From the January 2010 issue of AA Grapevine:
A Drunk, Pure and Simple
For an alcoholic in denial, the party had been over for a long time
In San Francisco, in 1990, I was a
lonely girl with a smile all sweet with pain. I was 29 years old and
my life had begun unraveling years before. I had been struggling with my cocaine addiction
for over a decade, attending CA, NA and AA meetings sporadically
throughout the last three years, usually after particularly dark episodes
of extended and voracious drug abuse. If only I could stop the drugs,
I'd be fine. I was not willing, however, to give up drinking, as was suggested
in all of my twelve-step meetings. I couldn't imagine life without alcohol. I did not announce myself as a
newcomer at meetings, nor did I get a sponsor, work the Steps or follow
any suggestions, except for one. I was a limbo girl who "kept coming back."
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Were you arrested because of your drinking?
From the Digital Archive - June 01 1957
SOME DAY SOMEONE IS GOING TO ASK me to speak at an AA meeting and, instead of giving a swig-by-swig, lump-by-lump description of my experience as a practicing alcoholic, I'm going to say what I've been wanting to say for a long time. This after eleven years' association with AA, the last four of which have been sober years, which tells a story in itself.
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From the Digital Archive — June 1966
House Afire Step Discussion
STEP One involves two distinct though closely related admissions both of which are strong medicine for me as a person with a drinking problem. If I feel that I have accepted this Step without any difficulty, there is a good chance that I am self-deceived as to its depth of meaning. On the other hand, if I balk at it, I have seriously damaged my capacity to get any help from the eleven Steps which follow. In either case my life on the AA program, my ability to have a sane understanding of my alcoholic problem, and my chance for lasting sobriety are endangered. Therefore, it follows that the course of safety for me must avoid these pitfalls and must involve a coming-to-terms with the whole Step at some depth.
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From the Digital Archive — April 1952
Tradition One: The first of a new series of articles explaining The Twelve Traditions . . . - Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon AA unity.
The magnificent unity of Alcoholics Anonymous is the most cherished quality our society has. Our lives, the lives of all to come, depend squarely upon it. We stay whole, or AA dies. Without unity, the great heart of AA would cease to beat, our world arteries would no longer carry the life-giving grace of God, his gift to us would be spent aimlessly. Back again in their caves, alcoholics would reproach us and say, "What a great thing AA might have been!"
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Written, edited, illustrated, and read by AA members and others interested in the AA program of recovery
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