Page 11 - This is A.A. an Introduction to the A.A. Recovery Program

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us were able to stay sober, occasionally, for peri-
ods of days, weeks, and even years. But we did
not enjoy our sobriety. We felt like martyrs. We
became irritable, difficult to live and work with.
We persisted in looking forward to the time when
we might be able to drink again.
Now that we are in A.A., we have a new out-
look on sobriety. We enjoy a sense of release, a
feeling of freedom from even the desire to drink.
Since we cannot expect to drink normally at any
time in the future, we concentrate on living a full
life without alcohol today. There is not a thing
we can do about yesterday. And tomorrow never
comes. Today is the only day we have to worry
about. And we know from experience that even
the “worst” drunks can go twenty-four hours
without a drink. They may need to postpone that
next drink to the next hour, even the next
minute — but they learn that it can be put off for
a period of time.
When we first heard about A.A., it seemed
miraculous that anyone who had really been an
uncontrolled drinker could ever achieve and
maintain the kind of sobriety that older A.A.
members talked about. Some of us were inclined
to think that ours was a special kind of drinking,
that our experiences had been “different,” that
A.A. might work for others, but that it could do
nothing for us. Others among us, who had not yet
been hurt seriously by our drinking, reasoned
that A.A. might be fine for the skid row drunks,
but that we could probably handle the problem by
ourselves.
Our experience in A.A. has taught us two
important things. First, all alcoholics face the
same basic problems, whether they are panhand -
ling for the price of a short beer or holding down
an executive position in a big corporation.
Second, we now appreciate that the A.A. recovery
program works for almost any alcoholic who hon-
estly wants it to work, no matter what the individ-
ual’s background or particular drinking pattern
may have been.

We made a decision
All of us now in A.A. had to make one crucial
decision before we felt secure in the new pro-
gram of life without alcohol. We had to face the

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