ACCEPTANCE
“We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.”
- Who cares to admit complete defeat?
- “It is truly awful to admit that, glass in hand; we have warped our minds into such an obsession for destructive drinking that only an act of Providence can remove it from us.”
- Admission of powerlessness is the first step in liberation.
- “Our admissions of personal powerlessness finally turn out to be the firm bedrock upon which happy and purposeful lives may be built.”
- Relation of humility to sobriety.
- “The principle that we shall find no enduring strength until we first admit complete defeat is the main taproot from which our whole society has sprung and flowered.”
- Mental obsession plus physical allergy.
- “We were the victims of a mental obsession so powerful that no amount of human will power could break it.”
- Why must every A.A. hit bottom.
- “We stand ready to do anything which will lift the merciless obsession from us.”
Light Bulb Moments
- Progressive, terminal, incurable
- The allergy: physical craving
- No slip is safe
- The Great Obsession
- Unmanageability
- Absolute requirement for a spiritual awakening
- The realisation that we need help
Some suggested pages from As Bill Sees It
#1: Personality Change
#42: Self-Confidence and Will Power
#109: Freedom Through Acceptance
#118: Prelude to the Program
#305: From the Taproot