The A.A. Preamble
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Copyright © by the AA
Grapevine, Inc.; reprinted with permission.
Alcoholics Anonymous is a
fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength
and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem
and help others to recover from alcoholism.
The only requirement for
membership is a desire to stop drinking.
There are no dues or fees for AA
membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions.
AA is not allied with any sect,
denomination, politics, organization or institution; does not
wish to engage in any controversy, neither endorses nor opposes
any causes.
Our primary purpose is to stay
sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.
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Is A.A. for You?
The material excerpted from the
pamphlet, "Is AA for You?", is reprinted with permission of
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Only you can decide whether you
want to give A.A. a try. Only you can decide whether you think it can help you.
We who are in A.A. came because we
finally gave up trying to control our drinking. We still hated to
admit that we could never drink safely. Then we heard from other
A.A. members that we were sick. (We thought so for years!) We
found out that many people suffered from the same feelings of
guilt and loneliness and hopelessness that we did. We found out
that we had these feelings because we had the disease of
alcoholism.
We decided to try and face up to
what alcohol had done to us. Here are some of the questions we
tried to answer honestly. If we answered YES to four or more
questions, we were in deep trouble with our drinking. See how you
do. Remember, there is no disgrace in facing up to the fact that
you have a problem.
1. Have you ever decided
to stop drinking for a week or so, but only lasted for a couple
of days?
Most of us in A.A. made all kinds
of promises to ourselves and to our families. We could not keep
them. Then we came to A.A. A.A. said: "Just try not to drink
today." (If you do not drink today, you cannot get drunk
today.)
2. Do you wish people
would mind their own business about your drinking - stop telling
you what to do?
In A.A. we do not tell anyone to
do anything. We just talk about our own drinking, the trouble we
got into, and how we stopped. We will be glad to help you, if you
want us to.
3. Have you ever switched
from one kind of drink to another in the hope that this would
keep you from getting drunk?
We tried all kinds of ways. We
made our drinks weak. Or just drank beer. Or we did not drink
cocktails. Or only drank on weekends. You name it, we tried it.
But if we drank anything with alcohol in it, we usually got drunk
eventually.
4. Have you had to have an
eye-opener upon awakening during the past year?
Do you need a drink to get
started, or to stop shaking? This is a pretty sure sign that you
are not drinking "socially."
5. Do you envy people who
can drink without getting into trouble?
At one time or another, most of us
have wondered why we were not like most people, who really can
take it or leave it.
6. Have you had problems
connected with drinking during the past year?
Be honest! Doctors say that if you
have a problem with alcohol and keep on drinking, it will get
worse - never better. Eventually, you will die, or end up in an
institution for the rest of your life. The only hope is to stop
drinking.
7. Has your drinking
caused trouble at home?
Before we came into A.A., most of
us said that it was the people or problems at home that made us
drink. We could not see that our drinking just made everything
worse. It never solved problems anywhere or anytime.
8. Do you ever try to get
"extra" drinks at a party because you do not get
enough?
Most of us used to have a
"few" before we started out if we thought it was going
to be that kind of party. And if drinks were not served fast
enough, we would go some place else to get more.
9. Do you tell yourself
you can stop drinking any time you want to, even though you keep
getting drunk when you don't mean to?
10. Have you missed days
of work or school because of drinking?
Many of us admit now that we
"called in sick" lots of times when the truth was that
we were hung-over or on a drunk.
11. Do you have
"blackouts"?
A "blackout" is when we
have been drinking hours or days which we cannot remember. When
we came to A.A., we found out that this is a pretty sure sign of
alcoholic drinking.
12. Have you ever felt
that your life would be better if you did not drink?
Many of us started to drink
because drinking made life seem better, at least for a while. By
the time we got into A.A., we felt trapped. We were drinking to
live and living to drink. We were sick and tired of being sick
and tired.
What's your score?
Did you answer YES four or more
times? If so, you are probable in trouble with alcohol. Why do we
say this? Because thousands of people in A.A. have said so for
many years. They found out the truth about themselves - the hard
way.
But again, only you can decide
whether you think A.A. is for you. Try to keep an open mind on
the subject. If the answer is YES, we will be glad to show you
how we stopped drinking ourselves. Just call.
A.A. does not promise to solve
your life's problems. But we can show you how we are learning to
live without drinking "one day at a time." We stay away
from that "first drink." If there is no first one,
there cannot be a tenth one. And when we got rid of alcohol, we
found that life became much more manageable.
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How It Works
PDF format
The material excerpted from the
book, Alcoholics Anonymous, is reprinted with permission of
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Rarely have we seen a person fail
who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover
are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to
this simple program, usually men and women who are
constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There
are such unfortunates. They are not a fault; they seem to have
been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and
developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty.
Their chances are less than average. There are those, too, who
suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of
them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest.
Our stories disclose in a general
way what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like
now. If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to
go to any length to get it - then you are ready to take certain
steps.
At some of these we balked. We
thought we could find an easier, softer way. But we could not.
With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be
fearless and thorough from the very start. Some of us have tried
to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let
go absolutely.
Remember that we deal with alcohol
- cunning, baffling, powerful! Without help it is too much for
us. But there is One who has all power - that One is God. May you
find Him now!
Half measures availed us nothing.
We stood at the turning point. We asked His protection and care
with complete abandon.
Here are the steps we took, which
are suggested as a program of recovery:
1. We admitted we were powerless
over alcohol-that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power
greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our
will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless
moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves,
and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God
remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our
shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we
had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such
people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them
or others.
10. Continued to take personal
inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and
meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we
understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and
the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual
awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this
message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all
our affairs.
Many of us exclaimed, "What
an order! I can't go through with it." Do not be
discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything
like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints.
The point is that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines.
The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim
spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.
Our description of the alcoholic,
the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventures before
and after make clear three pertinent ideas:
(a) That we were alcoholic and
could not manage our own lives.
(b) That probably no human power
could have relieved our alcoholism.
(c) That God could and would if He
were sought.
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The 12 Steps
PDF format
The material excerpted from the
book, Alcoholics Anonymous, is reprinted with permission of
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
1. We admitted we were powerless
over alcohol-that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power
greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our
will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless
moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves,
and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God
remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our
shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we
had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such
people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them
or others.
10. Continued to take personal
inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and
meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we
understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and
the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual
awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this
message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all
our affairs.
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The 12 Traditions
PDF format
The material excerpted from the
book, Alcoholics Anonymous, is reprinted with permission of
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
1. Our common welfare should come
first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity.
2. For our group purpose there is
but one ultimate authority--a loving God as He may express
Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted
servants; they do not govern.
3. The only requirement for A.A.
membership is a desire to stop drinking.
4. Each group should be autonomous
except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole.
5. Each group has but one primary
purpose--to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
6. An A.A. group ought never
endorse, finance, or lend the A.A. name to any related facility
or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and
prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7. Every A.A. group ought to be
fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. Alcoholics Anonymous should
remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may
employ special workers.
9. A.A., as such, ought never be
organized; but we may create service boards or committees
directly responsible to those they serve.
10. Alcoholics Anonymous has no
opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be
drawn into public controversy.
11. Our public relations policy is
based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always
maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and
films.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual
foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place
principles before personalities.
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The 9th Step Promises
PDF format
The material excerpted from the
book, Alcoholics Anonymous, is reprinted with permission of
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
If we are painstaking about this
phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half
way through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new
happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door
on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know
peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see
how our experience can benefit others. That feeling uselessness
and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish
things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip
away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear
of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will
intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle
us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we
could not do for ourselves.
Are these extravagant promises? We
think not. They are being fulfilled among us--sometimes quickly,
sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for
them.
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How to
get in touch with A.A.
In the United States and Canada,
most towns and cities have A.A. groups. In such places, A.A. can
be located through the local telephone directory, newspaper
office, or police station, or by contacting local priests or
ministers. In large cities, groups often maintain local offices
where alcoholics or their families may arrange for interviews or
hospitalization. These so-called Intergroup Associations are
found under the listing "A.A." or "Alcoholics
Anonymous" in telephone directories.
At New York, U.S.A., Alcoholics
Anonymous maintains its international service center. This
consists of The General Service Board of A.A. whose Trustees
administer A.A.'s General Service Office, A.A. World Services,
Inc., and our monthly magazine, "The A.A. Grapevine."
If you cannot find A.A. in your
locality, a letter addressed to Alcoholics Anonymous, Box 459,
Grand Central Station, New York, N.Y. 10017, U.S.A., will receive
a prompt reply from this world center, referring you to the
nearest A.A. group. If there is none nearby, you will be invited
to carry on a correspondence which will do much to insure your
sobriety no matter how isolated you are.
Should you be a relative or friend
of an alcoholic who shows no immediate interest in A.A., it is
suggested that you write the Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters,
Inc., 1600 Corporate Landing Parkway, Virginia Beach, VA
23454-5617. You may also call 757 563-1600. This is a world
clearing house for the Al-Anon Family Groups, composed largely of
the wives, husbands and friends of A.A. members. This
headquarters will give the location of the nearest Family Group
and will, if you wish, correspond with you about your special
problems.
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