There Can Be an End to Loneliness

WHEN I came into AA after everything else I tried had failed, I was sick, confused and, above all, a lonely soul. I think it must be very difficult for the nonalcoholic to understand the utter loneliness of the alcoholic or the depths of hopelessness to which society reduces us. We experience repeated rejections by employers, friends and family, or we live under constant threat or fear of such rejection. We come to believe that mankind itself has rejected us and that there is no place where we can find acceptance as human beings. Then we come into AA and, for the first time in years, we feel that we are among friends who understand and who are willing, even eager, to share their experience, strength and hope with us. We become participating witnesses to the truth of one of those great paradoxes that distinguish this fellowship: namely, that we can keep what we find in AA only by giving it away to others. Here's how it seemed to work in my case: