreword to Page 164 plus the Appendices in the back of the Big Book.

● Learn the lessons of the Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous and the teachings of the "first one hundred" alcoholics who recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body by taking a spiritual path that produces personality changes needed to remove the obsession to take the drink that leads to uncontrollable binges, misery and remorse.