GETTING WELL Very deep, sometimes quite forgotten, damaging emotional conflicts persist below the level of consciousness. — TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, pp. 79-80 Only through positive action can I remove the remains of guilt and shame brought on by alcohol. Throughout my misadventures when I drank, my friends would say, "Why are you doing this? You're only hurting yourself." Little did I know how true were those words. Although I...
"I HAD DROPPED OUT" We might next ask ourselves what we mean when we say that we have "harmed" other people. What kinds of "harm" do people do one another, anyway? To define the word "harm" in a practical way, we might call it the result of instincts in collision, which cause physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual damage to people. — TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 80 I had been to Eighth Step meetings, always thinking, "I really...
DIDN'T WE HURT ANYBODY? Some of us, though, tripped over a very different snag. We clung to the claim that when drinking we never hurt anybody but ourselves. — TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 79 This Step seemed so simple. I identified several people whom I had harmed, but they were no longer available. Still, I was uneasy about the Step and avoided conversations dealing with it. In time I learned to investigate those Steps and areas of...
REPAIRING THE DAMAGE We attempt to sweep away the debris which has accumulated out of our effort to live on self-will and run the show ourselves. If we haven't the will to do this, we ask until it comes. Remember it was agreed at the beginning we would go to any lengths for victory over alcohol. — ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 76 Making a list of people I had harmed was not a particularly difficult thing to do. They had showed up in my Fourth Step...
A CLEAN SWEEP . . . and third, having thus cleaned away the debris of the past, we consider how, with our newfound knowledge of ourselves, we may develop the best possible relations with every human being we know. — TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 77 As I faced the Eighth Step, everything that was required for successful completion of the previous seven Steps came together: courage, honesty, sincerity, willingness and thoroughness, I...
