Alcoholism Support Group

Alcoholism is the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages, even when it is negatively affecting your health, work, relationships and life. If you think alcohol is causing you to lose control, it's time to seek help. Our group is a safe place to vent, check in, get back up if you fall, and reach sobriety.

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gjm 01/15/2010

The achievement of freedom from fear
is a lifetime undertaking,
one that can never be wholly completed.
When under heavy attack, acute illness,
or in other conditions of serious insecurity,
we shall all react to this emotion --
well or badly, as the case may be.
Only the self-deceived will claim perfect freedom from fear.
Bill W., Grapevine, January 1962
c. 1967 AAWS, As Bill Sees It, p. 263
^*^*^*^*^

Thought to Consider . . .
Courage is the willingness to accept fear and act anyway.

drafter 01/15/2010

Progress not perfection. I am thankful for my progress, I am hopeful I will keep growing, and I will never achieve perfection, and that's okay.

deleted_user 01/15/2010

If human beings were fearless, we wouldn't need God.

God has removed my irrational fears but fearless? I only believed that delusion when I was drinking!

deleted_user 01/15/2010

Gim, I still have lots of fear. Not the same as when I was drinking,but still there. I ask everyday to relieve my fear and it does lesson each day. I am glad for that and grateful

gjm 01/15/2010

mark are disease is fear based, just a suggestion ever thought of revisiting the 3rd step? That's my exp.

deleted_user 01/15/2010

Frank Buchman (of the Oxford Group) taught Bill W. that the basis for almost every problem humans have is fear. So Bill took that concept into his program. I didn't drink my first beer because I was afraid. I then drank because it made me feel better than I already felt. Not because of fear or guilt or low self-esteem or sex or any of the other items Bill put into the Big Book.

AA gave me a jumping off point, a place to meet and identify with others. And it is a very workable program of self-awareness and teaches to be good to others. It teaches introspection and humility.

But I work my own program, nobody else's program. I don't claim spiritual perfection and though the text says AA doesn't either, many of the adherents do. Fear has little to do with my shortcomings. That's my NSHO.

deleted_user 01/15/2010

Wow, that was part of my conversation with my sponsor today and it so true. Thanks for the food for thought.

deleted_user 01/15/2010

Courage is not freedom from fear, but rather having fear and walking through it anyway.

Faith in one's self and a power greater than one's self is always helpful.

deleted_user 01/15/2010

Yes F.E.A.R - ie Face Everything and Recover, of F#$k Everything and Run. It is a natural human drive or instinct, but as it says on the first page of the Fourth Step in the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions, alcoholics take thei natural human instincts and then explode them out many times their naturual size. And the AA program get our natural instincts closer to right size. Closer, mind you, I would never claims to be completely relieved of fear.

deleted_user 01/15/2010

gim, I am doing it now and redoing the 4th. progress not perfection.

deleted_user 01/15/2010

Awwwww... sigh ~ I like I like.. How true.. Thank you for posting G unit.

okiyoe1 01/15/2010

I like this take on fear: False Evidence appearing real .... maybe not across the board ... but much easier than running from it whether emotionality or figuratively... I had to look at what caused these unresolved issues...And see if there were real or just protecting something. I always heard trust in God for things big, little , confusing or just plan ol illogical.
Billy

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