Unity: As Found in the Circle and Triangle
Unity is found in the Fellowship and the part of the disease it treats is the BODY. With a set of Principles called the TWELVE TRADITIONS.
Recovery: As Found in the Circle and Triangle
Recovery is found in the first 164 pages of The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. The part of the disease it treats is the MIND. Through a set of Twelve Spiritual Principles called the TWELVE STEPS.
Isolation
If I feel isolated in AA, it is not something for which others are responsible. It is something I’ve created by feeling I’m “different” in some way. Today I practice just being another alcoholic in the worldwide Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous.
-Daily Reflections, P. 58
An NA Message from Dwayne M.
Preface to the First Edition
“The full fruit of the labor of love lives in the harvest, and that always comes in its right season…”
The material for this book has been drawn from the personal experience of addicts within the fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous.
Pg. xxi
“Being a member of Narcotics Anonymous” – In the beginning this statement really helped me to understand that recovery is a process and not an event. Reading that first sentence and knowing that people had been where I had been, lived like I lived, done what I had done, and felt what I had felt, gave me that first bit of Hope that was needed to help me to keep reading the literature.
Dwayne M., La Hacienda, Inquiry Call Center
We Do Recover
“When at the end of the road we find that we can no longer function as a human being, either with or without drugs, we all face the same dilemma. What is there left to do? There seems to be this alternative: either go on as best we can to the bitter end (jails, institutions or death) or find a new way to live. In year’s gone by, very few addicts ever had this last choice. Those who are addicted today are more fortunate. For the first time in man’s entire history, a simple way has been proving itself in the lives of many addicts. It is available to us all. This is a simple spiritual, not religious, program known as Narcotics Anonymous.”
Narcotics Anonymous: Basic Text, Chapter 8, page 87
Thanks Dwayne in our Inquiry Call office for sharing!!
Characteristics of Adult Children of Alcoholics
Common characteristics include (see article for complete list):
Adult children guess what normal behaior is.
Adult children judge themselves without mercy.
Adult children have difficulty with intimate relationships.
The impact of alcoholism and addiction creates a ripple effect throughout an entire family. The good news is Recovery can do the same. If you are experiencing some of this in your life there are 12 Step programs to help.
Alanon, www.alanon.org; Adult Children of Alcoholics, www.adultchildren.org; Codependents Anonymous, www.coda.org
"Rationalization is giving a socially acceptable reason for socially unacceptable behavior, and socially unacceptable behavior is a form of insanity."
— Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, pg. 550
The Set-Aside Prayer
“Dear God, please set aside anything I think I know about myself, about my disease, about the Big Book, the 12 Steps, the Program, the Fellowship, the people in the fellowship, and all spiritual terms, especially you God; so that I may have an open mind and a new experience with all these things. Please help me see the Truth. Amen”
“The Set-Aside Prayer” (sometimes referred to as the “Lay-Aside Prayer”), as stated here, is not word-for-word stated in the Big Book; but statements and ideas that have inspired the prayer can be found in the Big Book on the pages given below and are highlighted in bold font. The words used above, excluding those in the brackets, comprise the prayer in its purest form. Feel free to adapt or modify the bracketed words as needed. Our spiritual advisors have found that this prayer seems to have a profound affect when used while taking someone through Steps 1 and 2 out of the Big Book. Page 42, ¶ 2: “But the program of action, though entirely sensible, was pretty drastic. It meant I would have to throw several lifelong conceptions out of the window.” Page 46, ¶ 1: “We found that as soon as we were able to lay aside prejudice and express even a willingness to believe in a Power greater than ourselves, we commenced to get results…” Page 47, ¶ 1: “When, therefore, we speak to you of God, we mean your own conception of God. This applies, too, to other spiritual expressions which you find in this book. Do not let any prejudice you may have against spiritual terms deter you from honestly asking yourself what they mean to you.” Page 47, ¶ 4: “Besides a seeming inability to accept much on faith, we often found ourselves handicapped by obstinacy, sensitiveness, and unreasoning prejudice. Many of us have been so touchy that even casual reference to spiritual things make us bristle with antagonism. This sort of thinking had to be abandoned. Though some of us resisted, we found no great difficulty in casting aside such feelings. Faced with alcoholic destruction, we soon became as open minded on spiritual matters as we had tried to be on other questions. In this respect alcohol was a great persuader. It finally beat us into a state of reasonableness. Sometimes this was a tedious process;we hope no one else will as prejudiced for as long as some of us were.” Page 49, ¶ 2: “We, who have traveled this dubious path, beg you to lay aside prejudice, even against organized religion.” Page 58, ¶ 3: “Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely.”
(Source: barefootsworld.net)
Step One
Having trouble with the First Step? Relax. All the program asks is enough honesty to get started—just what we are capable of that moment. At the beginning, that’s very little honesty. Each day, there will be a little more. It will come. Because, you see, the AA program works for anyone who wants it.
-Best of the Grapevine [Vol. 2], p.34
