If you choose to treat your alcoholism with AA, they have a "suggestion" called the 12th step, which is "Having had a spiritual experience as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs."  

This society within society, feels as if they will be immune from drinking if they help others not drink, that day, or for some, forever, in this life.  Some members see the word "try" and understand that it won't be perfect, and it's really up to the person who can identify if there is in fact a problem, to do the work, "suggested." 

The "message" is if you have a body that drinks alcohol, and then drinks more, despite anything else being possibly more important, and a mind that equally only focuses on more alcohol, there is a way to not drink alcohol, and therefore not think about drinking alcohol.  It's really that simple.  Unfortuantely, "others" have complicated this step to mean other subjects as well, but in order to maintain the clarity it takes to see alcoholism as not that big of a deal, the message is all about not drinking alcohol, and that's it. 

This step also can cause some confusion, for after all, it's men who created this treatment, and even the literature itself says "no human power can relieve our alcoholism." 

At the beginning of the chapter the author calls those with alcoholism, prospects.  The author then goes on to say it's a waste of time to work with someone who doesn't want to stop drinking. 

If the person does want to stop, recognizing that it is a problem, from whichever perspective, get to know that person the author says.  the author says you should get to know him, or her, because you'll want to think of what you would do or what you would be thinking if you were them.  If you know them, or the better you know them, the more you can be helpful to them, and the more you can be guided by God, in helping them.  This is also a good way to identify if someone is a hater. 

Usually if they are reluctant to let you know them, they are a hater and have lots to hide.  Regarding their alcoholism of course. 

This next course of action is risky business, because if the person has a loving family that is at their wits end about his or her condition, because remember, this is a medical condition, not a moral one, like a hard drinker is faced with, the author says you should let the person go on a binge, let them get fucked up, or hammered, or intoxicated, like squares would say.  After they have done so, they may see they would have done something different if they could have admitted they do what they don't want to do, when drunk, do to, wanting to drink more, but if they are using drinking as an excuse to do what they really want to do, they might just be morally incompetent. 

Most people, if the person goes on the binge and then says they want to stop, because they recognize that their body and their minds, turn into a state of being where alcohol will be in control if they do ingest, then try to relay the message of, "moral" psychology, towards this medical condition?  Yes, I know it doesn't make any intellectual sense, but that is the message. 

I've found that going all in, and really getting a grasp of what the steps (the program) is saying, which is just at the end of the research a notion that not thinking of yourself over others is how to live a life (which for some is not even close to true), is the message.  As a sponsor, I try to be honest with those I sponsor of how I only apply my unselfishness to my alcoholism, and me drinking, will be more bottles than you, and I don't care if you want some alcohol, I need it more than you so I will be drinking all of it even if you want some.  In all other areas of my life I am capable of being very unselfish, without steps, or a program, or fellowship, or any of the other stuff some AA members require from other humans in order to help them. 

When I sponsor I tell my sponsees, this is all about my selfishness as a drinker, and not really about anything else.  I am not on a crusade to save the world as an AA member, all I can do as an AA member is be honest with the fact that when I drink with others, I want all the alcohol, and could care less if they want some.  I could love them more than anything else in the world, but all of that is pushed aside in favor of me getting more whiskey, beer, vodka, champagne, etc.   I think this is the reason why AA, is such a turn off for so many, the over-complication that it has to be involved in every portion of your life, I think is such a deterrent. 

I will say the second part of the step though, is practicing principles in all of the affairs a person might have or will have daily.  An affair is an event, not a life, unless you see it as an event, life.  "What are the principles?" is a question I had early on in sobriety.  It was such a simple answer as characteristics that are "good."  This application to treat alcohol addiction called AA is a very western way of thought as well, so "good" has it's own sort of biased definition, some might say, so things like humility, honesty, courage, unselfishness, consideration, peaceful natures, being a commoner, not wanting too much, not wanting too little, are all "good" principles.  I think the most important "prinicple" is honesty within yourself, directly in relation to God, and admitting that God, is not just some made up bullshit, and that as a human being, God is always bigger than you.  God is always God, is the only principle you really need if you want to stay on message in all your "affairs." 

This is AA, blasphemy, but I think if God is God, and God is bigger than us, always, who is to say that alcoholism and the body and mind's of alcoholics, never change?  That's one issue some might have with AA, this idea that once an alcoholic always an alcoholic.  I think the best argument is the food allergy, or the allergy of bees.  Do people outgrow their allergies to food?  If they don't doesn't that limit God?  How can you say that God is everything if God can't be powerful enough to make an alcoholic a non-alcoholic without a creation that humans made? 

The more I utilize AA, the more I see it isn't perfect, and neither is it a "know it all" deal, although it presents itself to be often.  I will say that AA, did give great reason for me to personally have no problem with no longer having alcohol (or drugs) as a part of my life, simply because I have been higher sober, in my tenure as a recovered person, than I ever got drinking or high on drugs, and I used to drink and use drugs with a desire to have bigger quantities of them than natural people might want to have.  Also the properties of alcohol and drugs being always temporary, as opposed to the properties of the spirit and the soul unable to be temporary, really gave rise to me to not need drugs or alcohol anymore. 

My point is if someone believes in God, and God makes them no longer have a body or mind that craves or obsesses, like the Doctor's "Opinion" states, as an AA member, I can't get jealous, or envious, or angry at that, or not believe it, God can do anything, and when I sponsor people, I try to make that a constant principle in any message tried to be delivered. 

If I am working with, someone who doesn't believe God, or that God is God, it's kind of like drinking an empty cup of water, we are only really acting like we are quenching our thirst.  I see this hurdle many times when people are trying to really understand their own love of alcohol and how or how not it might be affecting life.  The criminal justice system, misunderstanding individuals who do have good intentions, but no so much the ability to understand the whole story, has enabled people to have to suffer through AA, when they might not really have it in their plan to incorporate it into their lives, so when I get a sponsor who is ordered to go to AA, or someone who has an angry family member demanding they change, I try to stay on the message of God is inside everything, and you might be where you are at because you have distored principles. 

Anyway, Happy All Saints Day, or whatever the hell it's called today.