PDF Summary:Alcoholics Anonymous: The Big Book, by AAWS

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The problem of addiction is hard enough that it’s good to have a variety of treatment options, and for patients to try a bunch out and choose the one that works for them.

Is Alcoholics Anonymous a Cult?

There’s plenty of criticism of AA as operating like a cult. From our reading of the Big Book, AA’s principles seem relatively benign. The idealized version of an AA group seems to be secular and accepting of a diverse range of people.

The commonly known requirement of “belief in a higher power” bothers people who believe medical treatment should be secular. The Big Book makes pretty clear this does not require the Christian conception of God. An AA member puts it in a secular...

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This craving can be baffling to alcoholics. They are utterly unable to leave alcohol alone, no matter how strongly they consciously want to quit.

• This craving is not a matter of willpower. Most alcoholics have lost the power of choice in drink. Willpower is basically nonexistent as it relates to alcohol.
• Alcoholics can be otherwise sensible and well-balanced in life. They may have willpower in most other areas of life. They may have special abilities, a promising career, and a lot to lose from drinking. But they cannot help destroying all this for a drink.

This craving is hard to understand for people who don’t feel it. Moderate drinkers often think of alcoholics, “these people are weak. I can take or leave alcohol—why can’t he?” Moderate drinkers don’t have this problem of an uncontrollable craving.

Similarly, alcoholics don’t want to think of themselves as constitutionally different from other people. Therefore, they try to prove they can drink like other people. They obsess over the idea that one day, he’ll be able to control his drinking and enjoy it from time to time. They try desperately to moderate their drinking: they drink beer only, drink only with...

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Largely speaking, the steps fall into three themes:

• Steps 1-5: Acceptance and Soul-Searching—you accept the principles of the program, and you make a complete list of your shortcomings.
• Steps 6-9: Righting Past Wrongs—you seek to remove your shortcomings, and you make amends with people you’ve hurt in the past.
• Steps 10-12: An Ongoing Process—having overcome your past, you go into the future, seeking to continue improving yourself and becoming an agent of good by helping others.

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Step 3

“We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.”

Step 3 is the step of surrender. You turn your individual will over to a higher power. You have faith that the higher power will help you recover.

The Big Book has this specific phrasing: “God, I offer myself to Thee–to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life. May I do Thy will always!”

Step 4

“We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.”

This is soul-searching. As if you owned a retail store, do an inventory of yourself. Find the damaged and unsellable goods—search for your flaws that cause your failure when drinking. These are the flaws that drive you to drink—your anger, guilt, resentment, and other emotions.

Freeing yourself of these flaws means freeing yourself of the need to drink. If you become sorry for what you’ve done, and you have an honest desire to become better, you’ll be forgiven and avoid the guilt that drives people to...

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In Step 8, you make a list of all people you’ve harmed and become willing to make amends. You don’t need to make amends yet—you just need to be prepared to do so.

You can consult your moral inventory, which you made in Step 4 and confessed in Step 5, for a list of people.

If you aren’t willing yet, ask your higher power for the will until it comes. Remember that you were willing to go to any length to recover from your alcoholism.

Step 9

“We made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.”

After you make your list in Step 8, your goal is to correct your mistake directly with the people you hurt. An amendment isn’t just an apology—it’s an act to solve a problem from the past.

The Big Book gives these recommendations for how to make amends:

• Approach with a sincere desire to set right the wrong. Say that you’ll never get over drinking until you’ve straightened out the past completely. You have now changed as a human being.
• Don’t approach and say you’ve gone religious. You risk being branded a religious fanatic and not being taken seriously. Use your behavior in the moment to convince them that you’re...

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In Step 11, you discover the plan that your higher power has for you, and you gain the will to carry it out.

For spiritual people, this step often involves prayer and meditation. For secular people, this involves stopping and reflecting on your thoughts.

Here’s a simple way of implementing Step 11:

• At the end of the day, review your day constructively. Did you have any shortcomings, like being resentful, afraid, or selfish? Do you need to make amends to anyone? Were you kind towards all? What could you have done better?
• Don’t drift into worry or morbid reflection—this will diminish your usefulness to others. Ask for forgiveness and ask what corrective measures need be taken.
• The next day, on waking, plan your day. Don’t feel any self-pity and don’t have any selfish motives. Pray that you’ll be shown all day what your next step is to be, that you’ll be given whatever you need to take care of such problems.

As you complete these steps, you will feel renewed. Fear and insecurity will leave; ability and peace will replace them. “God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.”

Step 12

“Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps,...

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*   AA Twelve-Step work should never be paid for.

1. “AA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.”
   • Each AA group needs the least organization possible. Having rotating leadership is best.
2. “Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.”
3. “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.”
4. “Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.”

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Give analogies to highlight the foolishness of alcoholic behavior.

• On thinking you can overcome alcoholism, despite many failed attempts: “Our behavior is as absurd and incomprehensible with respect to the first drink as that of an individual with a passion, say, for jay-walking. He gets a thrill out of skipping in front of fast-moving vehicles. He enjoys himself for a few years in spite of friendly warnings. Up to this point you would label him as a foolish chap having queer ideas of fun. Luck then deserts him and he is slightly injured several times in succession. You would expect him, if he were normal, to cut it out. Presently he is hit again and this time has a fractured skull. Within a week after leaving the hospital a fast-moving trolley car breaks his arm. He tells you he has decided to stop jay-walking for good, but in a few weeks he breaks both legs. On through the years this conduct continues, accompanied by his continual promises to be careful or to keep off the streets altogether. Finally, he can no longer work, his wife gets a divorce and he is held up to ridicule. He tries every known means to get the jay-walking idea out of his head. He shuts himself...