Working the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous

I was contemplating the reason for almost 80 years of successful recovery for AA members. I wanted to make a simple Hub that really got to the heart of the matter as I see it from over 23 years in recovery. The thing about us human beings is that we stand with open jaws when something simple is revealed to us; that is to say, we cannot accept something that is simple in most cases. Most of us need it to be complicated before it seems real.

I have a really great friend in my home group who has 20 plus years sober and he has some saying`s that I love. The saying he has is that there are three truths; your truth which is BS, my truth which is questionable, and the true truth. He goes on to explain these true truths like this: True truth number one: There is nothing so bad that a drink won`t make it worse. True truth number two:  If you always do what you have always done than you always get what you have always got. True truth number three: If you want recovery it’s the steps, it’s the steps, it’s the steps, why….just because it is.

The point of my friend’s sayings is that good old fashion step work is the real simple secret of recovery. In the 80`s and 90`s recovery almost became cool.  There were movies like “My Name is Bill W” and “28 days,” that came out depicting a life of recovery. The other trend that transpired was the advent of recovery houses and treatment centers. There was an explosion of knowledge and science behind the physical and physiological aspects of addiction; these trends led many to think that knowledge is power and is the key to recovery. The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous plainly addresses the issue of knowledge and how futile it is in regard to helping the addict or alcoholic stay clean and sober.

If knowledge were the key many would have found sobriety long before the founding of the fellowship of AA.  Doctors such as William Silkworth would have been able to sober up a drunk simply by educating them about the allergy concept. It makes sense that if you k now that you are allergic to a substance that you would not ingest it, does it not? No so for the alcoholic and addict who consumes these substances no matter what the Dr. may say.

Dr. Silkworth found in his study of alcoholics that the only patients who seemed to be able to break the cycle of craving where those who had some sort of a spiritual experience; moreover, he saw this very experience happen to Bill Wilson while in his care. This is the only real answer for the alcoholic and addict, a spiritual experience, a change in their very being from within.

In short, this is the very nature of the Big Book and it`s instructions on how to work and live within the 12 steps. Each step is a baby step toward a spiritual awakening which will transform the alcoholic into what is described as the fourth dimension; a spiritual dimension that brings lasting peace and recovery from alcoholism and addiction.

There are those who find God and recovery through the Church or through Christ; however, those cases are few and far between. In my 20 plus years of sitting in meetings and working with other alcoholics and addicts I have seen some individuals who found recovery in this manner. As a Christian myself, it is not that Christ cannot heal the alcoholic or addict, it is that we will not let him in to do so. This is not about Christianity by any means, the God of your understanding may be quite different than mine and that is ok. The point is that the 12 steps will guide those who are willing toward a spiritual awaking and a physic change that will bring them back from the hell they once lived in daily.

Find a member in your home group who has worked these steps, and open your mind to the 70 plus years of success these steps have behind them. Open your heart and mind to the possibility that millions of people who have worked these steps have become clean and sober, are they all wrong?

God bless you on your road to recovery.