Recovery shortcuts? There aren't any. The program is the 12 steps

       As nice as some things sound in meetings much of what gets said in meetings may seem like it could be the program but is not. The literature is very clear about what to do. The program is the 12 steps. Much of the work, while simple to understand, is not easy to do. Some of the 12 steps require great effort on our part. There are no shortcuts to being a recovered alcoholic.

Here is a list of some of the ideas or suggestions I've heard in meetings that don't line up with with the Alcoholics Anonymous program of recovery found in the Big Book or 12 and 12.


* I just don't drink one day at a time even if my ass falls off.

* I just do what works for me.

* I just need to go to meetings, not drink in between, and talk about what's going on with me.

* 10 minutes of Buddhist meditation each day is my answer.

* I need to learn how to accept life on life's terms.

* I just need to learn to stay in the now.

* I just don't drink no matter what.

* I do whatever I need to do to stay sober today.

* I just need to play the tape back before I take that first drink

* I just need to remember my last drunk.

None of these things are the AA program of recovery. They all imply that sobriety / recovery is a matter of self control or will power. This is not the case at all. The program is NOT about developing self control. It's about developing a conscious contact with a Power Greater to get recovery. AA specifically says on pg. 30 of the Big Book. "We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking"

The above ideas may help some people not drink for awhile but for real alcoholics these are only band-aids or stop gap measures and don't address the root of the problem - the mental obsession part of alcoholism. AA says, throughout the literature, that relief of the mental obsession (or insanity of the first drink) is obtained through access to a Power Greater than oneself by working the 12 steps.

In the chapter "More about Alcoholism" the description of the mental obsession part of alcoholism is repeated over and over with a few stories thrown in to illustrate how it may manifest in an alcoholics life. Then the very last paragraph of that chapter states again the point they've been making. I'll quote it here.


Once more: The alcoholic at certain times has no effective mental defense against the first drink. Except in a few rare cases, neither he nor any other human being can provide such a defense. His defense must come from a Higher Power. 

AA Big Book Pg. 43 chapter "More about Alcoholism"