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.
"When I first came to this Fellowship, I had lost my health and sanity, my friends, much of my family, my self-respect, and my God. In the years since, all of these have been restored to me. I no longer have the sense of impending doom. I no longer wish for death or stare at myself in the mirror with loathing. I have come to terms with my Higher Power (God)."
Alcoholics Anonymous, "Big Book", Fourth Edition; pg. 368
Alcoholics Anonymous, "Big Book", Fourth Edition; pg. 368
I love the Big Book and have often quoted passages from it but when I put myself in the shoes of a person who finds sobriety outside of AA, I have to wonder if such quotes are a help or a hindrance. I know what my own reaction would have been before I stopped drinking if someone had tried to talk to me about spiritual matters, no matter how good their intentions were. The passage below, if I can be excused for quoting it, refers to the family but could be applied more widely:
The spiritual life is not a theory. We have to live it.
Unless ones family expresses a desire to live upon spiritual principles we think we ought not to urge them. We should not talk incessantly to them about spiritual matters. They will change in time. Our behaviour will convince them more than our words. We must remember that ten or twenty years of drunkenness would make a sceptic out of anyone.
Big Book, 4th Edition, page 83.
When I really needed help I was not offended by the wording of a book written 80 years ago this year. If I had been I would have looked elsewhere or carried on drinking, simple as that. Its message helped to save my life. It might help others.