If you are looking for the  official AA site please click on link provided.  Disclaimer – The following information  gathered  has been useful through the years in my own quest for  sobriety I do not speak for Alcoholics Anonymous World Services. It is simply my way of sharing Experience, Strength, and Hope.  The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous is where you will find all the answers on how to stay sober. When most newcomers show up in AA they are in no shape to sit down and read a book. (At least I wasn't)
So to get started I have taken small amounts of information directly from the Big Book.

“Why does he do it?  Of what is he thinking”? 

                                          This description should identify him roughly.   

        1)      He does absurd incredible, tragic things while drinking.
        2)      Coming to his senses, he is revolted at certain episodes he vaguely remembers.
        3)      He trembles to think someone might have observed him
        4)      The insanity of Alcohol returns & we drink again     
             (setting the terrible cycle in motion)

                               How then shall we present that which has been so freely given us?

This is the baffling feature of Alcoholism, as we know it – this utter inability to leave it alone.  He believes that after being entirely free from Alcohol for a period of time, thinks he can take a drink again without danger. Why does he behave like this? If hundred of experiences have shown him that one drink means another debacle with all its attendant suffering and humiliation, why is it he takes that one drink?  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?   What sort of thinking dominates an alcoholic who repeats time after time the desperate experiment of the first drink?

We who have suffered this alcoholic torture MUST BELIEVE – That the body of an Alcoholic is quite as abnormal as his mind. (Why does he do it? Of what is he thinking?)

We have an allergy to Alcohol. It deteriorates the body of an Alcoholic & warps his mind.  It explains many things for which we cannot otherwise account.  Alcoholics have one symptom in common:  They cannot start drinking without developing phenomenon of craving.  Alcoholism is a disease, not a moral issue: We had been drinking as a result of a compulsion and sobriety is not a matter of willpower.

The great fact is just this, and nothing less.  If you are alcoholic as we were, we believe there is no middle of the road solution.  We were in a position where life was becoming impossible and if we had passed into the region from which there is no return through human aid we had but two alternatives.  One was to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as best we could; and the other to accept spiritual help.  We are not here to instruct you on religion but to let God demonstrate through us what he can do.

a)  We were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives.             
b)  Probably no human power could have relived our alcoholism.
c)  God could and would if He were sought. 

More About Alcoholism

We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness. Over any considerable period we get worse, never better.  We have  tried every imaginable remedy.  In some instances there has been brief recovery, followed always by a still worse relapse.  Physicians who are familiar with alcoholism agree there is no such thing as making a normal drinker out of an alcoholic.

Despite all we can say, many who are real alcoholics are not going to believe they are in that class.  By every form of self-deception and experimentation, they will try to prove themselves exceptions to the rule, therefore nonalcoholic.

Here are some of the methods we have tried: Drinking beer only, limiting the number of drinks, never drinking alone, never drinking in the morning, drinking only at home, never having it in the house, never drinking during business hours, drinking only at parties, switching from scotch to brandy, drinking only natural wines, agreeing to resign if ever drunk on the job, taking a trip, not taking a trip, swearing off forever (with and without a solemn oath), taking more physical exercise, reading inspirational books, going to health farms and sanitariums, accepting voluntary commitment to asylums we could increase the list ad infinitum.

  This site will be adding a new page called Miracles..If you have a recovery miracle you would like to share
         please e-mail us at;  miracles@aawebpage.com

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Merry go round named denial


                                
                                                     Hazelden thought for the day. 


                            
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