Don't you know the first step when it was written was the needed admission to the rest of the steps requiring a lifetime of trying to extinguish the self in favor of some type of will outside oneself?

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&docid=JfEKobPwHFSB9M&tbnid=Avj0wTbWlyhWxM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fsinet.or.jp%2F~sokaisha%2Frabbit%2F000212%2F000212.htm&ei=ou3zU5jNDoSGyASkgYEQ&bvm=bv.73231344,d.aWw&psig=AFQjCNF0VhqJOCc-3feeCylsk3J8f4j6Jg&ust=1408581287296423

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQf95weJv2wWrfH_G2v4suRtikokx_b5rODHjp5uw3HcVGjGDSvsIz8HA

This was a big part of my take on what I heard and can still identify with :)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-griffin/one-blog-at-a-time_b_816288.html

the Huffington Post piece is really good.

Agree- the post blog does a good job explaining the first step.

I was rather powerless over my actions when I was wildly intoxicated, but I took every drink to get there. Is alcohol cunning, baffling, powerful? Not really. Alcohol has no personality, although it is a powerful intoxicant it's an inert power until consumed. It is I that can be cunning, baffling and powerful (amongst many other things). When I decided to stop drinking I gained the ability to learn a better more insightful path through life.

Fuzzy, do you still go to AA meetings?

Nope.

Do you just like to talk about AA meetings? Did you have a bad experience with AA that you now feel resentment towards AA? Do you ever point out anything good about AA or do you just like to talk poorly about it? Just trying to understand what your need is to keep talking about AA.

You are not powerless over alcohol? I am not powerless over alcohol either. One step further I am my higher power, not the group, not the door knob, not something outside of me. It resides within.

Fuzzy isn't ridiculing AA. He is posting his way. It is what works for him and may work for others who are looking for another way to stay sober. I tried AA and often got drunk after meetings. I found another way.It works for me.

Thanks fuzzy.

I tried AA for a awhile and it just made me feel terrible about myself and much more like drinking. But Jolly good for all of you it has helped and it is certainly worth a try!

Forget pro and anti AA...im easy with any person to state they're mot powerless. ..also understand the value on a personal of saying yep, Let Go...bigger than me and outside of my remit :) AAs first step taught me that lesson and it keeps growing.

Holding on to something or pushing it away...both forms of aggressive action with a certain amount of fascination...much easier to open up my clawed fingers and just relinquish. ..stops it having power over me...preoccupying me, controlling me in ways I never even realised.

P

my one question is then why did you want to stop drinking? if the answer in first lines of this post are true?