Thursday, August 6, 2015

The Main Problem

      The "Big Book" of Alcoholics Anonymous says, "But what about the real alcoholic? He may start off as a moderate drinker; he may or may not become a continuous hard drinker; but at some stage of his drinking career he begins to lose all control of his liquor consumption, once he starts to drink. We know that while the alcoholic keeps away from drink... he reacts much like other men. We are equally positive that once he takes any alcohol whatever into his system, something happens, both in the bodily and mental sense, which makes it virtually impossible for him to stop.  The experience of any alcoholic will abundantly confirm this.  These observations would be academic and pointless if the alcoholic never took the first drink thereby setting the terrible cycle in motion.  Therefore, the main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind, rather then in his body." 
        If the problem centers in our minds and we use our reasoning power in an attempt to solve our problem, than we are trying to solve our problem with our problem.  This will never work, as many of our own experiences prove.  We continued to drink alcoholically even though we knew we shouldn't and after which we certainly did not want to.  Lack of power - that is our dilemma. We must find a new source of power to propel our thoughts.  Our thought process can no longer be propelled by our human instincts but rather by the will of God through inspiration.
       Once we find that source of power - that is God.  We have subrogated our thought process to the His will and we are now at peace.  Our prayer, at this and each moment, is that anyone who suffers from addiction, whether actively or not, may find God as the very chief source of their power.   .     
 

4 comments:

  1. In truth as I now know it, I have always sought peace of mind. For as long as I can remember, my mind was peaceless. One drink, the first drink took care of that. But the mind picking up the second drink was in a different league altogether. That mind was ravenous, insatiable, corrupted. And that's the way I lived - a prisoner of my own besotted and desperate mind. In The Doctor's Opinion, I first heard of the psychic change necessary for me to live alcohol-free and in the full possession of The Power Within me as the Source of my being, not just my thinking. The notion of fixing a broken hammer with the hammer that's broken as my only option was removed from me and replaced with Trust in The Power Within. From peaceless to priceless. And only possible through the The Program of Recovery as outlined and clearly demonstrated in The Big Book of AA.

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    1. Michael we lived a life based on incomprehensible anguish sedated by our need for alcohol. We learned through the program that alcohol is but a symptom of our problem, our problem is self - centered fear. When alcohol was no longer a solution to our fear we had but two choices. Trust in God or go onto the bitter end. Once a life of peace and love is experienced in the will of God we no longer needed a choice as our illness is healed based on our relationship with God in this moment...Thank you...Armand

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  2. I imagined that there was a plane of acute awareness and infinite serenity on which I found God. Empty of the rubbage of my life and the entire human world and with no space for anything but prayer and togetherness between me and Him I visited this place when suitable to do so. Yet, as it recently has been pointed out to me, I failed to look within me - where God is, as he is omnipotent and exists within the space, time, body of our lives without limiting such elements and by, rather than being a mighty hand reaching inward from the outside, has always been the inside of my soul, of the unblemished mind underneath the illness, of the answer to everything. Unconcerned for my spirit, I drowned in the abyss of the moonless sea as all of my thinking darkened what the illness of addiction had already supplanted in the shadowy wake. Me thinking about and wondering how and planning what to do was all irrelevant to finding resolve to the main problem - me. I must become aware to His power within, as the enlightened cord has no start or end but has always been, waiting to be realized and touched. Once I take myself out of this entire equation the answer lies still and quiet in front of me.

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    1. Caitlin The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous says and this is paraphrased the reality lies deep within us. It is there that God may be found that..... What separates us from God is that which propels our thought process. The surrender that must occur,.. if one is to recover from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body is that our thought process will no longer be propelled by our human instinct but rather by the will of God...Thank you so much...Armand

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