MALADY in Big Book Alcoholics Anonymous, 12 Steps and 12 Traditions

However, in keeping with the 10th tradition of AA, the opinions I express in the book do not necessarily reflect the beliefs or positions held by AA as a whole. Quotations from Alcoholics Anonymous are from the first edition which is now in the public domain. https://ecosoberhouse.com/ Any quotations from sources other than the first edition of the Big Book are reprinted with permission. During this time I was condemned to pick up that first drink again. I need booze to medicate my inner turmoil, tortured mind and my broken heart.

• Selflessness, gratitude, love, service and compassion combats the self certeredness, self seeking, self pity, victim hood and selfishness which is at the core of my dis-ease that kept the malady going for so long.
• Strengthening this relationship with a spiritual being brought us hope that we can recover from the mental and physical suffering of alcoholism.
• People in the rooms refer to this as a ‘god-sized hole’.
• Here we have an abnormal reaction to alcohol and for some alcoholics a maladjustment to life.
• The worried or rebellious anticipation of the future is a cue to bring the focus back to seeking physical abstinence and motivations for doing so.
• I had an argument with a guy once who suddenly proclaimed he was upset by what I had said.

Hopefully the ideas included in this short writing show that there are many ways to approach these topics. As an alcoholic know-it-all, I am doomed without a Spiritual Solution to the malady. A Power greater than myself, and only that Power, will help. In a similar vein, this afternoon I spent two-hours with a newcommer – a chronic alcoholic – whose got a degree in physcology (honest!) and yet couldn’t understand Dr Silkworth’s alergy explanation, without an explanation. That unfortunately didn’t happen but my obsession with alcohol had gone, there’s far less fear in my life, and I’ve this whole new positive attitude that I’m not eloquent enough to explain in a few sentances. When I first read the word ‘spiritual’ it had connotations of ghosts and speaking with the dead for me.

Take Your First Step To Recovery

For many folks, including myself, ‘the spiritual’ aspects of recovery can be a challenge. We tend to show spiritual malady up with a truckload of old ideas in this area and a lot of us consider ourselves to be atheists.

His Grace takes the distress out of thee negative emotions. The newcomer gave me an example of a resentment he was experiencing after this guy at a meeting said “get off your pink cloud” a phrase that refers to the sometimes mildly ecstatic feelings of early recovery.

What can the idea of a spiritual illness mean to an agnostic?

We often take them to grave sooner rather than later unless we decide to be open and share our secrets with another person. Most of us were determined to take these secrets, these “sins” to the grave. Shameful secrets can fester in the dark recesses of our minds and inflame our hearts with recrimination and resentment. Who has been where you have been, felt how you have felt. AA saved my life and I can never put into words the gratitude I have for AA. I cannot express how happy it has allowed my wife, family and friends to become.