Steps By The Big Book

[bluidkiti]

SESSION 5

STEP 1 & 2 More About Alcoholism

Step 1. We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.
Step 2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
We were alcoholics (30: 2; see also 60: 2)

Take Step 1

I ON YOUR OWN: STUDY What did the Big Book authors say?

• READ Read of relapse in Chapter 3, More About Alcoholism.

• WRITE Write the story of your last drink in detail or tell aspects of your story through several drinking episodes. .

• 1. • You may focus on these or other points in your written reflections:

-The Starting Problem: Our mental obsession. (‘The Lie’) There came the time that we were stone cold sober and we picked up even though we had years of experience about where it would lead us. The subtle insanity which precedes the first drink. (40: 2)
-The Stopping Problem: Our physical compulsion (craving, “allergy”). That once we put the drink into our system there was never enough, we could not stop.
-How we drank to excess: Why? Because we are alcoholic. (30: 2) [See also 342: 1]

• TALK Talk with your sponsor or with other members of your group.

• PRACTICE DAILY MEDITATION / PRAYER

II WITH THE GROUP: PRACTICE – What does the Big Book say to me about my practice of Step 1 and Step 2?
Talk with other group members about relapse. Did any of the stories in this chapter move you more than others did? Have you ever faced a situation where only your higher power stood between you and a drink? (43: 3) Have you ever relapsed? Describe in depth.


Points of Focus and Reflection (Consider 32: 2-34: 2; 35: 1-38: 2; 39: 2-43: 3)
1.) The Man of Thirty

• Do I have a reservation of any kind, [or] any lurking notions that someday [I] will be immune to alcohol? (33: 1)
• Was I astonished at [my] inability to stop? (33: 3)
• Had I lost the power to choose?(34: 2)
• Like the man of thirty, did I have an utter inability to leave it alone? (34: 2)

2.) Jim

• What mental states are the crux of the [drinking] problem? (35: 0)
• Can I identify with Jim who found himself drunk even after accepting what others knew of alcoholism [Step 1], and the answer [they] had found [Step 2]?
• Have I been crazy and insane?(see 5: 5; 37: 1; 38: 1, 2)
• Was I able to stop drinking on the basis of self-knowledge? (39: 1)

3.) The Jaywalker

• Are my thought-habits and behaviors absurd and incomprehensible? (37: 4)
• How have I been strangely insane? (38: 2)

4.) Fred

• Can I identify with Fred, who would not believe himself an alcoholic [Step 1], much less accept a spiritual remedy for his problem [Step 2]? (39: 2)
• Was I told that if I had an alcoholic mind, the time and place would come – I would drink again? (41: 2-42: 0)
• What are the spiritual answer and the program of action? (42: 2)

• What are my thoughts about the idea that the alcoholic at certain times has no effective mental defense against the first drink? (43: 3)

III DAILY PRACTICE OF STEP 1 PRINCIPLES:

• Do I know that admitting powerlessness does not mean admitting worthlessness?
• How may I accept my new freedom in no longer having to lie about my drinking?
• How may I stay in touch with the reality of my disease, no matter how long I have been free from drinking?
• In what ways today have I begun to be honest in recovery?
• Can I tell my sponsor or someone else when I have been thinking about drinking or acting out on my disease in some other way?
• How am I practicing open-mindedness, humility, and willingness today?

……………………………………………………………………………


IV TAKE STEP 1 Take Step 1 in the second paragraph of page 30.
…We had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. (30: 2)


This is how the Big Book authors described taking Step 1. If we concede, then according to the Big Book and under the conditions of this day, we take Step 1. As with all of the Steps, we each take Step 1 when we each say so.


Some write a statement such as this:
“I admit I am powerless over ___________________. My life is unmanageable.”
__________________(signature) ______________(date)


The group may or may not choose to observe the completion of this Step by holding hands and reciting the Step.


pp. 24-25