January 2020- Editorial
Audio Version
"Acceptance was the answer." (BB p.407) This story in the Big Book highlights to me the fact that nothing changed in my own drinking until I could start to accept that I had a problem with alcohol and that problem was out of my control. Like many of us I was in constant denial about this problem and therefore any form of acceptance was impossible. What changed for me? Very simply, going to meetings! At meetings I heard others share openly and very honestly about their drinking and the similarities shared beat all of my denials. I started to see how alcohol was dominating my life, how my drinking was out of control and how my thoughts that alcohol was my helper were false thoughts.
So, Dear Reader, if you are new to AA or on your way back we encourage you to keep coming to meetings, to have that same opportunity to see your world from a different viewpoint, a viewpoint different to our Alki heads.
Starting to accept that we have a problem the next step may be asking for help, something us alcoholics are often reluctant to do. Asking for help may be a call to our AA helpline or using the AA online chat or email help service.
Many of us then made the often scary decision to go to a meeting. The important thing was that it was our decision, no one else could do this for us. Sitting with these strangers, a totally new experience, we heard those similarities and some of us, for the first time started to accept the truth rather than the false, that our drinking was out of control.
Our recovery then started with that First Step, "..admitting we were powerless and that our lives had become unmanageable."