Interesting thought today at the meeting. One of the people pointed out that alcohol is only mentioned once in the Steps. The First. His point was that the rest of the Steps have nothing to do with alcohol.
If I were to believe that after the First Step that alcohol was finished and I was free and on my way to a different life I think I could find myself in serious trouble. The next drink and death. I was talking to a friend of mine about this later. How many we personally knew who believed this and died.
In fact in the Doctor’s Opinion the statement that the alcoholic must believe that we are as physically abnormal as we are mentally tells me something. That the disease of alcoholism is deep within me. It’s not just about my mind. I could tell anyone that, who would want to listen. Physically I could not control alcohol. It controlled me. I could no more stop drinking on my own, my own free will than I could walk on water. I needed help beyond my thinking, my intellect, my reason. I had to find a power greater than myself who could do for me what I could never do for myself. Ever.
In fact reading the BB there is an awful lot in there about alcohol and drinking. The danger we alcoholics face when left to our own devices. I know that I have seen this over and over again, as my friend and I talked about. There’s that part in the BB when it talks about resentments and getting cut off from the sunlight of the spirit and drinking and dying. The chapter in more about alcoholism, where it tells us that there may come the time when we will have no mental defense against that first drink. That happened to me and I was fortunate that someone was there and told me to step outside and pray. I did and it worked. Never want to forget that.
Why am I going through all of this? Someone brought up a mental defect subject today and the group got caught up in discussing mental problems for the most part. It almost got to a point of that was our biggest problem. And here I thought we were there to talk about alcohol and its solutions through this program. The spiritual solution for instance. The spiritual awakening and the restoration to sanity through these Twelve Steps.
Ever since my surrender to the First Step and the introduction of the spiritual way of life in the Second Step I have found the meetings to be dedicated to carrying the message to the alcoholic, who still suffers. Suffers from what? Alcoholism. Anything else I believe is outside these rooms. I know we can get caught up in a lot of outside issues, where we can get overwhelmed with opinions and advice about everything. But the bottom line is that I am here to stay sober. If I do that I can find, through the help of others, the answer to many things I have been faced with since I stopped drinking and have gotten sober.
And, yes I did express that, when I was called on at near the end of the meeting. Much shorter and to the point. Just grateful I am sober and that there is a solution to my alcoholism.