We're Not So Bad, After All!

WE ARRIVE at the AA program--I know I did--with self-obsession as one of our major problems. The drive to satisfy our own needs is uppermost in our minds, never mind how many people we damage in the process. The absorption with our own ego blows up every minor stress in our daily lives to giant, unmanageable proportions, justifying--in our minds--our use of alcohol to help us escape from the pain of reality. "Me, me, me" is the mantra, the theme song of just about every practicing alcoholic I have ever met, including the one I saw in the mirror. The infantile behavior that accompanies the mantra alienates one after another of our friends.