Is A.A. For You?
Only you can decide whether you want
to give A.A. a try~whether you think it can help you.
We who are in A.A. 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
A.A. 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.
- 1. Have you ever decided to
stop drinking for a week or so, but only lasted for a
couple of days?
- Most of us in A.A. made all kinds
of promises to ourselves and to our families. We could
not keep them. Then we came to A.A. A.A. said: "Just
try not to drink today." (If you do not drink
today, you cannot get drunk today.)
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- 2. Do you wish people would
mind their own business about your drinking~stop telling
you what to do?
- In A.A. we do not tell
anyone to do anything. We just talk about our own
drinking , the trouble we got into, and how we stopped.
We will be glad to help you, if you want us to.
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- 3. Have you ever switched
from one kind of drink to another in the hope that this
would keep you from getting drunk?
- We tried all kinds of ways. We made
our drinks weak. Or just drank beer. Or we did not drink
cocktails. Or only drank on weekends. You name it, we
tried it. But if we drank anything with alcohol
in it, we ususally got drunk eventually.
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- 4. Have you had to have an
eye-opener upon awakening during the past year?
- Do you need a drink to get started,
or to stop shaking? This is a pretty sure sign that you
are not drinking "socially."
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- 5. Do you envy people who
can drink without getting into trouble?
- At one time or another, most of us
have wondered why we were not like most people, who
really can take it or leave it.
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- 6. Have you had problems
connected with drinking during the past year?
- Be honest! Doctors say that if you
have a problem with alcohol and keep on drinking, it will
get worse~never better. Eventually, you will die, or end
up in an institution for the rest of your life. The only
hope is to stop drinking.
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- 7. Has your drinking caused
trouble at home?
- Before we came into A.A., most of
us said that it was the people or problems at home that
made us drink. We could not see that our drinking just
made everything worse. It never solved problems anywhere
or anytime.
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- 8. Do you ever try to get
"extra" drinks at a party because you do not
get enough?
- Most of us used to have a "few"
before we started out if we thought it was going to be
that kind of party. And if drinks were not served fast
enough, we would go some place else to get more.
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- 9. Do you tell yourself you
can stop drinking any time you want to, even though you
keep getting drunk when you don't mean to?
- Many of us kidded ourselves into
thinking that we drank because we wanted to. After we
came into A.A., we found out that once we started to
drink, we couldn't stop.
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- 10. Have you missed days of
work or school because of drinking?
- Many of us admit now that we "called
in sick" lots of times when the truth was that we
were hung-over or on a drunk.
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- 11. Do you have "blackouts"?
- A "blackout"
is when we have been drinking hours or days which we
cannot remember. When we came to A.A., we found out that
this is a pretty sure sign of alcoholic drinking.
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- 12. Have you ever felt that
you life would be better if you did not drink?
- Many of us started to drink because
drnking made life seem better, at least for a while. By
the time we got into A.A., we felt trapped. We were
drinking to live and living to drink. We were sick and
tired of being sick and tired.
A.A. does not promise to solve your life's
problems. But we can show you how we are learning to live without
drinking "one day at a time." We stay away from that
"first drink." If there is no first one, there cannot
be a tenth one. And when we got rid of alcohol, we found that
life became much more manageable.
What's
your score?
Did you answer YES
four or more times? If so, you are probably in trouble with
alcohol. Why do we say this? Because thousands of people in A.A.
have said so for many years. They found out the truth about
themselves~the hard way.
But again, only you
can decide whether you think A. A. is for you. Try to keep an
open mind on the subject. If the answer is YES, we will be glad
to show you how we stopped drinking ourselves. Just ask.
This is A.A. General Service Conference-approved literature, Copyright 1973
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