After 21 years of sobriety and about 14 devoted to the program in the book I have found out a simple fact. That there is one program, one common solution (bottom of page 17).
AA fellowship is actually not nearly as effective as it once was. Having been to many thousands of meetings over the years and continuing to attend, it is all too obvious that the message from our basic text, the book Alcoholics Anonymous, is being lost. Unfortunately the message heard these days in many meetings and groups is quite a lot different than the one that was heard in the early days. So much extra and inaccurate information is flooding the fellowship that new, real alcoholics rarely get to hear the simple message of the program found in the book. Many of these non AA ideas come from treatment centers and many are party lines that somehow got started in the fellowship over the years. Many of these one liners go against some of the fundamental ideas found in the Big Book. For instance: "we just don't drink no matter what" and "It's a selfish program" or "I just choose not to drink today". These are contradictory to the program and don't help real alcoholics recover.
AA says that real alcoholics cannot control their drinking. That was my experience. I lost control. If I could control it I would not need a program. Any idea or advice that urges self control or using ones own mind to fight the illness is really not AA. AA's say they have lost choice and will power is gone concerning booze.
For newcomers there are some good tips for not drinking found in the "Living Sober" book, but this book explicitly starts by stating it does not contain a program of recovery, it simply gives tips for not drinking; hopefully while the alcoholics is doing the steps from the AA book.
The program is simple, but you'll rarely hear it summarized like this. Here it is in a few bullet points.
1)The authors of the Big Book, who considered themselves hopeless chronic alcoholics, found they were powerless to sustain abstinence themselves. They could not quit for good and all on their own will power. Nor could they quit using the power of other people. Will power was lost for them. They lost the choice in drink. No matter what they'd drink again even after honestly trying to stop (see more about alcoholism in the AA book) No doctor or any other human being could help them stop entirely. (probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism) From the ABC's at the beginning of chapter 5.
2)Dr. Carl Yung found that once in awhile a hopeless/chronic alcoholic would “miraculously” recover and stay sober through a "pyschic change", "spiritual awakening" or a "connection with a Higher Power". He saw these happenings as a phenomenon. A kind of freak occurrence for one out of many hundreds of hopeless drunks.
So AA's solution is just that. Achieve a spiritual awakening and build a relationship with a Higher Power to recover from the illness. (Bill W. never chose to use the word disease)
3)From the Oxford groups it was found that following a set of instructions (the tenets they were called at that time) could bring about this needed psychic change or “spiritual awakening”. An alcoholic could do these things ( follow the directions) and achieve this “miracle” or "gift" of sustained abstinence and serenity from a Higher Power.
Bill W. of course got the basic idea for the steps from the tenets of the Oxford groups and thus the 12 steps were born; a way out from alcoholism. Bill W. borrowed the ideas of the tenets and "customized" them into the
12 steps. The concepts of the steps were not purely original. Bill W. got them from the Oxford group tenets.
That's it in a nutshell, and all this can be found within the first 164 pages of the AA book. Anything else that doesn’t reconcile with the literature is not the program of AA. Keep it simple and we can be free of alcoholism and live happy, joyous and free.
Thanks for reading and please leave feedback or comments. Questions are welcome!
It's a way for me to do "cyber" sponsoring or help non-alcoholics better understand AA.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Trying to fight the disease yourself? Can it be done? I found out no.
I wish I could have put my mind to it and just “kept up my guard” to obtain freedom from the disease and the permanent sobriety I now have, (17 years) but I could not. My experience was that those intervals of trying to exercise my will power to combat the disease always failed. I could achieve a month, 2 weeks, 45 days, even 6 months once. But ultimately I drank again. Why? Because I have alcoholism and I found it’s very nature is the sufferers inability to “keep his guard up” and use his own mind to combat the disease. I found I was “powerless” in my ability to choose. I had become alcoholic and could no longer safely use alcohol and control my use of it. Yes I could use my will power and keep my guard up for awhile, but those intervals were always short lived and what I did build up in terms of health, finance and romance was almost always lost.
If you find you cannot control your drinking and drink again, there is a way out I personally know to work. Not only have a I kept sober for 17 years but I have a new life, a new way of living. I no longer have to shield myself from booze, be careful about where I go or who I see. I haven’t had to keep my guard up for quite a long while. How? The spiritual program of AA.
If you find you cannot control your drinking and drink again, there is a way out I personally know to work. Not only have a I kept sober for 17 years but I have a new life, a new way of living. I no longer have to shield myself from booze, be careful about where I go or who I see. I haven’t had to keep my guard up for quite a long while. How? The spiritual program of AA.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
The 7 deadly Sins on Wikipedia
Historical and modern definitions of the deadly sins
Lust
Main article: Lust
Lust or lechery (carnal "luxuria") is usually thought of as excessive thoughts or desires of a sexual nature. Aristotle's criterion was excessive love of others, which therefore rendered love and devotion to God as secondary[citation needed]. In Dante's Purgatorio, the penitent walks within flames to purge himself of lustful/sexual thoughts and feelings. In Dante's "Inferno", unforgiven souls of the sin of lust are blown about in restless hurricane-like winds symbolic of their own lack of self control to their lustful passions in earthly life.Extravagance
Main article: Extravagance
Extravagance (Latin, luxuria) is unrestrained excess. Extravagant behaviour includes the frequent purchase of luxury goods and forms of debauchery.In the Romance languages, the cognates of luxuria (the Latin name of the sin) evolved to have an exclusively sexual meaning; the Old French cognate was adopted into English as luxury, but this lost its sexual meaning by the 14th century.[9]
Gluttony
Main article: Gluttony
Derived from the Latin gluttire, meaning to gulp down or swallow, gluttony (Latin, gula) is the over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything to the point of waste. In the Christian religions, it is considered a sin because of the excessive desire for food or its withholding from the needy.[10]
Depending on the culture, it can be seen as either a vice or a sign of status. Where food is relatively scarce, being able to eat well might be something to take pride in. But in an area where food is routinely plentiful, it may be considered a sign of self-control to resist the temptation to over-indulge.
Medieval church leaders (e.g., Thomas Aquinas) took a more expansive view of gluttony,[10] arguing that it could also include an obsessive anticipation of meals, and the constant eating of delicacies and excessively costly foods.[11] Aquinas went so far as to prepare a list of six ways to commit gluttony, including:
- Praepropere - eating too soon.
- Laute - eating too expensively.
- Nimis - eating too much.
- Ardenter - eating too eagerly (burningly).
- Studiose - eating too daintily (keenly).
- Forente - eating wildly (boringly).
Greed
Main article: Greed (sin)Greed (Latin, avaritia), also known as avarice or covetousness, is, like lust and gluttony, a sin of excess. However, greed (as seen by the church) is applied to a very excessive or rapacious desire and pursuit of wealth, status, and power. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that greed was "a sin against God, just as all mortal sins, in as much as man condemns things eternal for the sake of temporal things." In Dante's Purgatory, the penitents were bound and laid face down on the ground for having concentrated too much on earthly thoughts. "Avarice" is more of a blanket term that can describe many other examples of greedy behavior. These include disloyalty, deliberate betrayal, or treason,[citation needed] especially for personal gain, for example through bribery. Scavenging[citation needed] and hoarding of materials or objects, theft and robbery, especially by means of violence, trickery, or manipulation of authority are all actions that may be inspired by greed. Such misdeeds can include simony, where one profits from soliciting goods within the actual confines of a church.
As defined outside of Christian writings, greed is an inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth.[12]
Sloth
Main article: Sloth (deadly sin)
Over time, the "acedia" in Pope Gregory's order has come to be closer in meaning to sloth (Latin, Socordia). The focus came to be on the consequences of acedia rather than the cause, and so, by the 17th century, the exact deadly sin referred to was believed to be the failure to utilize one's talents and gifts.[citation needed] Even in Dante's time there were signs of this change; in his Purgatorio he had portrayed the penance for acedia as running continuously at top speed.The modern view goes further, regarding laziness and indifference as the sin at the heart of the matter. Since this contrasts with a more willful failure to, for example, love God and his works, sloth is often seen as being considerably less serious than the other sins, more a sin of omission than of commission.
Acedia
Main article: Acedia
Acedia (Latin, acedia) (from Greek ακηδία) is the neglect to take care of something that one should do. It is translated to apathetic listlessness; depression without joy. It is similar to melancholy, although acedia describes the behaviour, while melancholy suggests the emotion producing it. In early Christian thought, the lack of joy was regarded as a wilful refusal to enjoy the goodness of God and the world God created; by contrast, apathy was considered a refusal to help others in time of need.When Thomas Aquinas described acedia in his interpretation of the list, he described it as an uneasiness of the mind, being a progenitor for lesser sins such as restlessness and instability. Dante refined this definition further, describing acedia as the failure to love God with all one's heart, all one's mind and all one's soul; to him it was the middle sin, the only one characterised by an absence or insufficiency of love.
Despair
 | This section requires expansion. |
Wrath
Main article: Anger
Wrath (Latin, ira), also known as anger or "rage", may be described as inordinate and uncontrolled feelings of hatred and anger. Anger, in its purest form, presents with self-destructiveness, violence, and hate that may provoke feuds that can go on for centuries. Anger may persist long after the person who did another a grievous wrong is dead. Feelings of anger can manifest in different ways, including impatience, revenge, and vigilantism.Wrath is the only sin not necessarily associated with selfishness or self-interest (although one can of course be wrathful for selfish reasons, such as jealousy, closely related to the sin of envy). Dante described vengeance as "love of justice perverted to revenge and spite". In its original form, the sin of wrath also encompassed anger pointed internally rather than externally. Thus suicide was deemed as the ultimate, albeit tragic, expression of wrath directed inwardly, a final rejection of God's gifts.
Envy
Main article: Envy
Like greed, Envy (Latin, invidia) may be characterized by an insatiable desire; they differ, however, for two main reasons:- First, greed is largely associated with material goods, whereas envy may apply more generally.
- Second, those who commit the sin of envy resent that another person has something they perceive themselves as lacking, and wish the other person to be deprived of it.
Pride
Main article: Pride
In almost every list Pride (Latin, superbia), or hubris, is considered the original and most serious of the seven deadly sins, and the source of the others. It is identified as a desire to be more important or attractive than others, failing to acknowledge the good work of others, and excessive love of self (especially holding self out of proper position toward God). Dante's definition was "love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one's neighbour." In Jacob Bidermann's medieval miracle play, Cenodoxus, pride is the deadliest of all the sins and leads directly to the damnation of the titulary famed Parisian doctor. In perhaps the best-known example, the story of Lucifer, pride (his desire to compete with God) was what caused his fall from Heaven, and his resultant transformation into Satan. In Dante's Divine Comedy, the penitents were forced to walk with stone slabs bearing down on their backs to induce feelings of humility.Vainglory
Main article: Vanity
Vainglory (Latin, vanagloria) is unjustified boasting. Pope Gregory viewed it as a form of pride, so he folded vainglory into pride for his listing of sins.The Latin term gloria roughly means boasting, although its English cognate - glory - has come to have an exclusively positive meaning; historically, vain roughly meant futile, but by the 14th century had come to have the strong narcissistic undertones, of irrelevant accuracy, that it retains today.[14] As a result of these semantic changes, vainglory has become a rarely used word in itself, and is now commonly interpreted as referring to vanity (in its modern narcissistic sense).
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