My Brother, My Truth

Our father drank heavily, so alcohol was readily available to us at a very young age. As I sat and watched my three older siblings drink away their days, I did the same, watched by the young ones, as my older brother spent his time with my two oldest sisters. Dave was my younger brother by just over a year, and closest to my age, and he and I spent most of our time together. Read more >

Story of the Day: Enablers in Sobriety

THE WORD enabler is often used to describe a person who helps or enables the alcoholic to continue drinking, by either protecting or goading. I can't honestly say that I can blame any one person for perpetuating my habit. Rather, the enablers in my life came during the process of sobriety: people who helped and goaded me into perpetuating my sobriety. December 01 1982 Read more >

Amends Are Rough on the Ego? Yes, Indeed!

This is the Step in which we do our best to put right past wrongs. Before getting into any of my own ideas and experiences, I'd like to touch briefly on some points the Big Book makes about the Step, which have been useful to me. A.) We don't recover and then take the Ninth Step. We take the Step in order that we might recover. B.) There is more danger in waiting too long to take it than there is in taking it too soon. The early members of AA didn't wait ten months or three years before they started making amends. Read more >

Ninth Tradition Checklist

Two flaked-out fellows were shown in a popular William Steig cartoon a few years ago. The caption was something like "One of these days we've got to get organized around here."

I remember expressing the same sentiment while drinking. I not only said it, I did it. To me, getting organized meant getting things arranged in a highly systematic manner, in preparation for getting them done. (You don't necessarily pay your bills, but you do make a neat list of creditors.) During self-enforced droughts, I would zealously over-organize everything in sight in round-the-clock spurts--only to blow it all, later, in a flood of ethanol.

And so I welcomed the idea of an "organization"--which I supposed AA was--for getting something done about the trouble I was having with my drinking.