The importance of AA service and it's role in recovery from alcoholism.

As a long timer AA member I just continue to follow the simple directions of the AA program to stay recovered from alcoholism. It will always be important for me to maintain by recovery through the daily practice of steps 10 and 11 along with step 12 as often as is reasonably possible. As we read in the AA Book, the practice of step 12 is important for long term recovery.

In my early days, AA service work was an entry into the selfless effort of doing step 12. Why is step 12 work so important? Simply because the people who wrote our basic text, the book "Alcoholics Anonymous" say it is. They wrote an entire chapter on working with others and state this at the beginning of the chapter.

Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when other activities fail. This is our twelfth suggestion: Carry this message to other alcoholics! You can help when no one else can. You can secure their confi­dence when others fail. Remember they are very ill.

A great way many new members can start on step 12 and work toward sponsorship is to take an AA group service commitment. Many commitments are usually available in meetings of the fellowship. One experienced AA member has been heard making this statement. "It seems about 5% of AA members do 100% of the service work.

Taking an AA service commitment, being serious about it, honoring it and understanding it's a privilege.

 

Let's take a look at some of the great benefits of AA fellowship service.

1) It is an excellent way to start in practicing the 12th step. And as the Big Book says this is ACTION that works when all other measures fail.

2) If the commitment is a secretary or chairperson position it is providing the vital service of making an AA meeting available for those still struggling. In meetings all over the world there are alcoholics looking for help. Many of them may be going to their first AA meeting. If you have made a commitment to be a chairperson it is just that - a commitment for a certain amount of time. It should be taken seriously as it is providing a VITAL service: Holding an AA meeting. It is a commitment to do service for an AA group. If one is serious about practicing the program these commitments should not be taken lightly. They should be a priority in ones life. Why? Because step 12 is vitally important to maintain our connection with God and receive the gift of relief from the insanity of the first drink. Another important consideration is that making an AA meeting available could literally save a persons life. Alcoholism is a deadly illness and making good AA meetings available could be a matter of life or death for real alcoholics looking for help.

3) AA service is a privilege. It is the privilege of taking selfless action and the opportunity "do as we think he would have us and humbly rely on him" (page 68 Big Book). The fundamental principle of spirituality the AA way is selfless action. 12th step work is nothing but selfless action and serving God and those about us. In this way we can maintain and grow our spiritual condition and continue to be given relief from alcoholism and a way to live sober.

Service complacency and the pitfalls of being lazy or irresponsible in AA service. Here are a few examples. 

It's seems, from my experience, that a party line we hear in the fellowship is absolutely true. That a large number of people who relapse let the life AA gave them get in the way of AA service and practice of the 12 step program. AA members who take service commitments and don't follow through are doing a disservice. Not only to themselves but worse yet alcoholics still struggling. 

First example could be the group treasurer who is tasked with keeping the accounting of the group but doesn't attend the business meetings regularly to make their reports and irresponsibly loses track of the contributions or is late in paying meeting hall rent and other expenses.

Another example could involve a person who has taken a chairperson position for a certain day at a certain time and every few weeks calls the group secretary or texts the group chat a couple hours before the meeting and leaves a message saying they can't do it. They inconsiderately off load the job of finding a substitute last minute onto the group or group secretary. This is nothing short of inconsiderate and typical alcoholic behavior. This is not practicing spirituality. It is quite the opposite of spiritual behavior. It's self centered. A good group would replace such a person with someone more reliable who takes AA service seriously. A group that allows this kind of casual attitude is allowing an alcoholic to be irresponsible and in essence co-depending alcoholic behavior. Of course everyone has issues and emergencies that come up but consistent tardiness, last minute cancellations or not showing up at all places a burden on the group who's sole purpose is to provide meetings in order to carry the message of AA. Again, it is possible that a particular meeting might mean the difference between life or death for an alcoholic. One can never know just how important a single AA meeting might be.

There are many other forms of skirting AA service commitments but I hope to make it obvious that if one wants recovery the AA way keeping AA a priority in ones life is vitally important. This includes being responsible when taking AA service commitments, doing service courteously and making it a priority.

 

Getting recovered from alcoholism ; the great promise of the AA Book

One of the greatest promises of the AA 12 step program in the AA book (in my humble opinion) is the ability of an alcoholic to become recovered ON the program of AA. In other words, by doing the 12 steps. Below I have extracted a couple of sections of the book which show and illustrate what true recovery from alcoholism looks like - what it's like to be a recovered alcoholic. This is based on the basic concept of AA's solution to alcoholism which brings about recovery. "Spiritual Fitness"

Chapter 7 "Working with Others"

Assuming we are spiritually fit, we can do all sorts of things alcoholics are not supposed to do. People have said we must not go where liquor is served; we must not have it in our homes; we must shun friends who drink; we must avoid moving pictures which show drinking scenes; we must not go into bars; our friends must hide their bottles if we go to their houses; we mustn’t think or be reminded about alcohol at all.
 

Our experience shows that this is not necessarily so. We meet these conditions every day. An alcoholic who cannot meet them, still has an alcoholic mind; there is something the matter with his spiritual status. His only chance for sobriety would be some place like the Greenland Ice Cap, and even there an Eskimo might turn up with a bottle of scotch and ruin every­thing! Ask any woman who has sent her husband to distant places on the theory he would escape the
alcohol problem.
 

In our belief any scheme of combating alcoholism which proposes to shield the sick man from temptation is doomed to failure. If the alcoholic tries to shield
himself he may succeed for a time, but he usually winds up with a bigger explosion than ever. We have tried these methods. These attempts to do the im­possible have always failed.

The 10th Step promises (also a good description of the recovered alcoholic).

And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone even alcohol. For by this time sanity will have re­turned. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame. We react sanely and normally, and we will find that this has happened automatically. We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it. We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. We feel as though we had been placed in a position of neutrality—safe and
protected. We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. We are neither cocky nor are we afraid. That is our
experience. That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition.

Anyone new to the AA program might ask themselves at this point. How do I get spiritually fit? Well, there is a simple answer you might not expect. Do the 12 steps with a good sponsor who uses the AA book and Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions book to take you through the steps.

My humble advice for anyone looking to recover from alcoholism the AA way

For anyone looking to recover from alcoholism the AA way.

 In my humble experience it's a very good idea to read (even better to study) the AA book Alcoholics Anonymous and also go to meetings for any alcoholic looking to get recovery from the fatal illness. My advice is to stick with official AA literature. It is time tested and works. There are many authors seeking to profit from publishing their own recovery books that, in my experience, are a distortion of the true program outlined in the good old AA basic texts.

  Some meetings have many people with good intentions but alot of them don't take the time to really study the literature of the fellowship - the book "Alcoholics Anonymous" and the book "Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions".

  The best thing that ever happened to me is the day I stumbled upon a man who was in a meeting of AA when I was floundering in recovery. I was not drinking but not very happy and still creating some wreckage and making life a bit difficult for some people. I was still practicing some character defects - being selfish.

At the time I had no sponsor so I asked this fellow in that meeting to sponsor me. I liked him. His sharing was no nonsense and was different than the usual. He bought me a a large text AA book and told me that if I wanted his help that we were going to study it. I was confused at first. I said "hey Greg, I can see fine, I don't need a large text book. I already have an AA book. He told me. I didn't buy you this book because your sight is bad, it's because you are gonna write in the margins when we study it. So, that's what we did weekly for about 6 months. It was a huge turning point in my life; all for the better. In that time I found out something kind of embarrassing. I had been going to AA meetings and had four sponsors and didn't really know the AA program up to that point. Now I feel I have a pretty good understanding and have been much more effective at sponsorship. In fact I never did have any success at sponsorship until after studying the AA book.

The basic texts of the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous

 

For anyone who has happened to find my blog here please understand this about the AA 12 step program. In my experience the below statements are true.

The AA 12 step program for recovery from alcoholism is outlined and described in the Book "Alcoholics Anonymous" and it's companion text "The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions". These books were painstakingly written to be as accurate as possible in communicating the simple and practical AA 12 step program of action. They were written to save the lives of alcoholics willing enough to do the 12 step program described in them. 

Alcoholism is a serious illness and most alcoholics left untreated die early deaths. The original authors understood this and wrote a historic text which is the first 164 pages of the AA book. They wrote it as thoroughly and as accurately as possible to describe the program they had found which gave them recovery from alcoholism. This portion of the AA book has not been changed since it's first publication in 1939. It is a piece of history and considered as such.

Therefore, it is recommended in most good AA meetings that anyone looking for a solution to their alcoholism thoroughly study this literature. Anyone with alcoholism who studies the program contained in the AA book can recover from alcoholism using the simple program contained inside if they choose to do it.

Is AA a "We Program"?

 

Is the 12 step program of AA a "We" program?

It's often heard in some AA meetings that AA is a "We" program. As an AA literature enthusiast I find that this is a misleading party line.

First it should be understood by anyone who wants to practice the AA program correctly, as designed and written in the AA book, that meetings are not the AA program. Meetings are the fellowship. The program is the 12 steps. This is plainly stated in "How it Works" read at the beginning of most every AA meeting. In "How it Works" it says "Here are the steps we took which are suggested as a program of recovery". So the 12 steps are the program. Meetings are the fellowship. Two very separate things. The AA book specifically lays out the 12 step practical program of action to give recovery from alcoholism. Nowhere in the book does it say meetings of the fellowship give recovery.

 So, with that in mind let's look at how the AA 12 step program isn't a "we program".

It is simple. The AA 12 steps have to be completed by the alcoholic themselves - nobody can do it for them. People in the AA fellowship cannot do it for them. It does not make sense to call it a "we" program for this simple fact. "We" cannot do the AA program together. For example "we" cannot do a fourth step together. Every alcoholic must individually do their own 4th step inventory. This is true for ALL the steps. They have to be done by the individual. In the 5th step we ask someone to "hear" our 4th step but it is the individual alcoholics 4th step. The other person involved usually just listens and is not doing the step. Same goes for the 9th step amends. The alcoholic who does 9th step amends must do that work themselves. Other people are involved but they receive the amends. They do not do the step.

I can only speculate about how this party line started. My opinion it is that more than likely the majority of people who frequent AA meetings do not take the time to study the AA book. They look at the steps on the wall and make assumptions and make their own conclusions about what they mean. Many of these summaries use the word "We" so people conclude it must be a "We" program.

In reality the steps put on window shades or placards in brick and mortar AA meetings are summaries of the steps. Those summaries do not contain enough information for anyone to complete the steps. Any AA Book enthusiast knows that there are specific instructions in the AA book that, when followed, can give an alcoholic recovery from alcoholism.