Can AA Help?
Before we came to AA, we could not stop drinking, no matter what we did. We limited the number of drinks, never drinking alone, never drinking in the morning, drinking only at home, never having it in the house, never drinking during business hours, drinking only at parties, switching our drinks (e.g. from scotch to brandy), only drinking wine or beer, swearing off forever (with or without a solemn oath!), doing more physical exercise, reading inspirational books, going to doctors, psychologists and counselors (but never telling them the truth), voluntarily going into detox and treatment centres… we could increase the list forever. If you have ever tried to control your drinking and have been unsuccessful, then AA can help.
We do not like to pronounce any individual as alcoholic, but you can quickly diagnose yourself.
When we were finally beaten, we walked through the doors of AA and suddenly found a solution to contented, happy sobriety! We found people just like ourselves… people who could not stop drinking (and STAY stopped) on their own. We learned that alcoholism is an illness — we are not bad people trying to be good, we are sick people trying to get well. We listened to other people’s stories of what it was like while they were drinking, what happened to them, and what their life is like now. We found that no matter how far down we thought we have gone, or how many problems have piled up on us, now there is hope for us too. We eventually asked someone to be our “sponsor”, to guide us one-on-one through the 12 Steps. As we worked our way through the AA program (sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly), we found that we too could live happy, purposeful lives without drinking… one day at a time.
We of AA are happy to share with you the solution we have found to the seemingly hopeless state of mind and body that is alcoholism. If you have a problem with drinking, try attending some AA meetings. See if it will work for you as it has for us.
12 Questions Only You Can Answer
Only you can decide whether you want to give AA a try – to ascertain whether or not you think it can help you. We who are in AA 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 AA 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.