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ADDICTION ALCOHOLISM 12 STEPS TO FREEDOM

Page history last edited by Sheila Broughton 14 years, 1 month ago

The history of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), founded in 1935 and the first "Big Book" published in 1939, is very interesting because AA is actually one of the trickiest ways to get people to God. Although working the program calls for a belief in a Higher Power, that Higher Power can be anything. Your Higher Power can be the stars, a tree or a doorknob! 

But what if you're Higher Power isn't a doorknob? What if you had a religious background that didn't entirely drown in the booze or dope and you're comfortable with God as your Higher Power? Unfortunately, at many secular meetings you were shunned for it. You see, most people had lost their faith long ago due to their drug use and drinking and they could be rude, rolling their eyes at those who had been born anew in Christ and shared that He was their Higher Power. A resentment was growing between the non-believers and the believers so Christ-centered 12-Step meetings began popping up all over the globe. These meetings were born out of necessity for a place where born-again Christians could recover without ridicule. Not all secular meetings were that harsh but many were and there was a need to create these new meetings where it is the norm to have Jesus as your Higher Power.

It's good that we have choices today where you're free to run your program either way. The regular, secular meetings are still bringing in all religions, atheists and agnostics and keeping them clean and sober. But it can't be done on will power alone.This may work for awhile but the time comes, if you're working the 12 steps and traditions as they're intended to be worked, that God will come into your life. It's the only thing that truly removes the obsession to drink or use. For an addict/alcoholic to no longer crave alcohol or their drug of choice is a miracle! That's what the program calls a "spiritual awakening".

Anyone can stop drinking for one hour or one day but a spiritual wakening is essential to staying stopped. Over the decades, it's become a proven fact that members don't stay clean and sober or they "white-knuckle it" (clean and sober but miserable) until they have a spiritual awakening and turn it all over to the Lord. I can tell you from experience, I've never met an "old timer" (someone with a considerable amount of sobriety under his belt) whose Higher Power wasn't of a spiritual nature. For some, this happens instantaneously and for others the confusion and struggle drags on for months, even years. Sadly, there are some who never see God as their Higher Power and quit going to meetings. They usually relapse and return to a life of drinking and using drugs which can only lead to three outcomes: insanity, jail, or death. An addict/alcoholic can not continue drinking or using without facing these three inevitable endings.

Besides having a Higher Power, what else is needed for recovery? It is suggested that you attend meetings on a regular basis, get a sponsor (a peer who has some time in the program and who you can call if you feel the urge to drink or use), and to work the 12 Steps. You don't have to share at meetings; you are participating just by sitting in a chair, by being there. But it's beneficial for both yourself and others to share your "experience, strength, and hope" if you're up to it. It is also suggested, but not required, that you pitch in by being of service folding chairs, making the coffee or greeting newcomers. But you can sit in the back and do nothing at all too. It's up to each individual what they want to put into their personal recovery. There are no fees but a collection is taken for those who can throw in a dollar or two to help pay for the coffee or rented space. But it's absolutely not mandatory. AA is free. It's an open-ended offer to get people off the streets, out of the bars and into recovery. The only requirement is a desire to stop drinking and using.

AA founders, Dr. Bob and Mr. Bill, coined the 12 steps straight out of the Bible but promised to keep it a secret so they would attract more members. They thought an addict/alcoholic wouldn't be drawn in by anything "churchy". Alcoholics had had it with the temperance movement and "teetotalism" and the last thing they wanted was to be preached to. Plus, when you hit bottom, you don't feel worthy of God anyway, carrying a boatload of sin and guilt. But it's the key to success by admitting your faults to God, letting Him take the steering wheel, and then in return, being of service helping others recover. This "attitude of gratitude" is essential to staying clean and sober, one day at a time.

Addiction/Alcoholism is a disease and if they can understand this - that they are not bad people but sick people - then they can begin to forgive and accept themselves. It's both a medical and spiritual problem. It's not only physiological with genetics fueling the addiction, it's a life where booze and drugs have become God. It's a dis-ease of the soul that yearns for a reuniting of the fractured self with the spirit.

I think Dr. Bob and Mr. Bill were divinely driven and inspired. It was God's providence that they met and this organization was formed. They had the discernment to build a program based on man's need for fellowship and a relationship with a Higher Power. It is so successful and has grown so huge in membership at the international level that additional groups have sprung up like Narcotics Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous and Al-Anon and Ala-Teen for family members, co-dependents.

Statistically, every addict/alcoholic takes down seven people with him on his road to self-destruction and these people become sick too. "Significant others" can stay sick and stuck in old behavior patterns that will no longer work with the recovered addict/alcoholic. The family's future depends on everyone getting help for themselves and working their own program. The household can't stay dysfunctional while only some persons get well. 

Once an addict/alcoholic, always an addict/alcoholic; the only difference is that they don't activate the disease by taking that first hit or drink ever again. The greatest delusion for them is the obsession that they will someday be able to drink like "normies", non-alcoholics. But that day will never come. How many addicts/alcoholics have died from going back out there just one more time or thinking they had "learned" how to drink or use like a normal person? Addicts/alcoholics can never forget where they came from and when someone relapses they must remember "there but for the grace of God go I".

A total transformation has to take place for recovery to be a reality and it's all based on these 12 steps and having a relationship with your Higher Power. To know that these steps originated from God's word, the holy Bible, makes recovery from addiction/alcoholism a divine miracle and each recovering person is an inspired work in progress.

 

12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous & Biblical References

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol ... that our lives had become unmanageable.  "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out." (Romans 7:18)  
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.  "... my grace is sufficient for you, for my POWER is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:9)   ..for it God Who works in you to will and act according to His good purpose.. (Phil. 2:13)
 
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of GOD as we understood Him. "... If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9:23**)  
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.  "Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord." (Lamentations 3:40)  
5. Admitted to GOD, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.  "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed." (James 5:16)  
6. Were entirely ready to have GOD remove all these defects of character.  "If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land." (Isaiah 1:19)  
7. Humbly asked Him to remove all our shortcomings. "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up." (James 4:10)  
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.  "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift." (Matthew 5:23, 24**)  
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.  Give and it shall be given you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." (Luke 6:38**)  
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.  "For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith GOD has given you." (Romans 12:3)  
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with GOD as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will, and the power to carry that out.  "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer." (Psalm 19:14)   "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly..." (Col. 3:16)
 
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and practice these principles in all our affairs.  "Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." (Galatians 6:1-2) 

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