Stepwork

Learn how the 12 Steps work. Participate in your own recovery as well as the recovery of others, by being active on this board as we go through the 12 Steps of recovery together! We discuss each of the Twelve Steps In the order they are written, one step at a time, every two weeks.

Members Login
Username 
 
Password 
    Remember Me  
 
Miracles In Progress 12 Step Recovery Forums -> Step Work -> Step Work -> Step 1 - AA
Post Info TOPIC: Step 1 - AA
amanda2u2


Senior Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 228
Date:
Step 1 - AA
Permalink  

Step 1 - AA
from the '12 Step and 12 Tradition' book:


"We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable."


"Who cares to admit complete defeat? Practically no one, of course. Every natural instinct cries out against the idea of personal powerlessness. It is truly awful to admit that, glass in hand, we have warped our minds into such an obsession for destructive drinking that only and act of Providence can remore it from us...


"But upon entering A.A. we soon take quite another view of this absolute humiliation. We perceive that only through utter defeat are we able to take our first steps toward liberation and strength. Our admissions of personal powerlessness finally turn out to be firm bedrock upon which happy and purposeful lives may be built...


"The principle that we shall find no enduring strength until we first admit complete defeat is the main taproot from which our whole Society has sprung and flowered...


"There was... no such thing as the personal conquest of this compulsion by the unaided will... It was a statistical fact that alcoholics almost never recovered on their own resources...


"In A.A.'s pioneering time, none but the most desperate cases could swallow and digest this unpalatable truth. Even the 'last-gaspers' often had difficulty realizing how hopeless they actually were. But a few did, and when these laid hold of AA principles with all the fervor with which the drowning seize life preservers, they almost invariably got well...


"... Practicing AA's remaining eleven Steps means the adoption of attitudes and actions that almost no alcoholic who is still drinking can dream of taking. Who wishes to be rigorously honest and tolerant? Who wants to confess his faults to another and make restitution for harm done? Who cares anything about a Higher Power, let alone meditation and prayer? Who wants to sacrifice time and energy in trying to carry AA's message to the next sufferer? No, the average alcoholic, self-centered in the extreme, doesn't care for this prospect - unless he has to do these things in order to stay alive himself..."



__________________
do your best and God does the rest, a Step at a time
Leighahh


Newbie

Status: Offline
Posts: 2
Date:
Permalink  

Thank you for this reminder!!!

Step One is what i have to remind myself of everyday otherwise i fall. I have to remember that not ony am i powerless of over drugs and drinking but everything else around me and when i forget that i get beside myself.
Step one keeps my ego, my controlling ways in check letting me know that I cant control anything, person, place but i can only react to what is going on around me.
With step one for me right now i have 4 years and counting but this is my miracle because i have to use step one with GOD. i am working on not trying to contol what god does not just taking my will back but also seeing that i am not giving his his credit with what he does in my life. thanking myself for what happens.
step one is my daily reminder that i can only control me and what i do or dont do.

Thank you for the reminder of being an addict that i sometimes forget about.

__________________
Blessed


Senior Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 130
Date:
Permalink  

Step One,

I admitted complete Defeat! I couldn't "STOP DRINKING" or WHATEVER pick your choice of Poison. xxxxxxx on the calendar before I had a drink, alcohol poisoning into E.R. the sweats, the shakes, the vomiting, blackouts, hallucinations. What Horror!
Because I started at 13 years old and it was heavy drinking my body got sick faster .
I used to try to quit drinking long before I hit Bottom.
Powerlessness and unmanageability who want's to say that they can't control ther drinking, I didn't.
I could drink more and walk, dance, look good, maintaining my dignity more than other women I saw in the bars. Ha,Ha.
Coming into A.A. was a horrifiying experience for me. I was so ill all I did was shake all over from the D.T's, you see no one told me about withdrawals and the possibility of dying from them. I do not recommend my Sobriety technics going Cold-Turkey, always get advice from a Health Professional.
In my stubborn willfullness I did it my way. I quit everything in 3 months, booze, dope, cigarettes. God is so Awesome, even though I didn't understand him at all when I got here. I had surrendered hook, line, and sinker.
If the people I see in the rooms of "Recovery" could stop drinking and have a life, have God, because most everyone does, smile and be happy on lifes terms. I could do it too!
I still "LOVE TO CONTROL" Today I have NO POWER and "A POWERFUL GOD."

I must have stayed on page 449 in the Big Book (3rd Edition) with my very first Sponsor for the entire year I went throught the 12 steps. Acceptance is always the key to my problem
Thanks Love,
Blessed

But I don't drink over them today.

__________________

Blessed
fletch


Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 5
Date:
Permalink  


 Hi

 I am just working on Step 1.  Couple of things that are on my mind is firstly allready i want to get through all the steps makes me laugh really as thats so me. I know if i carry on drinking i will become more ill or dead.  I have tried everything to stop and i can not do it alone.  I need AA and the fellowship that is my support. I also  know i have allways wanted some spriritual support in my life and this programm is going to fullfill that. I do have a question it may be somewhere else thought new to board do you decide yourself when you have reached a step and move onto the next one.

__________________
Blessed


Senior Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 130
Date:
Permalink  

RE: Step 1 AA

Dear Fletch,

In anwering your question about moving onto the next step when you have finished the first one. We are not supposed to be doing the 12-Steps by ourselves. It kind of takes away the healing process for both the Sponsor and the Sponsee. That's what makes the program work is the working together. One alcoholic/addict with another. Then we have the 4th and 5th steps to consider. We have the confession about all our junk we have buried for so long we want to share usually we may want to share it with our Sponsor.
SO please get yourself a SPONSOR when doing your 12-STEPS. Just get a GOOD SPONSOR!

Love you,
Blessed

-- Edited by Blessed at 06:43, 2007-08-17

__________________

Blessed
Page 1 of 1  sorted by
 
Quick Reply

Please log in to post quick replies.
Miracles In Progress 12 Step Recovery Forums -> Step Work -> Step Work -> Step 1 - AA
Tweet this page Post to Digg Post to Del.icio.us

Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book)

Al-Anon

Courage to Change

The 12 Steps 
For Adult Children

Miracles In Progress 12 Step Recovery Forums
Recovery Book Store
http://www.12stepforums.net/books.html

All Books in our bookstore are recovery related books, please visit the store and make a purchase for yourself or someone you want to shine some love on!

Alcoholics Anonymous Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

 

 

Daily Affirmations for Adult Childern

When you buy a book you are helping support Miracles In Progress 12 Step Recovery Forums

We have over 100 recovery books in our bookstore which is affiliated with Amazon.com.  The fastest, safest and easiest way to get your new reading material sent directly to you.